It has been a great privilege to be associated with Apostle John Kelly for the past twenty plus years. His personality and ministry style set him apart as a man uniquely equipped to impart vision and direction to a generation of Christian leaders hungry to influence the world for the cause of Christ.
My first exposure to Apostle Kelly's ministry was at Ravena Bible Training Center in upstate New York circa 1987. As an up-and-coming on-fire Christian with a faith-message background, I was excited (though somewhat skeptical) when told that an 'apostle' was coming to speak at a Saturday morning men's breakfast. I figured that in order to prove he was a true apostle he would probably tell awesome stories about the miracles he performed or somehow flex his apostolic muscular prowess through prophecy or healing.
What I got that morning however was much more... he was surely anointed with the Holy Spirit, but John Kelly was logical, earthy and confident with an east-coast style manliness that flowed naturally and was closer to my Bronx-born, WWII veteran father’s personality than any Spirit-filled minister I had ever been exposed to. Prior to Kelly every preacher I considered really anointed had a southern accent. This new perspective blew my mind.
In addition, I found Apostle Kelly to be amazingly perceptive and there was nowhere to hide from his dead-on insights. I still remember feeling sick to my stomach listening, for the first time, to his now often-quoted lines like (speaking on authority), "If you cannot make your own children obey you, how do you expect a demon to?" Ouch! Through the years, I have come to believe that many of John Kelly's one-liners are among the most profound sayings anywhere, having the power to shine a light on critical inconsistencies. I personally quote John Kelly in my ministry far more than any other contemporary source.
The overall feeling I was left with that morning reminds me of an old song by Roberta Flack called "Killing Me Softly with His Song." The song tells of a woman listening, for the first time, to a particular singer performing and how his song cuts into her soul. Well, the song I could have written about that men’s breakfast might have been named, "Bludgeoning Me Mortally with His Message." And although it was a painful experience, it was the most liberating teaching I have ever heard and left me with two life-changing impressions to this day: 1. Jesus loves the east coast too! 2. Apostle John Kelly represented a vision of unapologetic, strong-side manliness in ministry that, to this day, has never been matched. For that, I am ever grateful.
I tell people that John Kelly is more prophetic by accident than most prophets are on purpose. He has a great gift of being able to tie heaven and earth together and see opportunities and project trends in the church and in the culture before the wave breaks on the horizon. My wife, Nancy, and I are very fortunate to have benefited immeasurably from Apostle Kelly’s wisdom throughout our ministry as we have endeavored to build based on the principles he has forwarded in his teachings and from his personal instruction to us.
In 1990, John and Helena invited me to a local diner one fateful evening and offered me an assignment to pastor a small church plant in the rural Catskill Mountains of New York State. I accepted, of course, and soon found this tiny village, Margaretville, population 600, is so remote that I felt, at first, like Kevin Costner’s character in the beginning of Dances with Wolves. Over the next eighteen years, however, (as I am writing now) that church has grown-up to become a major beacon to the region and a multifaceted apostolic life generator affecting thousands of lives and moving millions of dollars over the years for the cause of Christ. This is John Kelly’s legacy in one small spot in the world.
During the 22 years I have been associated with Apostle John Kelly; he has won many great victories and faced much painful hardship and adversity including physical limitations and the betrayal of friends. Through all this he has shown himself to be a gracious and consummate leader and an innovator. His ability to forgive is astounding. His sense of humor is refreshing. His intelligence is reassuring. His humility is disarming. His insight is profound. His love and compassion are surprisingly delicate but vitally important balance weights to his otherwise warrior attitude. His courage is not rhetoric but real. Apostle John Kelly is the only minister that I have ever really tried to emulate and Catskill Mountain Christian Center is, in no small part, a testimony to his influence.
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