Your news, sports and entertainment leader for Evangeline Parish, La.

Article Image Alt Text

Pastor Brian Dore´ will celebrate 25 years as leader at New Life Assembly of God next month. Before he became a pastor, Dore led church choirs, sang and led a jail ministry. (Gazette photo by Claudette Olivier)

Dore´ to celebrate 25 years

Religious leader enjoys his congregation’s openness to receive the word of God

By: CLAUDETTE OLIVIER
Lifestyles Editor

Pastor Brian Dore´ will soon celebrate 25 years as leader at New Life Assembly of God next month.
Dore´ recently shared some history about his work as a religious leader and what continues to inspire him to spread the word of God.
Question: When did you become a pastor?
Answer: I took the pastorate here (at New Life Assembly of God) in 1991. It will be 25 years in April. I was a corporate safety man for McDermott International. They had more than 60,000 employees around the world. I worked for them for 19 years, and for two years prior to that, I taught high school.
Q: What made you decide to become a pastor?
A: We see Christ as our savior on an Easter — I don’t remember the year — and I was serving in the church in a lay capacity in Berwick. God spoke to our hearts and was calling us to the full-time ministry. Before that, we got involved in everything we could. I was president of the Southern/Seventy Boys Choir, I did back up singing for the worship team. I sang solos, I was on the Church Visitation Team, my wife (Doris) and I were Sunday School teachers. I had a jail ministry.
Then God said you are trained enough. You are going out. I was really surprised when God called us. The first church we were offered was a church of 5,000 in Singapore, which is the church that I wanted, but that was not what God wanted. He sent us here to Ville Platte, and we have been here ever since. We have been offered other churches, but God has never let us go. We fell in love with the community, we fell in love with the people and it has just been a blessing since.
Q: What do you get, spiritually, from being a leader at New Life Assembly of God? What do you enjoy about leading the congregation here?
A: What I enjoy about the congregation is their openness to receive the word of God and to allow it to do something in their lives. It’s exciting for a pastor to see people’s lives change through the Holy Spirit, doing the work on the inside. People will come to me and tell me about their past and all that. To know where they came from and where they are today — it’s a testimony. The sweetest people in Ville Platte walk through those doors.
The knowledge that what I am doing has eternal benefits. When I worked in the secular world, you got paid and so forth, but that was it. You just went on to the next job. What I do here I can see people’s live change, I can see it passing on down to their children and their children’s children. I know that what we do for the Lord is never lost, that one day I will stand before him and I am going to hear him say “Well done faithful servant, welcome to the joy of the Lord.
Q:What kind of impact do you try to impart on your congregation as their leader?
A: I try not only to direct them to the word of God, but I think it is important that they read the Word on a daily basis and study the word of God, have time and commune with the Lord in prayer, then take what they have learned and broadcast the Gospel —in other words, go out and tell people what God has done for them, fulfill the great commission in other words.
Q: What are some of the issues you see today among your congregation — what are people’s worries and concerns?
A: Some of the issues I see is that the church is more and more going away from the preaching of the Gospel to more of these feel-good messages. We are seeing such a big change now, I realize I’m older and more set in my ways. We are not easily changed. Young people can accept change more easily than us old people. What I am seeing is, there is such a lack of — the Word of God hasn’t changed he said “Be holy for I am holy” — and yet people now are justifying their sin rather than live a holy life. The denomination we belong to, as the Assemblies of God, is a holiness organization, and the word of God says that without holiness, no man shall see God.
Q: What are some of the ways you are addressing world issues with your congregation?
A: Things have gotten to a point where people are very, very discouraged. I remind them, any leader that comes to power is ordained by God, whether is for good or for bad, you can go back in the Old Testament and see that God allowed some people to take positions. Regardless the Bible specifically says that we are to pray for our leaders, regardless of who they are. I still believe that prayer changes the hand of God.

Our website requires visitors to log in to view the best local news from Evangeline Parish. Not yet a subscriber? Subscribe today!

Follow Us

Subscriber Links