On Bell Road in East Montgomery, a stone's throw from the shops and neighborhoods that line the corridor east of downtown, First Assembly of God gathers each week as a Pentecostal congregation shaped by teaching, worship, and a steady stream of mission work that reaches well beyond Alabama. The campus, set at 135 Bell Road, houses the main sanctuary, administrative offices, a coffee shop, and a 24-hour prayer room that is open to anyone who wants to stop in and pray. The church's motto for newcomers is simple: "Wherever you are in life, you have a purpose. You were created for greatness. Come worship with us and become the person God has created you to be!"
The Lunsfords and the Pastoral Team
Lead Pastors Jimmy and Amanda Lunsford shepherd the congregation, and a husband-and-wife model carries through most of the staff. Worship is led by Justin and Brittni Ingram; students are shepherded by Cory and Laura Williams as Youth Pastors; and children and Christian education are overseen by Benny and Diane Cunningham. Tyler and Hillary Oswald serve as Media Pastors and as College and Young Adult Pastors, bridging two generations under one roof. Together the team describes a church that values family and raises up the next generation of leaders from within its own body.
Sixteen Articles of Faith, in Pentecostal Form
First Assembly of God holds to the full doctrinal statement of the Assemblies of God, set out in sixteen articles that the church publishes in detail and backs with a long list of scripture references. The Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments, are held to be the verbally inspired, infallible, authoritative rule of faith and conduct. The one true God has revealed Himself as the eternally self-existent "I AM," the Creator and Redeemer, and has made Himself known as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The Lord Jesus Christ is confessed as the eternal Son of God, with the church teaching His virgin birth, sinless life, miracles, substitutionary death on the cross, bodily resurrection, and exaltation to the right hand of God. Humanity is described as created good and upright but fallen by voluntary transgression, incurring both physical and spiritual death. The only hope of redemption is through the shed blood of Jesus Christ, received by repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ, and confirmed inwardly by the direct witness of the Spirit and outwardly by a life of righteousness and holiness.
Two ordinances are observed: water baptism by immersion for all who repent and believe, and the Lord's Supper, a symbolic sharing of bread and the fruit of the vine that points to the Lord's suffering, death, and promised return. A central distinctive is the baptism in the Holy Spirit, a distinct and subsequent experience to the new birth, accompanied by an overflowing fullness of the Spirit and, the church teaches, the initial physical evidence of speaking with other tongues as the Spirit gives utterance. The gifts of the Spirit are embraced as part of the Spirit-baptized life.
Sanctification is taught as a daily reckoning on the believer's identification with Christ in His death and resurrection, and as a life of holiness made possible by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Church is the Body of Christ, and the priority reasons for being of the Assemblies of God, the statement reads, are to be an agency of God for evangelizing the world, a corporate body in which man may worship God, a channel for building believers into the image of His Son, and a people who demonstrate God's love and compassion for all the world.
Divine healing is taught as an integral part of the gospel, with deliverance from sickness provided for in the atonement and available as a privilege of all believers. The blessed hope is the resurrection of those who have fallen asleep in Christ and the translation together with those who remain, looking for the second coming of Christ, the millennial reign, the final judgment, and the new heavens and new earth. A closing article on morality, marriage, family, and human relationships defines marriage as the lifelong union of one man and one woman, opposes all forms of sexual immorality, and speaks for the poor, the powerless, the child, the orphaned, the abused, the aged, the sick, and the unborn, calling all of it a matter of religious faith.
Sunday Morning Worship
Worship gathers at 10:30 AM on Sundays in the main sanctuary. The service is designed around a contemporary flow shaped by the church's Pentecostal convictions, with extended praise and worship, prayer, and Bible-based preaching from the pastoral team. The service is livestreamed through an online campus so that those at home or traveling can join the same gathering. Visitors are welcomed into a service that aims to be accessible for a first-time guest while still carrying the depth of the church's Pentecostal identity.
Wednesday Nights: A Second Gathering
The midweek service meets at 6:30 PM on Wednesdays, giving the congregation a second touchpoint each week for teaching, worship, and prayer. Wednesday night is also when the student ministry FIRST meets, and when the children's wing fills with the next generation. The midweek service gives families a shared rhythm: parents in the sanctuary, students in their own service, and children in age-appropriate rooms, all on the same campus on the same evening.
Kingdom Kids and a Full Wednesday Wing
Children are at the center of the church's life. Kingdom Kids meets on Sunday mornings at 10:30 AM, alongside the adult worship service, and is described as the Sunday morning ministry to children. The team points out that Jesus spoke about the Kingdom of God more than one hundred times in the Gospels, and the goal of Kingdom Kids is to help children meet Jesus and live in His Kingdom now. Throughout the rooms, the curriculum is Bible-based and interactive, with praise and worship, games, Bible lessons, and hands-on activities tailored to each age group. The youngest children have a peaceful nursery and toddler space built around caring for physical needs and giving a first impression of their Heavenly Father.
Wednesday nights expand the children's ministry further. From 6:30 to 8:00 PM, in addition to nursery and toddler care, MPact serves girls and Royal Rangers serves boys, two well-known children's discipleship programs that give boys and girls their own space to grow in faith, character, and friendship across the school year.
FIRST Student Ministry
FIRST is the student ministry for young people ages 12 to 23. The Wednesday night FIRST service begins at 6:30 PM and is built around a time of family-style worship, biblical teaching, and genuine community. The staff describes the group as one big family, united and committed to serving God and loving others, and treats weekly worship and teaching as the anchor for everything else the students do together. Once a month the students gather in a format that leans into fellowship and conversation as much as teaching, with the conviction that life is better done together as one body gathered for the purposes of Christ.
The UNION: College and Young Adults
The UNION is the church's name for its young adult ministry, and it gathers college students and young adults ages 18 to 29 under one banner. Every Tuesday night at 7:00 PM the group meets in the church coffee shop for a Bible study that is built on conversation and fellowship, with free coffee and snacks. The team is explicit that the goal is to dive deeper into the Word of God and to see that God is actively at work in ordinary lives. Beyond the weekly Bible study, The UNION hosts a number of events, gatherings, and outreaches across the year, and counts its mission as fulfilling the Great Commission as a generation together.
A Coffee Shop and a 24-Hour Prayer Room
Two features of the East Montgomery campus stand out for anyone dropping by during the week. The coffee shop is the natural meeting place, used for the UNION's Tuesday night Bible study and for casual connection across the church. The 24-hour prayer room is open to anyone who wants a quiet space to pray at any hour, an unusual offering that reflects the church's Pentecostal commitment to prayer as a steady practice rather than a once-a-week event.
A Church That Sends
First Assembly supports more than seventy missionaries, and a long list of names fills the church's missions page. The list reads like a map of Pentecostal mission work: Germany, Belgium, Macedonia, Spain, Austria, Italy, the Czech Republic, Romania, Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Honduras, Costa Rica, Belize, Guatemala, Uruguay, Peru, Japan, Indonesia, Ethiopia, Tanzania, South Africa, the French Antilles, and beyond. Within the United States, the church backs Chi Alpha campus ministries at the University of Alabama, Auburn University, and Troy University, as well as Teen Challenge, Alabama Youth Alive, NextGen Children's Ministries, and a number of US-based church plants and mercy ministries. A small missions intern is listed for Uruguay, and retired missionaries continue to take ministry trips. Mission trips are framed both as a personal journey for those who go and a real necessity for the communities being served.
Getting Connected
The church's connect ministry frames unity in the body of Christ as absolutely vital and urges new attenders to plug into one of its ministry opportunities. A serve team gathers helpers across guest experience, kids, youth, media and technology, women's ministry, men's ministry, the worship team, and young adults, with a form ready for anyone who wants to find a place to belong and contribute. A separate prayer form is available for those who want the pastoral team to pray with them. Giving can be done online, and the building is easy to find: 135 Bell Road, Montgomery, Alabama 36117, with the phone line at (334) 277-2670 for anyone who would like to call ahead.