The year 1988, along with 1989, became the high point in terms of the number of churches in New Mexico than claimed allegiance to the Assemblies of God. Because of the church-planting efforts of Louis Coots, Stephen Parker, and Rhea LaRue and Pasquelita Rodriquez (along with help from William Lee, Tom Willeto, and C. Eddie Lee) in Twin Lakes, Bernalillo, and White Horse respectively, the number of Assemblies of God churches in New Mexico grew to its pinnacle: 106. This total was accomplished in 1989 as well. Never again has the number of churches returned to this count. However, the average attendance of Assemblies of God churches since 1988 has gone up each year for nineteen out of twenty-six of the following years. In that time, the average attendance has increased sixty-five percent! Truly the New Mexico Assemblies of God was entering into a greatly-fruitful time of ministry.
Such a great foundational story of other churches in New Mexico notwithstanding, another significant Assemblies of God church was planted in 1988 through the leadership of Stephen Parker. Parker had been an associate pastor to Charles Kumley, who had started North Valley Assembly of God in Bernalillo in 1980. Parker set out from that church to start “First Assembly of God” in Bernalillo in 1988 because “the people of Bernalillo, the call of the Lord was heave on my heart” and because Kumley was soon to resign his church in 1989. (Some of the remaining members of North Valley Assembly of God migrated to Parker’s church plant after the closure of Kumley’s church.) He remembers his “Damascus road” experience while attending Evangel Temple (now “Evangel Christian Center”). This calling would lead Parker to plant one of the more successful church plants in recent years as the church has lasted to the present day, twenty-six years later. Parker remembers, “the call of the Lord was my life to [open the church]…and we did it. We were renting right from the Catholic Church; and used to meet in the old mortuary. And people would stop from going into the Catholic Church and come over. A lot of people gave their heart to the Lord. At one time under the leadership of Jude Tercero, the church reached an average weekly attendance of 225 people. The church is now led by Cristian Beker as a bilingual fellowship reaching the heart of the northern portion of the greater Albuquerque metropolitan area.
