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Restoration Church

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In 2009, Arthur and Marian Brown, along with their four children, had just unpacked their minivan after an exhausting twelve-hour trip from Arthur’s hometown of Kalamazoo, Michigan to their current home in Chesapeake, Virginia when Arthur complained of a headache and fell onto the bed in excruciating pain. Immediately, Marian recognized this as something absolutely unusual and proceeded to take the steps necessary to get Arthur to the hospital.
Soon after arriving at the hospital, doctors performed a battery of tests and concluded that Arthur, a 48-year-old pastor, had just suffered a brain aneurysm. By the grace of God the aneurysm was not fatal, yet it was debilitating and created a condition that needed to be surgically addressed. Over the next few days the parishioners of Restoration Church committed themselves to frequent fasting and prayer for divine …show more content…

For many members of Restoration Church, Pastor Art, as his name was often shortened, was the only pastor they personally knew. At age 27, when he assumed the pastorate of the church, the congregation consisted of approximately one dozen people who were extremely loyal to the traditions of church fathers and mothers. To that group of believers, with an average age of 70 years old, the presence of Arthur and Marian was both a fresh fragrance and a significant stench in the church. Their youthful ideas, vigor, and potential suggested that the church would experience great growth and increased vitality. That was refreshing. At the same time, their youthful ideas, vigor, and potential suggested that the church would experience great change, increased volatility, and major shifts in structure and power. That

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