The History of Alleluia Community

(Note: This is a copy of a PowerPoint presentation that has been used for outreach ministries.  It simply highlights much information.)

Need for Community

• From Abraham, Moses and the Exodus to the present, God has always called people to be a community of believers united by love in a common fellowship with Him and with each other. With this purpose in mind, we can see Scripture’s correlation to Christian community.

Early Roots of Community

• Around 1970 the first charismatic prayer meeting was held in Augusta, Georgia.

• By 1971 Dale Clark and Bill Beatty had visions about community. Dale expressed how the people would come together and live out the Gospel. Bill saw a vision of small buildings encircling a central building with a lighted cross in the distance.
  

The Beginning of Alleluia Community

• Bill and Laurette Beatty, Dale and Carolyn Clark, Dennis and Harriet McBride, Kevin and Karen Murrell met as usual on Friday night to pray for community. They became snowbound at the Beattys' home. The next day Mrs. Jacqueline Ledbetter and Fr. Mike Burke joined them. On that snow weekend the Covenant was drafted and the community was given the name Alleluia.
  

• Three leaders of the Augusta prayer group were selected as coordinators of the community

Structure of Alleluia Community

• The Covenant is our foundational document explaining the basic principles and agreements we hold
• The body of Elders is a group who together serve as the government of Alleluia Community.
• The Pastoral Structure is responsible for overseeing how our Way and Rule of Life impact individuals and for maintaining a just and vibrant life.
• Each community family, extended household member, and single person is fitted into a support group.
• A Support Group Head leads each support group. The Head is responsible for caring for support group members and helping individuals and families live in solidarity with each other and the broader community.
• Each Support Group Head relates with and is responsible to a Pastoral Coordinator.
• The father and mother lead the family as its pastoral team, recognizing and respecting the human dignity of each family member.
• Jesus is our Lord!

2. The Lord has called us to make a solemn covenant with Him and with one another to be a people of praise. We accept the Lordship of Jesus in our lives, individually and as a people. He has destroyed our isolation and joined us together
3. We commit ourselves fully, subordinate to our primary covenants to marriage, celibacy and the church, as brothers and sisters in the Lord, entrusting our lives to Him and to each other in Him. We promise to build up, exhort, admonish and listen to one another; to be quick to forgive and to ask forgiveness; to assist each other in seeking His perfect will in all things.
4. In His joy and peace, therefore, we yield our lives to Jesus; everything past, present and future and we agree to:

(1) Love one another as brothers and sisters in Christ.
(2) Be faithful to our commitments to community prayer, fellowship and service, seeking always the vision and the growth to which the Spirit is calling us.
(3) Accept responsibility for community order.
(4) Foster the growth of the community by accepting responsibility for a program of Christian initiation and formation in community life.
(5) Recognize the headship of the coordinators and agree to obey, correct, and pray for them.
(6) Accept our financial responsibility to the community.
(7) Be held to this covenant and to hold one another to it.

5. We promise to love one another and to call each other to holiness. We believe that this is the way God has chosen for our sanctification. We willingly ask Him to use it. We regard this as a solemn and serious commitment which we enter in good conscience, freely, and in faith.

• During our first years, a number of prophetic words led to the creation of what has come to be known as the Ten Words. The following Ten Words epitomize the nature and character of the vision God gave to the Alleluia Community:

(1) Be holy
(2) Be one
(3) Owe no man
(4) Heal the whole man
(5) Prepare for tribulation
(6) Become an alternate society
(7) Join as a spiritual army
(8) Prophesy to the church
(9) Raise up shepherds
(10) Take possession of the land

2. Our Covenant and the Ten Words continue to be our foundation stones. It is our hope that the attached documents will help us live under the Lordship of Jesus and propel us into the new millennium with a renewed solidarity of mind and heart.

3. Attached are new documents defining our purpose, our vision, our way of life and our rule of life. We do not see the attached items as replacements for the Covenant and the Ten Words, but as documents that add clarity and specificity to what we have always believed and are attempting to live.

The Growth of Alleluia Community

• Building Community was never harder than in the early days. The community “In Common Group” was established in order to save on expenses and draw community members closer together. The group shared their income with each family or member receiving a financial allotment based on need. Automobiles were put into a motor pool. Members in need of clothing could visit a common clothes closet. Other members sought out bargains for a common food pantry.
• Alleluia Community Total Services (ACTS) was formed. It provided services such as spiritual, physical, emotional, financial, and intellectual.
• The first Alleluia Publication, The Dove, was hand delivered door to door.

Coming to Rest in Faith Village

• One night around 9:00 o'clock Dennis McBride, Dale Clark, Kevin Murrell, Bill Beatty and Gil O’Brien drove to South Augusta and found what became Faith Village. Bill's vision of a large field of grass, trees, and the shining cross in the distance was realized. At first 18 apartment complexes were purchased for $365,000. Now over 130 separate single family dwellings are owned in the Faith Village area by Full Covenant Members.
• The cross of St. Helena’s Convent lit up with spot lights, which could be seen in early days, can still been seen from Bobby Jones Expressway.
  
• Faith Village used to be a pecan grove. Many of the pecan trees are over seventy years old and still yield a harvest.

Alleluia Community Today

• Our ecumenical nature is based on Christian love. We relate at the level of “highest common denominator.” We strive to represent our particular denominations and to respect the beliefs of others
• The custom of wearing Mantles and Veils developed in Alleluia during the mid-seventies following a prophetic word. Since then men have received mantles and women have received veils upon siging the covenant.
  
• Around 1979 during a work party, the 16 foot Bell Tower was built on Norton Court adjacent to the main Faith Village sign. The bell for the tower was a gift from St. Helena's Convent. The bell was rung to announce full covenant meetings, which were held in the center circle behind the bell tower, for noon prayers, on Easter, when guests arrived, and when members died. The bell tower has since been taken down due to decay, and replaced with a concrete tower.
  
• The Alleluia Restaurant was established in 1971 as an outreach to the people of Augusta and to provide jobs for community members. A fire, lease problems and other issues eventually led to the closing of the Alleluia Restauran.

Community Life

• We are a body of people dedicated to God. We desire to model God's ways faithfully and fully.
• All meetings begin and end with prayer.
• We strongly believe that each individual is made in the image of God and so we honor one another.
• Celebrations are an important part community life. Our celebrations are an expression of our identity as a people and of the values we embrace.
• The Alleluia Community birthday and Covenant signing, February 11th
• Easter season
• Alleluia Community School Graduation, First Sunday in June
• Independence Day, July 4th
• All Saints Eve party, October 31st
• Thanksgiving Prayer Meeting, Thanksgiving evening
• Christmas Season

Alleluia Community School

This move of the Holy Spirit is not just for one generation but for many; therefore, everyone, including the young, are a part of the community. This understanding led to the General Community Gathering, or GCG, which allowed the children to be a part of what their parents were doing and learning. The Community realized that GCGs weren't enough, so the first Alleluia Community School was founded in 1981.

Alleluia Community Outreach

Alleluia Music Ministry FOCUS Weekends Retreats Local & International Missions Recording Ministry Lyman Street Outreach Internet Outreach Recording Studio Pro-life Ministry Prison Ministry Parking Lot Ministry Youth Development Homeless Ministry Life in the Spirit Seminar Neighborhood Improvement Project (Zip 30906) National Prayer Watch