ANTM History Introduction
The historical development of the ANTM has always been something of a mystery. Anecdotal stories of Norman, Sr.’s calling, training and sending out always seemed to be muddied with a lack of detail. For those who grew up in the ANTM, it has always been assumed that Norman’s rise to pastoral ministry was modeled in a similar way to those that he would eventually send out. Frankly, it was not.
Since there has only been one pastor sent out in the last 20 years, indeed an entire generation likely believes that the way that Norman Sr. and other pastors in the ANTM were trained and sent out followed the template of Pastor Jason Elliott: a close relationship with the pastor built over years, multiple levels of testing and training, and once sent out, careful accountability and ongoing oversight from “the apostle”.
Norman Sr.’s own story could be nothing further from the truth. The pattern for Norman being sent out bears little resemblance to Jason’s “pattern”. This history hopes to shed light on the actual story of one man’s desire to become a pastor and the minor splash that his ministry created in the Ohio River Valley area. This ‘splash’ led to ministry expansion to small outposts throughout the world. The expansion within Pittsburgh and abroad crumbled over ensuing years due in significant part to Norman’s pattern of failure to maintain relationships with those in the greater Christian community which led to isolation from the rest of Christianity at large. From that point on, Norman turned his gaze inward and became solely focused on perfecting the churches directly under him, which led to an even greater desire to control every aspect of ministry in those churches. This eventually led to conflicts between Norman (and Becky) and the pastors they sought to control and in the end resulted in the firing of most of the pastors that he sent out.
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