photo: escapedtowisconsin The Rev. E. Thomas Trask, General Superintendent of the General Council of the Assemblies of God, has announced his resignation. I will prepare a report with more details soon. Really. I will. Note: As promised, my long rambling cogitation is now available here. [tags]trask, tom-trask, thomas-trask, thomas-e-trask, general-superintendent,…

I’ve often heard it said within Pentecostal circles that the Holy Spirit gets little recognition — even within our own Pentecostal and Charismatic circles. Of course, there’s some theological justification for this: According to Jesus’ promise in John 14:26, one of the Holy Spirit’s primary roles in the believer’s life is…

I just resurrected this from my email archives from April of this year. But I thought some of you might find still find this interesting to read.

As some of you may know, I worked at HQ from 1991 to 1999 and during that entire time the HQ leadership had been working at –reengineering– corporate structure (I think they were calling it –re-entrenchment– or some such euphemism, to avoid panicking the huddled masses), and re-evaluating our overall church culture. I know that at every General Council a report is presented evaluating the overall spiritual climate of the Fellowship, but I think there’s been a particular pointedness to the internal naval-gazing ever since Margaret Poloma came to HQ to research her book, The Assemblies of God at the Crossroads: Charisma and Institutional Dilemmas.

I understand a lot of hand-wringing occurred after that book came out. Many disagreed with Poloma, but many also agreed. This, I think, is one of her main points:

“Just as other once-charismatic religious movements have followed the path of over-institutionalization and over-regulation, which in turn has discouraged much of the original charisma, the Assemblies of God could suffer the chilling effects of routinization. … Paradoxically, the institution that developed out of charisma and has been strengthened by fresh outbursts also seeks to tame and domesticate this spirit. it remains to be seen whether — and how much — charisma will rule over bureaucratic forms and regulations, or whether organizational concerns will stifle the Spirit.”

–Margaret Poloma, ‘The Assemblies of God at the Crossroads: Charisma and Institutional Dilemmas,” Christian Century, (10/17/90), pp. 932-934.

Now, with Trask’s program, –Vision for Transformation,– well under way, my good friend (and former boss), Tim Strathdee, has been used by God to usher in a change that some might call miraculous–if it truly does have an impact on corporate culture.

This is a good article, and it may give some of you who’ve never been to Springfield a glimpse into the inner workings of HQ culture.

Rich.