Early Life
Rutland was born in Commerce, Texas but grew up and was raised throughout the southeastern United States, including Florida and Georgia, until finally coming of age in Maryland. He met his future wife, Alison, in his junior year of high school, where she was a member of the cheerleading squad. Upon graduation from high school, Rutland entered the University of Maryland, College Park initially to earn a degree in public relations and to pursue a career in politics (Rutland, 1987 p. 2). Eventually, however, he began to pursue a career in Christian ministry and upon graduation from the University of Maryland, he enrolled in the Candler School of Theology at Emory University. Rutland credits this change in direction to several supernatural experiences that took place in his youth. He became a born-again Christian while attending a evangelical youth camp in Blue Lake, Alabama, and it was there that Rutland believes to have received a mandate from God calling him to be a preacher (Rutland, 1987 p. 4). Some years later, his wife Alison, also a born-again Christian, indicated that she too had received a word from God that Rutland was to become a minister and it is his wife's confirmation that he credited as the deciding factor in his decision to abandon his dreams of politics and pursue a life of ministry.
Upon completion of study at Emory University, Rutland's first assignment was at the Little River United Methodist Church in Woodstock, Georgia (Rutland 1987, p. 8). Later, he became a pastor at Oak Grove United Methodist Church in Atlanta, Georgia. During his tenure at Oak Grove, Rutland claims that his marriage was disintegrating and that he attempted suicide. (Rutland, 1987 p. 16). It was at a "Conference on Power for Ministry Today" held at a Ramada Inn in Atlanta, Georgia in December 1975, that Rutland was baptized in the holy spirit as evidenced by speaking in other tongues (Rutland, 1987 p. 23). Rutland credits this experience as the real turning point in his life (Rutland, 1987 p. 23).
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