BlogRodent: Pentecostal Rumination & Review

I struggle whether to blog on tragic news events with real victims still suffering, and about which I can do nothing. I am not a journalist, the story is not local, and I don't want to prey off of others' sensational misfortune just to garner a minor increase in blog traffic. But, being a Pentecostal (Assemblies of God) blogger, I do feel that when something newsworthy happens in our niche of culture, it's worth at least knowing about if only for reflection and with a view toward "big picture" issues.

This should go without saying, but I will say it anyhow: please pray for the church and families involved in what I am about to describe. My commentary and reaction follow my summary.

Happily married couple...

J. Lee Grady, over at Charisma magazine, has issued a call for clearheadedness among the charis-manics in his editorial, “It’s Getting Really Weird Out There.” The article cites strange goings-on at various Charismatic churches, and some classical Pentecostal churches.

This is where I cite my earlier post, “The Problem with Pentecostal Distinctives,” to reinforce his point. This is what happens when any group elevates experience and subjectivity above a commitment to sound biblical hermeneutics. This is why Paul wrote 1 Corinthians 12-14, addressing bad theology based on experience, grounding the Corinthians instead in the greatest commandment: love.

More than anything, we need to adhere to first principles: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, strength, and soul; and love your neighbor as yourself. While none of us, not one, can claim to keep these commandments perfectly, it’s the goal we aim

Holly Scroggins attends Wood River Assembly of God in Wood River, Illinois. Last June, she was driving a little VW Beetle with her 4– and 9–year old sons in the back of the car, when Timothy Barnhart attempted to pass in his SUV, he crashed into her car and killed both boys. Holly survived, but was was severely injured with shattered bones in her thigh, kneecap, ankle and foot. Her liver was damaged and she needed two blood transfusions to survive. She spent three months in the hospital while friends and coworkers raised money for the expense.

Barnhart also survived, but is still in recovery. Charges are pending.

I usually read newspaper accounts of people’s praise to God for taking them through tragedy prepared to wince. So often, people praise God for their safety at other people’s expense. Their praise seems insensitive, unbalanced, unaware that bad things simply happen to good people

Christianity Today just published an interview with Ben Witherington III, professor of New Testament at Asbury Seminary in Kentucky. It’s a concise and interesting interview, well worth the read. It comes on the heels of his latest book: The Problem with Evangelical Theology: Testing the Exegetical Foundations of Calvinism, Dispensationalism, and Wesleyanism. According to editor Mark Galli, in this book, Witherington “makes a positive argument for how biblical interpretation should be done in an increasingly postmodern setting.”

Here’s the link to the article:

The Problem with Evangelical Theologies
Ben Witherington III thinks there is something fundamentally weak about each branch of the movement.
Interview by Mark Galli | posted 11/09/2005 09:00 a.m.

Here’s an excerpt that is clearly relevant for Pentecostals:

So, what is the problem

There's a rash of fishy news stories on Google lately about a minor skirmish between a 300-member Assembly of God church and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA—not to be confused with “People for the Eating of Tasty Animals”).

The score: PETA 1, People 0, Comet Goldfish -12.

Look, it’s common knowledge that youth pastors have crazy ideas and are compelled to pull stunts. Even when it’s accidental, it’s still a big hit (see my post about young Blake Bergstrom, the “tent pitching” youth pastor—that post more than doubled the traffic to this lonely blog!). The crazier the idea and the more outrageous the stunt, the more hopped-up the kids get. And it’s a fundamental truth that hopped-up chirren is exactly what Jesus needs more of.

So, young, unsuspecting, youth pastor, Anthony Martin, over at the First Assembly

There’s an essential irony in all the talk about the emergent church vs. the old-style church and where they intersect. Or, maybe—to be charitable—there’s an essential paradox. To wit: how is it possible to decry and denounce all the old structures and forms as being irrelevant without falling into the same trap of culturally-bound irrelevance yourself? Didn’t the Jesus People try this experiment? Didn’t the Quakers do this? Hasn’t the patient gone through the same exploratory surgery time and time again?

And yet, the patient still lives, the church and Christ’s ministry continue on, and the revolutionaries represent small pockets of like-minded individuals that have become all but footnotes in church history.

I’m not emergent. I’m not postmodern; but, then, I’m not modern. I’m not fundamentalistic. I’m a mongrel. While there’s much in my Fellowship I can be critical about, there’s much more

I received the following email late Friday evening:

-----Original Message----- From: Office of the General Secretary [mailto:churches@ag.org] Sent: Friday, September 09, 2005 3:45 PM Subject: A/G Hurricane Katrina Relief Efforts Update: 9/9/2005 VIDEO CLIP FROM THE SUPERINTENDENT

General Superintendent Trask has made a video clip regarding his trip to the devastated Gulf Coast yesterday. You can view this at http://ag.org. The brief clip is available for you to download to show to your congregation or Sunday school class this Sunday.

REPORT ON US MISSIONARIES IN AREA

Several USM missionaries and ministries were affected by Katrina. Go to USMissions.ag.org/ to get up-to-date information on these.

HOW TO HELP

Cash: Cash donations are the best way to get people help the fastest.

You may give online at ag.org/. Credit cards are accepted and 100% of all donations go directly to the Katrina relief projects. Medical Teams: HealthCare Ministries at headquarters is coordinating medical teams to go to these areas.

I took a few quizzes tonight, and I generously share the results with you, my Gentle Readers. I’m not sure what they really reveal about me. I worked as an opinion/market research interviewer for four years, and I know how very subtle changes in questions and their interpretation by the respondent can wildly skew results. But if you’re looking for a quick read on where I am theologically (or where you are, if you take the test) this may be helpful for you.

First, I went to QuizFarm and took the “What’s your theological worldview?” test. Here are the results.

I just received this from the General Council of the A/G:

--
From: Office of the General Secretary [churches@ag.org]
Sent: Wednesday, September 07, 2005 1:45 PM
Subject: A/G Hurricane Katrina Relief Efforts Update

The General Council of the Assemblies of God, together with the Convoy of Hope, continues to respond to the Hurricane Katrina disaster with acts of compassion and practical helps.

Convoy of Hope

As of today COH has distributed 75 truckloads of ice, water, food and other relief supplies with another 16 truckloads scheduled to arrive in the next couple of days. To date over 3.5 million pounds of life-sustaining relief materials have been distributed in the following communities:

Louisiana: Gretna (West bank of New Orleans)

Mississippi: Bay St. Louis, Biloxi, Caesar, Gulfport, Henryville, McComb, and Picayune

Convoy of Hope has ongoing distribution

Hi.

Here’s my current list of active Pentecostal, Charismatic and Assembly of God bloggers. I hope you enjoy it. And feel free to add to it with your comments.

   PneumaBlogs: Select Pentecostal/Charismatic Bloggers

Rich.

[tags]assemblies-of-god, assembly-of-god, blogger, blogging, BlogRodent, charismatic, church-of-god, foursquare, god-blogger, god-blogging, godblog, godbloggers, godblogs, pentecostal, pneumablog, pneumabloggers, pneumablogging, pneumablogs, spirit-filled[/tags]

As I’ve watched the news feeds over the last several days, I noted that the A/G has been quick to respond, first with nearly a dozen Convoy of Hope trucks being sent down (over twenty more on the way), and an email plea from the General Superintendent, Thomas Trask, to contribute funds at the A/G disaster recovery site. Already $25,000 was sent to the Louisiana district to help some 400 people stranded at the LA district campgrounds.

Here is a good update on what is known and not known about the state of our churches and district offices in the Gulf region: Hurricane Katrina—much still unknown.

At this point, giving money is more effective than sending things. Let the organizations with the infrastructure in place to provide help turn your dollars into tangible aid. Currently, the hardest hit areas are still evacuating survivors and I’m reading that well-intentioned helping

(Updated with accurate URLs for Frank N. Johnson's websites.)

I am not sure if this is just a meme without substance, or if the idea has actual merit. But the cliche rant among tech- and media-savvy Christians is that the Church world is always slow to adopt new technology. The claim is that we missed it with film and now Hollywood “owns” the field, to the exclusion of overt Christian influence. We missed it with radio, and now we’re relegated to the low-end of the FM dial where we must solicit donations, or the AM dial where nobody listens to talk radio. We missed it with music, and at any given time the state of the art in the Christian music scene is 10 years behind the secular industry. They say we missed it on the Web, which is boldly dominated by the secular dot.coms and the porn purveyors.

I’m not sure.

What do cereal, gospel music, Mickey Mouse, and the Assemblies of God have in common?

Beats me.

But if you were at the Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church here in Chicago, Illinois, on July 16, you would have heard 8 youth choirs belting out their best for Jesus in a Kellogg-sponsored “Gospel Sing-Off Youth Choir Competition,” where the just-announced winner, Evangel World Outreach (Assembly of God), harmonized their way to a $10,000 check and a “magical vacation” to the Walt Disney World Resort. (Evangel’s choir beat out 38 other regional finalists to win the top prize.) Once there, they’ll get to rhapsodize once more among the likes of:

• Kierra "KiKi" Sheard,
• Audio Adrenaline
• tobyMac
• Casting Crowns
• Nicole C. Mullen
• MercyMe
• Steven Curtis Chapman
• Kutless
• CeCe Winans
• Newsboys
• Donnie McClurkin
• Mark

In the Paris News story about the Assembly of God church shooting in Sash, Texas, Debbie Wolfe is quoted, remembering the scene when Sash A/G pastor James Armstrong was killed by the gunman:

“Brother Armstrong’s wife crouched down beside their travel trailer, and I know the man walked back and forth several times shooting. The Lord protected her.”

Can I tell you I am bothered when folks say this?

Does Mrs. Wolfe really mean to imply that God was not protecting Rev. Armstrong? That God was not protecting the other three who were murdered this Sunday?

Not really, I really don’t think that’s what she means.

But the words say it, and people who aren’t native speakers of “church talk” hear a different message than she’s intending to send. (For my part, I think she and others like her simply mean, “The outcome should’ve been different, but God must have had a different purpose

I just learned about an Assembly of God church shooting in Sash, Texas, not far from where I went to Bible college:

The suspected gunman, A.P. Crenshaw, walked into a North Texas church and opened fire, police said. Two people were killed, including church member Ernest Wesley Brown, 61, and pastor James Armstrong, 42. A third person inside the church was also shot.

Crenshaw, who is believed to be in his 50s, then allegedly shot and killed Holly Love Brown, 50, and her unnamed passenger before taking the woman's car, officials said.

Please pray for the family, loved ones, and church members of this little community. As of now, there are no answers about why this happened, and the gunman killed himself after a standoff with SWAT.

Update: More details here. It started with words exchanged in the parking lot. Crenshaw returned, killed the man he was arguing

An excerpt from from a Lincoln Journal Star article, “ Conservative churches grow while mainline churches struggle,” b y Bob Reeves, regarding recent explosive A/G growth:

Successful evangelism is also a major reason for the phenomenal growth of the Assemblies of God, especially outside the United States, said Bob Friesen, director of research for that denomination's headquarters in Springfield, Mo. Missionaries work with indigenous leaders in countries worldwide to build local churches that will grow and multiply, he said. The biggest growth is in Africa. "Revival is happening there and people are turning toward the Lord" in record numbers, he said.

As of 2004 there were approximately 30 million adherents of Assemblies of God worldwide, nearly double the number in 1990.

In the United States, the growth has leveled off in recent years, said Dave Argue, pastor of Lincoln's Christ Place Church, an Assembly of God congregation. The worldwide growth is "part

Kathryn Lang, of Guntersville, Alabama, grew up Episcopalian, started attending a Southern Baptist church a few years ago, and lately began attending a local Assembly of God church because of the programs for her kids. They’ve taken membership classes at the A/G church, and her oldest son was baptized there.

Her comments in The Huntsville Times’ community column are interesting, in light of what I’ve recently blogged on. She remarks that the main differences aren’t as much theological as practical: Do you think you have a structured service, or an unstructured service? (Perhaps she glosses over the problems rampant in the ECUSA, or maybe her recent church activities have taken her “out of the loop.”) But then she analyzes the apparently unstructured services of the Baptist and Assemblies crowd and, guess what? We’re pretty structured after all.

Some of the services merely have an outline. … The

Bethany clued me in to an article I’ve seen around the office but hadn’t yet read, and I’m nearly ashamed, because I just blogged about the subject! Anyhow, Grant Wacker, a noted Pentecostal historian currently Professor of Church History at Duke University, recently wrote an amazing article for Christianity Today: “Hand-Clapping in a Gothic Nave: What Pentecostals and mainliners can learn from each other.” Here's an excerpt:

Recently media have paid much attention to two distinct religion stories. One is the surge of global Pentecostalism. The other is the visibility of mainline Protestantism in U.S. culture wars. Yet the two stories rarely connect, and for good reason.

Pentecostals and mainliners generally glide around each other like icebergs passing in the night. Over the years, Pentecostals have viewed mainliners with deep skepticism, judging them theologically lax and culturally

It's dated, but I just stumbled across this.

Stanford U. Chi Alpha pastor Glen Davis guffawed at the news and then blogged about a book put out last year by the Assemblies of God's Gospel Publishing House (GPH): Pentecostal Gifts and Ministries in a Postmodern Era, compiled and edited by the General Treasurer of the General Council of the A/G James K. Bridges, with some contributions from past CBC president Maurice Lednicky, and former CBC prof. Opal Reddin.

What's laughable about this, you ask?

Just the irony of a septuagenarian and a few other retirees writing about postmodern ministry.

But, wait, is that really the case? Look at the GPH sell-copy:

For the Pentecostal movement to continue to be an effective instrument in this last day harvest, there must be a renewed emphasis

Last night (Friday), my boss, Kevin A. Miller, VP of Resources at Christianity Today, was ordained to the Diaconate (the first step in the process to priesthood) by the Anglican Mission in America. Consisting of less than a hundred churches in America (according to the website’s church locator), and growing at a rate of about one new church every six weeks, this diocese has an interesting history.

I recently posted about how the Evangelical Global South is growing incredibly fast, and that we will soon be receiving missionaries here from Africa and the other usual “mission fields.” Here’s an unusual example. The AMiA came about as a result of Episcopal dissatisfaction with the direction of the Episcopal Church in America (ECUSA)--which has lost over a third of its membership in the last three decades, and is

This is a long one. Apologies in advance.

The General Council of the Assemblies of God—the US A/G fellowship I belong to—met last week (August 2–5) in it’s biennial (every other year) business meeting at Denver, Colorado.

As I mentioned previously, I believe the US version of the Assemblies of God will soon be facing a challenge to its sense of global centricity due to the growth of the Evangelical church in the global South. (It’s not the international headquarters in Springfield, MO, by the way, just the US headquarters—there is no international authority for the A/G.)

I saw a news item on Google today that brought that home. It led to further exploration at the AG.org website detailing news and reports from last week’s meeting, and it was a very interesting tour. Allow me to take you through it.

First off,

Bridgewood: 'A church for life'
Everyone is welcome to congregate before or after services in the cafe, which has a fireplace and cappuccino machine. The venue is so popular, members are already asking about expanding it and adding a yogurt machine for smoothies, Marquis said. "People just want to sit and talk with each other," she said.

On the other hand, the Borg-like "Starbuxination" of church can be a little disturbing. My mom talked about visiting a church in Albuquerque, NM, where people were wandering around during the sermon to get coffee refills. When I wandered down the hallways of my home church, Calvary

Seems the old meme that the Mormon faith (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) is the fastest growing faith in the world has become officially dated. KIDK TV news, out of Idaho Falls is reporting:

"...Since 1990, Seventh Day Adventists, Assemblies of God and Pentecostal groups have grown much faster and in more places around the globe. The number of new converts to the LDS church, as well as the number of missionaries have dropped in the last 2 years."

Now, you'd be right to think this spells trouble for the Mormon church. But buried in that graf is the hint of trouble for the rest of the Western church world as well. Well … if not exactly trouble, at least the winds of change.

The leadership roles long enjoyed by the European and North American church strongholds