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Uncoolman
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Date Posted:17/06/2012 11:18 AMCopy HTML

*This document has been posted on the Ex-GRC facebook page. If there are any corrections to be made, please comment

Geelong Revival Centre History 

If one was to ask Pastor Hollins when the Geelong Revival Centre started, the answer would be that it started on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2). He would be right, all Christian denominations and sects alike can trace their origins to Pentecost. However what is the modern history of the Geelong Revival Centre. 

In the early 1900’s Christians from many main-stream Church denominations all over the world would meet together and pray. They realised that something was missing from their Christian experience, something the Bible called the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. These groups of believers were baptised in the Holy Spirit and started to speak in tongues, just like the believers had at Pentecost. Due to lack of understanding of this experience the main-stream Churches didn’t accept these believers, so they started their own Churches. The new movement became known as Pentecostal. 

The Pentecostals continued to believe that salvation was by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, they also believed that a separate experience called the Baptism of the Holy Spirit with the initial evidence of speaking in tongues was available to every believer. 

In 1941 at age 23 Leo Harris became the Pastor of the Ballarat AOG, it was here that he met historic and prophetic lecturer Pastor Thomas Foster, who introduced him to British-Israelite theology. The British-Israelite doctrine was not accepted as an official doctrine of the Assemblies of God, so in 1944 Pastor Leo Harris with Pastor Thomas Foster started a new movement called the National Revival Crusade (NRC). 

By 1947 the Hollins family joined the NRC, and within a couple of years the Honourable Leslie Hollins MP and his two sons Noel and Kevin were regular NRC preachers. By 1952 Pastor Noel Hollins was ministering at the Ballarat NRC. Later that year Pastor Lloyd Longfield from the Geelong NRC became sceptical with Pastor Thomas Foster’s deliverance ministry, he sought advice from Pastor Leo Harris in the Adelaide NRC. Pastor Leo Harris decided to split from Pastor Thomas Foster and the NRC, the new movement under the ministry of Pastor Leo Harris was named the Commonwealth Revival Crusade (CRC) 

Pastor Leo Harris placed Pastor Lloyd Longfield in charge of the Melbourne CRC, thus leaving the Geelong assembly without a Pastor. However by 1956 Pastor Noel Hollins had moved from Ballarat to Geelong and became the Pastor of the Geelong CRC. In 1958 the Geelong CRC moved into their own building in High Street Belmont. Late that year Pastor Leo Harris called a Pastors conference in Adelaide, where he felt it was necessary for the CRC to draw up a constitution. Pastor Lloyd Longfield and Pastor Noel Hollins disagreed with this move, so they withdrew from the CRC and named their movement Revival Centres of Australia (RCA). 

In 1961 the elders of the Geelong RCA felt that Pastor Noel Hollins was taking on a dictatorship role, and he was undermining the role of the elders, eventually this resulted in a split at the Geelong RCA. The elders and assembly members who supported them, retained the assembly building in Belmont, and left the RCA and rejoined with the CRC. However in 1962 The Geelong RCA purchased land and built a new assembly hall in Thompson Road, Norlane. 

In 1972 Pastor Noel Hollins and Pastor Lloyd Longfield had a disagreement over pastoral issues. Pastor Noel Hollins decided to split from the RCA, even though Pastor Lloyd Longfield begged him not to. The majority of the Geelong assembly followed Pastor Noel Hollins they retained their Thompson Road hall. Over the years the GRC started affiliate assemblies throughout Australia and around the world, by 1995 the GRC had 37 assemblies world-wide. Pastor Noel Hollins on New Year’s Eve 1999/2000 declared that he was the Apostle of the only true Church in the world today. 

The Geelong Revival Centre believe that salvation is through the Holy Spirit with the Bible evidence of speaking in tongues, and you must attend the GRC or affiliate assembly. 

Over the years the Geelong Revival Centre has strayed from its original belief, no longer do they believe the truth of the Bible on which it itself was founded, that salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, and the Baptism of the Holy Spirit with the initial evidence of speaking in tongues is a separate distinct experience to salvation. 

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