Wherein I lament the failure to practice what good theology and biblical interpretation ought to have taught us: tongues-for-show only shows one thing: lunacy. Surely, by now, everybody’s seen or at least heard of the WashingtonPost.com political cartoon by equal-opportunity skewer-artist Pat Oliphant that was automatically posted to the WP’s…
All You Need to Know About the Assemblies of God…
Wherein I break my silence to introduce my latest freelance writing project for ChristianityToday.com (a small article) and attempt to exlain in a thousand words or less what the entire media elite have yet to figure out despite the powers of Lexis-Nexis. So last monday Ted Olsen at Christianity Today…
George O. Wood: General Superintendent
George O. Wood has been elected to the office of the General Superintendent of the General Council of the Assemblies of God George Wood is a prince of a man who is not only well-educated, but sensible. In my experience in interacting with him not only in meetings but when…
Pastoral Politics at General Council
Sometimes business meetings can be funny in their own little way. Especially when politicking gets heated. Oh, the hi-jinx of business meetings. I actually laughed out loud at one minor General Council tempest that could have had massive implications for the vote for the general superintendent on Thursday. During the…
The General Council vote: issues and predictions
Tomorrow, the 52nd biennial business-meeting for the General Council of the Assemblies of God begins. On Thursday, our next General Superintendent will be selected. Here are my thoughts on matters over which I have no input or influence, and which are probably inappropriate for me to publicly opine over. Unfortunately,…
Resignation Speculation and the Leadership Change
On the resignation of the Assemblies of God’s current superintendent, Rev. Thomas Trask, and the chaos that is in its wake. Wherein I opine on matters explicitly not my business. I’d like to make it perfectly clear at the outset: I am not a credentialed Assemblies of God minister. I’m…
Tammy Faye Messner: March 7, 1942 – July 20, 2007
Tammy Faye Messner, the former wife of Jim Bakker of PTL fame, has passed away after struggling against colon and lung cancer for several years. On July 17, just three days before her death, Messner’s last message on her website announced that she had gained 5 pounds: up from her…
Thomas E. Trask: resignation effective — almost immediately
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,…
Sexual Conversion: Gender dysphoria, the UMC and the transgendered minister
I recently wrote about the relatively unremarked issue of gender dysphoria and believers opting for gender reassignment. I wrote that I had communicated with Assemblies of God leadership about this issue some years ago, and that I believed a position paper is in order — now, not at some later date…
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Ranking the Divine: The Holy Spirit and Search trends
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…
How to get arrested at Central Bible College. Plus: The Unremarked Transgendered Issue
I was surprised to read of a recent arrest at Central Bible College when some folks arranged a non-violent protest and an attempt to “dialog” with allegedly “homophobic” school officials over Gay, Lesbian, and Transgendered issues recently: Central Bible College: Our First Act of Civil Disobedience (via Soulforce) The blogger,…
PneumaBlogs, PneumaSphere, PneumaSearch
In case you haven’t noticed, over the past several days I’ve been trying to bring my “Pneuma” pages up-to-snuff within the new design and to make them all a bit more usable. Just now I’ve added a third page to my collection: PneumaSearch. Yes, that’s right, I’ve gone crazy with…
Eric Brian Golden sentenced to life. Or 14 years. Whichever comes first.
An alert reader notified me that on Tuesday, October 17, Eric Brian Golden admitted to murdering his wife, DeeDee Marie Golden late one night 11 months ago, on November 17, 2005.
If you’re new to t…
A/G Podcasts? Maybe. But meanwhile…
Found yesterday on the AG-NEWS announcement list: AG News wants to know if podcasts of sermons/messages by the local church is widespread. Take the short AG News poll and let us know! Click here to begin… I took the poll. I listen to a lot of sermons and other spoken…
The A/G: Desperately Seeking Disciplers
Back at the first of the year, on January 3, I wrote a post wherein I teased out some trends from the most recent official A/G statistical report published in 2004. I concluded that: Not only are the new believers outstripping the net change in adherents, they seem to have…
Pentecostal Sin
Over on my post, “Charismatic Heresy,” inspired by the egregious charismatic excess highlighted by Charisma editor J. Lee Grady, reader Lynn asked some questions that deserve more attention than a comment reply merits. Lynn writes: I go to an A/G church, but have very Reformed views. It has been a struggle for years.…
Fatal Sincerity: Our complicit silence when heresy speaks
Some of these televangelists may be sincere people (I’m convinced many are not), but they are sincerely, fatally wrong. The shallow, selfish, emotional gospel preached in these circles is not going to stand up over the long haul in this culture. Good grief. In the NT, even the local church deacons had to understand and hold fast to the deep truths of the faith. Local church elders/pastors had to do the same, and be able to teach these truths to the building up of the local church. Today, even prominent “ministers” are so ignorant that they are completely clueless as to the mere fact of their ignorance, let alone its depth….
The A/G feed trough and a new Pentecostal journal. Whee!
There’s a new academic journal on the block, and it’s from one of the A/G’s premier seminaries (I say “one of” because we have other great seminaries not on American soil, such as Asia Pacific Theological Seminary and West Africa Advanced School of Theology). It’s called Encounter: Journal for Pentecostal…
Latest on Golden Murder
On Wednesday, February 15, WSAV News reported that Eric Brian Golden, the 35–year-old Southside Assembly of God youth pastor who killed his wife, was formally indicted on several charges in Chatham County, Georgia (in Savannah). According to the Chatham County Courhouse website, the case was filed on the 15th, and the next event will be a conference hearing on April 20. Hon. Perry Brannen, Jr., is the judge, and Golden is being defended by attorney John P. Sugrue.
Is the Assemblies of God a cult? Or, Wikipedia, authority, and the cult of truthiness.
I submit for your consideration two apparently unrelated questions: Is the Assemblies of God a cult? Is Wikipedia an authoritative encyclopedia? I submit that the Assemblies of God is as much like a cult as the Wikipedia is authoritative. We are, instead, a movement. A Word on WikipediaOver the last…
Examining Assemblies of God statistics on growth
Update: See “The A/G: Desperately Seeking Disciplers” for the latest information on this issue, and to see what the A/G is doing about it. Blogging from the heartland, Sean MacNair calls it like he sees it. In a brief post he concisely serves up highlights from 100 years of American…
Assemblies of God newsfeeds
I’ve added a page of RSS links and email newsletter links for official Assemblies of God news outlets (and a couple unofficial). This includes links to the AG-News newsletter, Dan Betzer’s “ByLine,” and several new Women’s Ministries newsletters that look good. If you’re interested, see: Assemblies of God newsfeeds It’s…
New Orleans Christmas Party
I’ve been wanting to do a positive Hurricane Katrina followup for weeks. I’m frustrated. I nearly could, but I can’t, just yet. So, I give. I’ll report the lack of a report. So, there was a big Christmas party scheduled in New Orleans this weekend. Sponsored by Hosanna Fellowship, the…
Update on Golden Murder
This is an update to: Youth pastor slays wife, confesses. Why, oh why?
Eric Brian Golden had his first day in court yesterday. Golden’s confession was read the the court by Detective LaPrentice Mayes, and other testimony was apparently provided, including some of Golden’s statements to the police outside the transcript. (Remember, “anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law…�). Judge Lawrence Dillon is sending Golden to the grand jury with an charge for murder. I’m not sure how this goes, but based on my extensive reading of popular crime novels and my years spent observation fictional TV crime shows (read: I have no idea what I’m talking about) I’m guessing the grand jury will meet (within a couple months), hear the evidence again, and decide whether or not the “people� of the good state of Georgia are going to try him for murder. Right now he’s only charged, the grand jury would indict (or not). An indictment is not a sentence.
New information paints a more disturbing picture of the Golden family life. According to Brian Golden, his and DeeDee’s marriage had already been “rockyâ€? for two yearsâ€â€with the trouble apparentlly beginning after their move to Southside. There was drinking going on (Golden claims DeeDee had already been drinking by the time he arrived home after work at five pm on that day), and they fought over some unidentified member of the youth group who Brian had taken to the mall.
The Assemblies of God’s corporate roadmap for transformation
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.