Fresh Harvest, an Assemblies of God Church changed it's name from Maranatha Assembly of God in December of 2006. With a focus to meet the evolving needs of our congregation and to further reach the West Virginia University campus population, a new and fresh look and name was adopted by the church: Fresh Harvest!
Prior to our change, Maranatha Assembly of God in Morgantown, West Virginia, had its start in 1954 with Ethel Huber and home prayer meetings in Arnettsville. The first Sunday school classes were in a tent in 1956 and moved into the first building on August 19, 1956, on Brockway Avenue.
During the summer of 1962, the church joined the Assemblies of God and became Morgantown Assembly of God. The first building to house Morgantown Assembly of God was located on Idlewood Drive. In 1975, the church purchased property at 1369 Stewartstown Road and changed its name to Maranatha Assembly of God.
Maranatha is a Aramaic word used once in the Bible meaning "O, Lord, Come."
Maranatha's move to its current location on Canyon Road occurred while Jim Yohn was Pastor. The church needed additional parking areas and a local developer wanted a right-of-way. An agreement was made between the church and the developer; land was purchased, and the church and parsonage were built.
The Assemblies of God grew out of the Pentecostal revival, which began in the early 1900s in places such as Topeka, Kansas, and the Azusa Street Mission in Los Angeles. During times of prayer and Bible study, believers received spiritual experiences like those described in the book of Acts. Accompanied by “speaking in tongues,” their religious experiences were associated with the coming of the Holy Spirit on the Jewish feast of Pentecost (Acts 2), and participants in the movement were dubbed “Pentecostals.” The Pentecostal movement has grown from a handful of Bible school students in Topeka, Kansas, to an estimated 600 million in the world today.
Many participants who were baptized in the Holy Spirit during revivals and camp meetings in the early 1900s were not welcomed back to their former churches. These believers started many small churches throughout the country and communicated through publications that reported on the revivals. In 1913, a Pentecostal publication, the Word and Witness, called for the independent churches to band together for the purpose of fellowship and doctrinal unity. Other concerns for facilitating missionaries, chartering churches and forming a Bible training school were also on the agenda.
Some 300 Pentecostals met at an opera house in Hot Springs, Arkansas, in 1914, and agreed to form a new fellowship of loosely knit independent churches. These churches were left with the needed autonomy to develop and govern their own local ministries, yet they were united in their message and efforts to reach the world for Christ. So began the General Council of the Assemblies of God.
Assemblies of God churches form a cooperative fellowship. As a result, the organization operates from the grass roots, allowing the local church to choose and develop ministries and facilities best suited for its local needs.
