Tales Of Agape

Teenage Ministry In A Visitation Of God

Welcome

TALES OF AGAPE

The Agape Force was born out of a spiritual awakening that started during the later part of the 1960's. Like all revivals, youth were at the very center of this movement and as usual the church (and church culture) wasn't prepared to handle the changes it brought.

Para-church ministries began to spring up as an outlet for the gifts, callings, and ministry ideas that were birthed then, filling the gap.

While pastors struggled with issues like long hair and rock "n" roll, God sent young people with long hair, playing rock "n" roll out into the highways and the byways (where many of them had come from) to win the lost and bring attention to Himself.

There were problems. There are always problems. But there were also great, wonderful victories for the kingdom of God and precious, intimate times of provision and miraculous intervention.

The following pages are an attempt to capture a few of the memories and chronicle a few of the experiences of Agape Force staffers. They are NOT meant to be a full history of Agape Force or address the problems of that time. They are simply glimpses of a time in our lives. A wonderful time that I, for one, don't ever want to forget.

Dee Patton

A generation ago, young people all across the world experienced a visitation of God. This awakening among the young touched the Church, college campuses, the street and the culture. In an explosive era of escalating crime, drugs, immorality and street violence some dared to be the most radical of all. Many major ministries today owe their growth and influence to what God did among these extreme edgers of the Kingdom. Events and Divine advents of that tumultuous time deeply affected the shape of the Church in the latter part of the 20th Century.

Yet many of the wonderful tales of that time remain untold. It is like that even in the Bible. We always have only a tiny part of the picture of what God did when He found a young person He could trust with His glory. Gideon. Samson. Esther. Deborah. Ruth. Jeptha. David. Joshua. Mary. John.

“How can I say more?” says Paul. “Time would fail me to tell (of those heroes for God)...who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouth of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong ... “ (Heb. 11:34)

The things you are about to read happened to ordinary teenagers and college age young people. Few of them ever got their pictures in the paper or were written up in magazines, even Christian papers and magazines. Few were famous or talented or clever. None of them ever dreamed what would happen when they gave their lives to God for His service. Most of them came from very ordinary towns and very uneventful circumstances. But for nearly two amazing decades they experienced the astonishing adventure of going out on a limb for God. And now, at the very edge of the next Millennium, God is beginning to do it again.

This is the story of ordinary young people with an extraordinary God. What He did for them He can do for you. These are the records of what Jesus can do in His world when He finds someone who loves Him more than their own life, and serves Him with their whole heart. Here are some of the untold tales of an era from those who were young then, here for those who with honor will carry the torch for this next generation.

Winkie Pratney