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:
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
From Flickr.com.
Uploaded on March 6, 2005 by D LeRoy |
An item from the March 21 issue of Newsweek popped up on my radar: “The Battle For Latino Souls.” Subitled, “Pentecostal churches are using savvy marketing to attract traditionally Catholic Hispanics. A holy struggle in Chicago”.
I found this quote interesting:
Latinos remain the Catholic church's fastest-growing ethnic bloc, but they are also one of the fastest-growing segments among Mormons, Methodists and most other denominations. The result: all faiths are courting Hispanics with a marketing savvy more often associated with corporate America. These churches “have plans to grow, and they're aggressive,” says Edwin Hernandez of the University of Notre Dame. “The competition is rampant.”
The dark-side of evangelistic economics? Or language from a skewed perspective? The picture’s a little clearer as we begin the next
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,
It's great to see little churches doing effectively what the big churches are still trying to figure out: take a hint from Starbucks and Barnes & Noble, and start building community the way our culture responds to it.
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
Well, last night was a good night!
Went to church and gave my talk on the existence of Heaven and Hell. Had a good crowd show up. Unfortunately, as usual, I had far more prepared than I could deliver in 45-minutes. :: Sigh ::
So, I've put the entire manuscript online, and it's available on my PulpitRodent page.
Some comments I received: My wife noted that she really liked the section on proofs and whether we require the same high level of evidence for most of the things we believe as we do for religious things. She mentioned that it was the kind of thing that once I said it, she felt a "Well, duh!" sort of reaction. The kind of thing you always know, but don't always articulate. I liked that.
Someone else told me they didn't
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
I'll be teaching a class this next month. I'm deep in the middle of research for it now.
Believe or Not?
Do you believe everything you read...or not? When it comes to the claims of the Bible you have to ask yourself if you believe it...or not? Can you believe what the Bible says about the creation of the universe, heaven, hell and angels? This four part series seeks the answers to these difficult questions.
- Creation...Myth or Fact?
- How Reliable is the Bible?
- Is There Really a Heaven or Hell?
- Do Angels Exist?
I'm working on the "Heaven or Hell" topic. To my surprise, there's a lot more debate going on about Hell than I ever suspected.
[tags]BlogRodent, Heaven, Hell, belief, religion, christianity, death, afterlife, paradise, gehenna, eternity[/tags]
