 preached a very short gospel message and many people streamed forward to be saved. Over the next few days, people came to our home one by one and they were baptized in the Holy Spirit, some of them seeing visions.
The Methodist Church leaders decided to put Clark into Kings College, their theological college at the University, so he became a student there in 1969. In between his studies, he began what became known as the Corinda meetings. George Nichols, the man who had introduced Clark to the baptism in the Holy Spirit, had a large home in the Brisbane suburb of Corinda. These meetings commenced on May 10, 1969. These numbers grew to about 200 hundred during the following two years.
Following time with Trevor Chandler at Windsor Full Gospel Church and then Christian Life Centre, we began travelling. Later, we began Christian Outreach Centre.
The first step was a meeting, attended by twenty-five people, in our home at Keperra on June 16, 1974. One week later, 126 people participated in Communion. Christian Outreach Centre was underway.
Faith in God was one of our foundational beliefs. Christian Outreach Centre Bibles automatically fall open at the 11th chapter of Mark. We had to have a faith in God because we had nothing else – no financial backing, no parent body to launch us, no experience in starting churches. Some people described us as ‘ecclesiastical nobodies’ and they were right.
We then spread out to other parts of Queensland and Australia, and then overseas. We started planting churches in towns close to Brisbane, one reason being that we really needed each other. Training took place on the run, as the first Christian Outreach Centre Pastors were some farmers, carpenters and milkman.
Christian Outreach Centre men and women were committed to “Australia for Christ.” They put their money where their mouth was. People gave sacrificially and the staff worked for very low wages. One of the secrets of success in the early days had to be that people had a will to work.
By 1976, Clark was beginning to talk television. “A New Way of Living” went to air on Channel Nine in Brisbane on July 17, 1977. The program was given that name because it was a popular song at the time and people were experiencing what the words described.
“A New Way of Living”, was shown on sixteen stations in Queensland, as well as going to air in South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales. At that time, we had a congregation of 800 and TV was costing about $5000 per week. Large numbers of people throughout Australia will be eternally grateful that God used the medium of television so mightily.
Clark Taylor led Christian Outreach Centre during its first fifteen years. Then Neil Miers became its International President and Clark later travelled in healing evangelism and then founded the Worship Centre in Brisbane in 2000.
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1970 – February: Wilmore, Kentucky, North America (Asbury College)
A revival broke out in Asbury College in Wilmore, Kentucky, on Tuesday, February 3, 1970. The regular morning chapel commencing at 10 o’clock saw God move on the students in such a way that many came weeping to the front to kneel in repentance, others gave testimonies including confession of sin, and all this was mixed with spontaneous singing. Lectures were cancelled for the day as the auditorium filled with over 1,000 people. Few left for meals. By midnight over 500 still remained praying and worshipping. Several hundred committed their lives to Christ that day. By 6 am next morning 75 students were still praying in the hall, and through the Wednesday it filled again as all lectures were again cancelled for the day. The time was filled with praying, singing, confessions and testimonies.
As they continued in prayer that week many students felt called to share what was happening with other colleges and churches. Invitations were coming from around the country as news of the revival spread. So teams went out from the next weekend to tell the story and give their testimonies. Almost half the student body of 1000 was involved in the teams witnessing about t