Review: Assemblies of God in Guyana

The History of the Assemblies of God in Guyana, by Alfred S. Cockfield. Brooklyn, NY: Christian Times, 2008.

Dr. Alfred Cockfield, senior pastor of God’s Battalion of Prayer Church, an Assemblies of God congregation in Brooklyn, New York, has written a history of the Assemblies of God in Guyana. Cockfield, who was born in Guyana, has personal knowledge of many of the people, churches, themes, and events significant in the history of the Guyanese church. Cockfield supplemented these experiences with additional research and the resulting volume contains a treasure trove of information, which will be welcomed by church leaders, historians, and the people who lived the history.

Existing Pentecostal histories primarily document the stories of North American and European believers, paying inadequate attention to the development of the movement in non-Western lands. The challenge to the next generation of Pentecostal historians is to document these non-Western stories, so that Pentecostalism can be better understood from a global perspective. Cockfield’s work helps fill this need by documenting previously unpublished information about the Assemblies of God in Guyana. According to Cockfield, his book “will clearly affirm the fact that God is equally interested in the people and nation of Guyana as He is in the people and nations of the United States, Canada, England, or any other nation” (p. vii).

Reviewed by Darrin J. Rodgers

Softcover, 159 pages. $15.00 plus $3 postage to U.S. addresses. Order from: Dr. Alfred Cockfield, God’s Battalion of Prayer Church, 661 Linden Blvd, Brooklyn, NY 11203 (phone: 718-774-5447; email: Battalionp@aol.com).

Review: David and Gladys Guenther Missionary Biography

To God Be the Glory: The Story of David and Gladys Guenther, Assemblies of God Missionaries to Guyana, Belize, and Jamaica, by David J. Guenther. Springfield, MO: The Author, 2007.

David J. Guenther and his wife, Gladys, served on the evangelistic field and pastored Assemblies of God churches in Cataract, Wautoma, Marshfield, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. They also followed God’s call and served as missionaries from 1959 to 1995 in Guyana (known as British Guiana until 1966), Jamaica, and Belize.

Guenther, in his new book To God Be the Glory, preserves and shares the stories and lessons from their lives and ministry. This engaging autobiographical account will be welcomed, not only by those who have counted the Guenthers as friends and ministry partners, but also by church leaders and scholars. Guenther’s careful, detailed account of their ministry years documents the people, events, and places significant in the development of the Assemblies of God in three countries along the Caribbean Basin.

David and Gladys Guenther started life on the northern tier of the United States; David in Wausau, Wisconsin, and Gladys in North Dakota. Both were reared in Pentecostal homes. David’s grandfather, Ernest B. Guenther, was baptized in the Holy Spirit in about 1908, shortly after hearing of the great Pentecostal revival in Chicago. He was ordained by the Full Gospel Assembly in Chicago in 1911 and led German-language house meetings in Merrill, Wisconsin. David grew up in Wausau Christian Assembly of God, where his father was a lay pastor. Gladys was the daughter of Clarence J. Larson, a leader in the North Dakota District who pastored Assemblies of God congregations in Cavalier, Minot, Lisbon, Powers Lake, and Grand Forks, North Dakota, as well as in Eureka, California.