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.
Around 10-10:30 on Thursday, November 17, 2005, Southside Assemblies of God youth pastor, Eric Brian Golden, fought with his sweetheart bride, Deadra “DeeDee” Marie Golden. Their Savannah, Georgia, neighbors were not alarmed. Police were not called. Michael, their 15-year-old son, slept soundly through the battle. But before dawn DeeDee would lay at the bottom of a shallow grave outside Fort Stewart, Georgia with a broken neck. She had been strangled to death.
Eric Brian Golden was born in Alabama on a slow news day: Saturday, December 13, 1969. Fast forward 18 years, to 1987. Golden and his high-school sweetheart, DeeDee, graduate high school. They marry, and he joins the Army. She becomes the dutiful army wife, shuttling from base to base, assignment to assignment. When Golden finally left the Army he’d experienced Desert Storm and attained the rank of sergeant. Though the news reports aren’t clear whether Golden was a “buck” sergeant or had advanced to any of the higher NCO ranks (such as staff sergeant, sergeant first class, master sergeant, first sergeant, or beyond), it seems unlikely or the rank would’ve been mentioned. Regardless, Golden had sufficiently distinguished himself to the Army’s satisfaction that he was delegated authority as a sergeant Thus, he probably lead a fireteam of at least 3-4 other men. (Having no military experience, this is what I concluded after some research. Please correct me if my conclusions are faulty.)
It’s not clear why Golden left the Army. His mother says he left after Desert Storm, which implies he left sometime after early 1991 (the ground campaign—Operation Desert Sabre—didn’t begin until February 24, 1991; and troops began withdrawing on March 10, 1991—Operation Desert Farewell). The church’s website says, Golden and his wife were “saved at Southside in 1989.” In 1990 Michael was born, and then “[t]hey were called into ministry and attended Southeastern College of the A/G from 1992 to 1996.” So, assuming Golden left the Army after five years of service, sometime after March or April of 1991, he must have very quickly enrolled in college.
(Normally I wouldn’t belabor a minor detail like this, but I suspect the time-line will probably come up in the trial. If Eric indeed served in the Gulf War, he was posted to Iraq after his conversion—after Michael’s birth—and then immediately after his discharge went straight to college. I suspect there will be a claim of PTSD: post-traumatic stress disorder.
“Judge and jury, as you have heard from my expert witness, the psyche of a young, unformed man—this new father torn from his wife and baby, this new convert to faith—was incalculably shattered by the horrors of desert battle!” You can bet the defense will play that tune.)
So, both Eric and DeeDee attended Southeastern University for the next four years, while raising a toddler. A year after graduation, on January of 1997, Golden obtained his credentials; DeeDee, apparently, did not.
Over the next six years, Golden served at three churches: he served as an associate pastor at a new church plant, and as a youth pastor at two other churches. Finally, in the Spring of 2003, the Goldens returned to Southside Assembly of God where Eric joined the staff as youth pastor and director of Halogen Youth Ministries. In addition to his pastoral duties, Golden was also the church’s webmaster—explaining why the church website has gone largely unmodified since DeeDee’s murder, except for a brief statement.
Another year goes by.
In June 2004, Eric offered an undercover female detective $20 for oral sex. He was arrested for pandering. Apparently, the church never found out.
Another year goes by.
Eric strangles DeeDee in a late-night argument, leaving her with a broken neck and a lifeless body. He drives 13 miles west, carries her body half a mile into the forest, and digs a shallow grave.
After returning home, Golden must have wrestled with demons the whole weekend. One wonders, what did he tell Michael, his 15-year old son? How did he continue the deception through the whole day Friday, then Saturday? Did he go to church on Sunday? How did he act during worship? What did he say to those who asked about DeeDee? What did he say to Michael on Sunday morning?
Apparently, it was too much. He confessed to his brother-in-law, wrote a full letter of confession, and arrived at the Chatham County Sheriff’s Office just before 1 pm. While he was on the way, Golden’s brother-in-law called the police to prepare them for Golden’s arrival. Once there, officers took him into custody, and he described where to look for DeeDee’s body. After searching several locations, she was finally found at 9:30 that night, buried in a field scattered with boars’ carcasses and bones.
For now, Eric is being held without bond until his court date on December 8. Michael is staying with his aunt. Neighbors, as usual, are stunned, never suspecting anything was wrong in the Golden house: “He seemed like a good man.”
And on Saturday, November 26, DeeDee Golden returned to the earth for a second time, but now with less haste, more love, and greater honor, being laid to rest in Kingston, Georgia, where her parents live.
My Questions
I began researching this post when the news broke on Thanksgiving week. My first reaction was shock, then sorrow for their son, Michael, and sorrow for the Southside Assembly. I prayed. But I can’t get Michael’s pictures out of my head: he’s in several photos at the youth group’s photo archive on Yahoo, and he’s always smiling, seeming to enjoy himself, having a good time. How will this effect him? What terrible scars will he bear for the rest of his life? What unimaginable grief is he enduring right now? His mother’s life destroyed, his father’s life forfeit. What unnecessary shame is he suffering? How are his friends and fellow youth group members treating him? With compassion and steadfast friendship, I hope.
Then I thought of DeeDee’s parents, and their grief. She was still such a young woman, so full of promise, so apparently vivacious. Judging by the many photos with her and the youth group, there was always another young girl close by, arms entwined, big smiles illuminating faces, she seemed loved. Not only are her parents and family missing her, I’m sure the youth group is grieving too. Not to mention reeling from the anger, betrayal, and shock that their mentor and pastor is now a confessed murderer.
Then I considered the church family, their shock and grief, their shame in being paraded before the mainstream news media for being host to a man who would kill with bare-handed fury. They’ll wonder what they missed, they’ll second-guess their wisdom and hiring decisions, they’ll wonder how to counsel the bereaved when the grieving may well be struggling with anger and not having any trust for authoritarian ministry right now. I thought about the pastor, himself, Rev. Jack. C. Moon, who must have personally hired Golden, entrusting him with the care and feeding of his thriving youth group. What grief is he experiencing? Not only has he lost a beloved member of his church family, a protege under his wings is incarcerated and admittedly guilty. He’ll be second-guessing most of all: “Where did I go wrong? What didn’t I see? What warning signs did I miss or ignore? How could I have prevented this tragedy?”
And all of them will ask God, “Why?” Why does evil exist? Why take the innocent and leave the wrongdoer? Why let a man with fatal flaws serve in ministry without nudging somebody to look more closely? To ask the right questions?
Prayers must be sent up.
I discovered a devotional on the SSAG website, titled, How Do You Eat Fruit?, written by Eric Brian Golden.
It’s notable neither for its content nor creativity. But Golden’s language and choice of teaching metaphor have a chilling undercurrent of violence. This metaphor easily consumes a third of the devotional, and it seems written with greater focus than the entire rest of the piece. I’ll post the whole thing here for you to decide. But when I read it, I felt chills every time I read the word “slice” and “overkill.” (Emphasis mine.)
I like to eat fruit. Peaches, apples, plums and pears all have some similarities. When I eat one of them, I take a similar approach. I like to eat fruit with a knife. A good, sharp knife that can glide through the fleshy fruit. I start by slicing off a piece and taking a bite. Then, slice by slice I eat what can be cut off the pit or core. Occasionally I will slice off a piece and notice that it is bruised or maybe even rotten. I don’t eat that piece. I throw the bad slice away and keep eating the good portions of the fruit. Eventually, I have to get my teeth in there and eat what can’t be sliced off. I am left with a pit or core full of seeds. This pit, or core, like the bad sections I sliced off, is not edible and gets thrown away.
I would never throw away a piece of fruit because it had a single bruise or because it contained a pit. That would be a waste and a bit of an overkill. Every piece of fruit has a pit or core and all of us realize that fact when we pick it up. Nonetheless we do pick up the fruit and we do enjoy the sweet portion in spite of the pit or core.
I think we can use this same approach towards many things to include the recent blockbuster “The Passion of the Christ,” by Mel Gibson. Having seen the movie, I can say without reservation that there is a lot of good material, lessons, and visual pictures that will benefit the Christian Church in the times w e are in. Having said that, I think I must also admit that there were some aspects of the film that weren’t very Biblically accurate. So as with any piece of fruit, there is good and bad. The good in this case far outweighs the bad, but not everything can be embraced as 100% Scripture.
Mel has said that this movie consisted of his interpretation of the Biblical record, historical research, and church tradition. He confessed that he took poetic license with much of the content while still trying to remain true to the story. So, we can not divorce Mel Gibson from his creation and call it 100% “Thus saith the Lord of Hosts.” This is true of any Bible translation or sermon. We are all imperfect vessels in the Master’s hand, and we all do the best we can.
What then are we left to do? Take the good, focus on it, learn what we can, digest it so to speak. Throw the bad out and don’t dwell on it. It is what it is. It has good and bad. Let God use the good to work in your life and those you come in contact with.
When I went home after watching the movie I picked up my Bible and read all four accounts of the passion week. I compared each account with the movie and with the other three Gospels. I am a student of the Word and the movie sparked my curiosity. Think of what it will do to a non-Christian! This is going to make the un-saved thirsty for the milk and hungry for the meat of God’s Word. Are you ready to help quench that thirst and satisfy that hunger? Do you know the story well enough to explain it to a non-believer? It’s time to sharpen your Sword, the Sword of God’s Word, and get ready to share the fruit of that Word with those who are hungry for it.
—Pastor Brian
And, of course, I wonder about Eric Brian Golden. Where was his fatal flaw? Did he know it was within him? Did he struggle to contain his anger? Was he a crucible of molten violence waiting to be poured out? Did he express it in other, more private ways? Did DeeDee bear marks of abuse? Does Michael? Is Golden psychologically or neurologically compromised? I wonder, did the Desert War have a deleterious effect on him? Was he damaged beyond repair? Or was he already hungry for violence, and is that why he was drawn to the military?
And I wondered some more. There were flaws, cracks were already beginning to appear. Four different ministry positions in six years. For most adults in their 30s, this is not a good sign. But, then, Golden was a youth pastor: a position notoriously underpaid, stressful, and eager for new fish. Many youth pastors don’t last two years in any one position. So maybe there’s nothing there. But what about his military superiors? They made him an officer. How well did he lead? Did the soldiers in his unit suspect anything? What were his fitness reports like?
I also wonder, why was Golden paying for sex? Stupid question, I suppose. He paid for it because he wanted it and didn’t have the integrity to seek help. But, more to the point: was Golden already a “regular?” I suspect his arrest could not have been his first foray into illegal extramarital sex. And I suspect it was not his last. If it had been, he would have confessed to his wife and to his church, and he would’ve at the very least been placed on leave with his district for rehabilitation, required to undergo therapy/counseling, and strict accountability. This didn’t happen, so I next wonder whether his wife found out, finally, what was going on. Was this what they were fighting over? I suspect, by the time a minister with a lot to lose starts paying for oral sex on the street, he’s already well down the path of pornography addiction, stripper bars, and Internet porn and cybersex dalliances. Sin will out. It leaves its muddy footprints behind. And when it doesn’t get out, it escalates until it does.
Media Questions
For the past week or two there have been no new news stories on this event. DeeDee’s death is already fading from public thought, and the rapidly researched stories uncovered little that wasn’t readily accessible with a couple phone calls. Here’s what I wish the real journalists had done:
Call Golden’s former church postings, find out why he left. Sure, they won’t reveal much for fear of media exposure and they’ll probably be pulled into the courtroom drama anyhow, but ask. If you don’t know where he worked, pull his credit history, figure it out. Call the district office, ask them for comment. Somebody who knew him will be willing to talk, if only to talk describe how great a person DeeDee was. Find that person
Same goes for Golden’s college days. Find out how he performed as a student, how DeeDee fared as his husband, how cute Michael was as a toddler. Sure, again, the school won’t want to talk, but it shouldn’t be too hard to take a trip over to Classmates.com, which lists 272 of Golden’s classmates during his four years in college, and three professors. Set up a Classmates account, spend an hour sending a query to the most likely candidates (those graduating with Golden), and wait for a reply.
Contact the Lakeland, Florida, police department and find out if they were called to any domestic disturbance reports at the Golden’s residence. Find out if Golden was arrested in Florida for pandering there. Find out if he was a model citizen without a single speeding ticket.
Contact his and DeeDee’s Alabama high school. Talk to a teacher, talk to a classmate, talk to a neighbor.
Contact the Army. File a Freedom of Information Act form with the FBI. Find out if Golden was discharged honorably? Did he comport himself well as a soldier and representative of America? Was he consorting with unsavory women even then, outside of his wife’s watchful eye?
And that’s just off the top of my head.
The Big Picture
Now, I’m not asking these questions out of some simple thirst for gossipy tidbits about a fallen brother and murdered sister. The bigger questions I really want answers to is how could a young man like this slip through a Bible College’s close-knit community without raising flags? How could he pass muster in the military without raising eyebrows? How could he slip into ministerial ranks, gain credentials, and be ordained with the laying on of hands without anybody delving into what really makes him tick? Golden was not some post middle-aged, lapsed, cynical minister feeding insecurities with sex. He was a young man already deep into a sexual addiction cycle with rage issues.
The Big Problem
There’s a problem with our churches sending folks into ministry too lightly, perhaps. A Bible College degree does not earn you a place in a pulpit, though many think it should. But I do not know of a single peer of mine from my bible college days who was denied credentials when they applied. Sure, there may have been some, but for the most part, my experience has been that if you show up with an A/G bible college degree in hand, if you know the right answers, and if you have a pastor backing you, you’re in.
The problem was articulated succinctly by poster, “Alpha Female,” on the Savannah Now message board forum linked to this news item. She said: “The worst people worm into leadership positions with frightening frequently.”
The Solution?
But there’s one area in A/G ministry where that is simply not the case. The applicants are carefully screened over a period of several months. Applicants must provide multiple references, both friends, family, and professional. Each reference is contacted and asked several probing questions, and confidentiality is assured. Each applicant is interviewed several times, at home and in the office. And if the applicant has a spouse and children, they are interviewed both together and individually by professionals trained to spelunk the caves of applicant’s souls. Each phone call and interview is transcribed (I used to transcribe them), folders are filed, references are followed up again with phone calls for clarification. Criminal backgrounds are checked. Yet more difficult questions are asked. Questions like: “How is your sex life with your spouse?” And “How frequently do you have sex?” And “Have you ever had sex with anyone other than your spouse?” Applicants and their family members fill out a battery of psychological tests. The tests are professionally administered, graded, and evaluated. The tests lead to more questions, and more clarifications. And all of it leads up to a recommendation to the committee that makes a final decision. And even then, the questions don’t end. The committee members get their shot too: “How do you know you are called to ministry?” And, “Describe your calling, and tell us when you first sensed you had a call.” And, “How have your gifts for ministry been confirmed?” And, “If we turned you down, what would you do?”
In this one area, the Assemblies of God goes to Herculean ends to accept only the healthiest, most stable, most obviously called and gifted applicants with clear integrity, and gifted for ministry. They must have a history, they must be transparent, and they must be unflinching in their willingness to submit to examination for suitability to the task.
I am talking about the Assemblies of God World Missions sending agency (formerly, the Assemblies of God Department of Foreign Missions).
The Conclusion
I am not proposing that this extensive a battery of tests and examinations be undertaken for every ministerial applicant for ministry–the cost and delay would probably be too prohibitive. And the process itself is no guarantee. Many missionaries have cracked under the pressure in the field. Families have been ruined, missionaries have fallen, and crimes have been committed. I used to marvel at the process (I used to work in the DFM Word Processing department where I transcribed many of these confidential interviews and recommendations) because it seemed to me that while it may weed out the chaff, it probably discarded good candidates while allowing true psychopaths to run the gauntlet unscathed. But … but … I’ve also noticed that the Assemblies of God missionary teams are the most effective in the world. They are passionate, driven, and people of character. On the field, our missionaries are the envy of other sending agencies. I have to think that the grueling selection process (and subsequent, additional training and mentoring) is at least a part of that success.
Maybe Golden just “snapped,” to his and everybody else’s deep and shocked regret. Maybe what I suspect are warning signs are not the tip of the iceberg, but are, instead, the precipitating events that started this whole tragedy in motion. Maybe it’s impossible to know these things, and maybe it’s impossible to fix anything.
Maybe nothing’s broken at all. But I suspect otherwise. I love the Assemblies of God, I have no intention of changing. But stories like this leave me wondering if maybe we’re not minding the store like we ought to be. The self-employed pastor, autonomous church, congregational model of church ministry has much to recommend it.
But there is this, too: Easy credentials shatter lives.
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 for.
If I truly love God to any degree, I will be devoted to his Word and obedience to his commands. To the degree that I love God, I will desire to know him, to seek his mind on all matters, to obey the clear reading of Scripture. When I do that, I find myself returning to the Word over, and over; I’ll read devotionally, meditate on what he has to say, memorize it, study it. (Confession: writing this is convicting me.)
The most immediate means of knowing and loving God we have is bound between leather, and it’s usually gathering dust on the table by the door—where it’s easy to grab on our way to church. Too many of us, in the pew and in the pulpit, don’t bother to read it, much less study it the way it must be studied to truly apprehend it and live by it.
What happens when we fail to ground our practice (orthopraxy) on a clear understanding of scripture (orthodoxy)? We get this:
A pastor reveals a “new revelation,” that the Bible says church leaders can have more than one wife.
“At one charismatic megachurch, staff pastors successfully convinced all their wives and female staff members to get breast implants.”
A church in California (known for its revival meetings and prophetic ministry) recently imploded after members learned that several men in the church had been having homosexual affairs with the pastor, who was married.”
“A leader with an international following (who wears the label of “apostle”) recently informed his leaders that men of God who reach his level of anointing are allowed to have more than one sexual partner. Then his own son offered his wife to his father out of a sense of spiritual obligation.”
“In 2000 Charisma reported that charismatic preacher Clarence McClendon had divorced his wife of 16 years, Tammera McClendon, and married another woman after only seven days. The ceremony was performed by Bishop Earl Paulk, founder of the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit in Atlanta. Several prominent ministers attended the wedding, lending their endorsement to McClendon’s actions. Tammera McClendon later informed Charisma that Clarence had told her while they were married that God had already shown him the woman who would replace her as his wife.”
(From the Strang message board…) “[A]t Water of Life in Plano, TX. Doyle Davidson, says God ‘took Patty’ (his first wife) ‘out of my life in 1987’ even though they lived together until her death two or three years ago. In 1987, Davidson says ‘God gave him a new wife’ who was the wife of one of his staff members. Davidson fired the staff member a year or so ago when he went to their house and caused a major disturbance. Davidson was arrested and fined for public intoxication. Of course he says it was all a lie. [This] lady … has gone under cover with her husband and has said she committed adultery with Davidson and he tells her and his parishioners that ‘they did not committ adultery because “what God has joined together, man can not do away with.”’”
Is any of this truly new? No, junk like this has gone on throughout all of recorded religious history: any time the People of the Book abandon the Word to chase after subjectively inspired interpretations or extra-biblical revelations, things go massively off-track. (Just read about Aimee Semple McPherson.) I don’t lay the blame at the foot of either Charismatics or Pentecostals. I lay the blame at the foot of people who refuse to train their minds according to Scripture. I lay the blame at the foot of people who are not loving God with their mind, and letting their thinking be truly transformed.
Elsewhere on the pneumatic blogosphere, right now, there is a debate going on between cessationists and Charismatics/Pentecostals about whether or not the Baptism of the Spirit is for today, or whether it ceased with the creation of the canon. I haven’t gotten involved, because it’s not a pressing issue for me: I think the scriptures are clear, and I don’t have anything pressing to add. But what I’ve noticed about the discussion is that cessationists routinely cite examples like the above to illustrate why Pentecostal/Charismatic doctrine is essentially unbiblical.
So, we try to re-frame the debate based on what the Scriptures say, and these examples keep coming back to haunt our discussions. We try to move the dialog away from ad hominem attacks, and these all-too animated straw men who don’t represent me, my friends, or the best Pentecostal teachers keep getting thrown into the fray. It’s disgusting and disheartening. Meanwhile, too much of the discussion lacks the hallmark of love.
And the Assemblies of God is not immune. There’s plenty of charis-manic heresy and bad doctrine floating around within our ranks. Much of it is in the pews, but there’s still some coming out of pulpits.
May God save us from ourselves.
In the blogosphere:
Brad Boydston agrees: “Any movement which sees emotional intense experience as defining and normative is by nature subject to emotional manipulation.”
Stacy L. Harp (I think) at WritingRight calls for more judgment, and chimes in with her own judgment: “most Christians I get flak from are ignorant of Scripture, and are usually Pentecostal types…nothing personal against Pentecostals, but that has been my experience”
Fr. Daniel, at Misere Mei gives three cheers for Grady, and cautions pastors: “No amount of counseling and restoration processes can restore the trust of those who have been violated by reprobates in the pulpit.”
Colin McGahey at The Resurgence is still stuck on the remnants of the Word of Faith movement: “There is no correlation in the gospel preached in these prosperity churches to the gospel preached in the persecuted churches around the world.”
Bad exegesis is why Totem to Temple left the movement: “After seeing ‘most everything’ in the Pentecostal / Charismatic / Word of Faith / Third Wave camps and their value of the esoteric and experiences of personal revelation over the exegesis, evangelism, and the ecclesiastics of the Word and Spirit, I had to leave years ago.”
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 because we live in a fallen, unjust world.
But Holly has been well-discipled. I love her comments.
She returned to work recently, and calls her recovery, “truly an act of God.” She doesn’t say God miraculously healed her or protected her–he didn’t, apparently. But giving credit to both God and her caregivers, she says her medical care was top notch. God provided. She doesn’t say God spared her for some reason, she simply and quietly attributes her recovery to God’s grace and leaves it at that. She hasn’t forgotten her sons or the tragedy: she confesses to continued grief, but, “she insists she and her husband are doing well, and she said she has forgiven Barnhart, who still has not been charged in the accident.”
About the driver of the SUV, Barnhart, Holly says:
“People are so quick to justify us and condemn him. I know he didn’t set out that day to kill my children…. I pray this changes him. The way he’s lived his life up until now, from what I’ve been told, was not good.”
She’s forgiven the man who killed her two boys. That’s almost impossible for me to imagine now, with children of my own. But her forgiveness is amazingly balanced with the reality of consequences: Holly’s is not a blind, saccharine forgiveness. When asked about the pending charges against Barnhart, Holly refuses to dwell on it:
“If I do, it controls me. My boys are gone either way. … That’s not anything I’m in control of, and worrying about it doesn’t do any good. He has to answer for his actions, of course. Even though he made bad choices, he still is human. … I want him to change, and I pray this changes him. I don’t want this to happen to anyone else.”
How refreshing to see a balanced sense of forgiveness, justice, and realism in a survivor of tragedy. I’m not sure I’d be able to say what Holly has said, and if I said it, I’m not sure I’d mean it. Holly is clearly the example of a spiritually transformed person for whom all adversity produces hope, and who finds peace and joy in even the darkest adversity.
This amazes me. I grieve for Holly and her husband—and I’m a stranger hundreds of miles away. And I admire them. I pray to God I learn from her without walking in her shoes.
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 with evangelical theology?
It has exegetical weaknesses that are not recognized or owned up to by the various evangelical Protestant strains of theology. That’s what it boils down to.
You write that in our distinctives, we are least faithful to the Word. What do you mean?
The issue is not really with Christology, the Trinity, the virginal conception, the bodily resurrection of Jesus, or the Bible as the Word of God. The issues I’m concerned about are the distinctives of Calvinist, Arminian, dispensational, or Pentecostal theology. When they try to go some particular direction that’s specific to their theological system, that’s precisely the point in their argument at which they are exegetically weakest.
The Calvinist system links the ideas of predestination, irresistible grace, and perseverance of the saints. Each of those has its own exegetical weaknesses, especially perseverance of the saints.
But the same can be said about the distinctives of Arminian theology, especially when you start talking about having an experience of perfection in this lifetime. There are problems matching that up with what the New Testament says about perfection.
The same can be said about Pentecostal theology, with its teaching about a second, definitive work of grace, and about dispensationalism, with its teaching on pre-tribulation or mid-tribulation rapture. I show in my book that all of these evangelical theological systems are exegetically vulnerable precisely in their distinctives.
Classical Pentecostals need to think about this. One things we talk about the most in our circle is “the Pentecostal distinctive,” which is typically cited as the “Baptism of the Holy Spirit with speaking in tongues as the initial, physical evidence.” This is the Pentecostal distinctive above all others.
However, one of the “tags” we’ve long been known by, or called ourselves by at the least, has been “Full Gospel,” as a way of saying, we’re completely dependent on the Bible as God’s revealed will and plan.
In fact, at our movement’s inception, at Parham’s prompting of several adult students, the Baptism of the Spirit was experienced as a result of an intensive study of Scripture. Scripture came first, experience and doctrine came out of that.
Somewhere, we’ve lost our way.
As long as a single doctrine holds sway in our Fellowship as the single Pentecostal distinctive, we cannot be fully reliant on the Scriptures as our guide for faith, doctrine, and practice. We need to maintain our true distinctive, and that is: sola scriptura.
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 of God church in Florence, Alabama, got to thinking about the kids under his charge. (Yes, we’re already courting disaster!)
I can imagine the thought-bubbles went something like this:
“I have all these great, really lazy spiritual kids in my youth group, but the youth group isn’t growing they’re not spending any time witnessing or evangelizing their friends. What to do, what to do?
Wait, what’re they doing instead? They’re staying at home, fattening themselves on cola while watching Reality TV. That’s what they’re doing. Let’s see, how can I use that to wake them up promote spiritual growth? How about MTV’s “Real World” … uh … “Christ’s Real World!” No, that’s lame. Survivor? How about “Be More than a Survivor in Christ!” No … that won’t help them spread the Word. “Amazing Race?” No, same problem.
Wait a minute, isn’t that guy from “NewsRadio” hosting a reality show now? Yeah, “Fear Factor!”
That’s it! I can make that work. They’re afraid of witnessing, that’s all that’s holding them back! Fear! Let’s see, if I can make encourage them to go through a really nasty series of gross-out obstacles, they’ll have a blast and invite all their friends to get grossed out overcome their fears of rejection and the youth group will finally grow plus the pastor will get off my case! share Christ with everybody!”
(Note:I respect youth pastors and the hard work they do, and the bad rap they get from parents. I’m just being snarky at Martin’s unfortunate expense in the hopes that it will amuse my readership and increase my page views and line the pockets of my Google AdSense account with cash. I’m cheap, I know.—Rich)
And so it went. He designed a waiver for the parents to sign, allowing their kids to participate (“We have nothing to fear but ‘Fear Factor’ itself!” Intoned the nervous pastor.) Then off to get the props. One week it was chains and coffins. Last week it was little Comet goldfish.
Wait a second, coffins I understand. But goldfish? Who’s afraid of a little goldfish?
I guess you are, if you are required to eat it live.
Or maybe the goldfish was afraid—that was PETA’s point anyhow: “fish are intelligent, sensitive animals who have developed cognitive abilities and who experience pain and fear, just as all animals do.” Apparently, to PETA and Martin’s pastor, they’re a step above youth pastors, since this one got crucified on the altar of political correctness.
I like the Fear Factor idea: at least it’s fun even if it does absolutely nothing to help teenagers experience spiritual transformation and learn the fundamentals of their faith or the reasons why they believe. Youth pastors have to be creative to keep their captive audience … well … captivated. Poor Anthony Martin was just trying to do his job, saved a few unwitting goldfish from life imprisonment in a cruel crystalline prison, and wham! PETA falls on him like a ton of crushed aquaria. (BTW: Rome is now banning goldfish bowls. See? PETA should target entrepenurial pet store owners, not revolutionary youth pastors)
Unfortunately, Martin’s pastor, Greg Woodall, caved and issued an apology for the church: “I do appreciate your concern and just wanted to let you know that this will never happen again. … My views are a reflection of yours. We love God’s creatures and would never want to show them harm.” Well, there goes next summer’s fish fry. Better pencil in a vegan potluck instead.
We need a few more pastors who are like PETA’s goldfish: “intelligent, sensitive animals who have developed cognitive abilities.” Perhaps an injection of courage would help, too.
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 outside of it that concerns me deeply.
Over at his “Learning to Breathe” blog, Gregory TeSelle describes his experience speaking to a collected group of Assemblies of God ministers at nearby (to me) Lemont, Illinois, “to share with their pastors and staffs about the Emerging Culture.” Actually, he narrows the topic down a bit more: “to compare and contrast the biblical ideas of the emerging culture with the current ideas of the church today.”
Now, in this post, Greg goes on about how it’s necessary to deconstruct ideas before one can construct new ideas. And that’s fine, and probably true to some degree and in some contexts. But notice the way Greg framed his topic:
compare and contrast the
biblical ideas of the emerging culture
with the
current ideas of the church today
See the assumptions there?
I don’t know Greg, and it sounds like he gave a fine talk that I would’ve thoroughly enjoyed listening to. Plus, it sounds like he had a great time fellowshipping with my peers. But this kind of language and thinking is typical of most of the discussions I’ve seen about old church vs. emergent church. The emergent crowd is certain their practices are more biblical and the old church’s styles represent a dead or dying culture. The old-school crowd is threatened by the unstructured and seemingly chaotic approach of the emergent crowd, and they’re not certain that the emergent mystique is any more biblical or effective than the old-school ways.
Again, doesn’t every new church movement claim to be a more honest and true return to the ideals of the early church? Wasn’t that true even of my own A/G Fellowship back in the early 1900s? Wasn’t that true of Methodism? The Baptists? Puritans? Even Anglicans? Postmodernism and the emergent churches are no different—neither is the A/G. In the end both will be swept away by the winds of change and what will be left will still be the Church.
For once, though, I’d like to see what Greg promised he would do: provide an actual comparison and contrast between the essential practices and ideals of the emergent and status-quo churches. Only, I’d like to hear proponents of each side present their case fairly, state what cultural, philosophical, and biblical grounds they have to claim what is considered essential, and I’d like to see some consensus around the board on what is essential (what is at the core of the church doctrine and practice) vs. what is non-essential and not disputed.
While Greg does not provide me a satisfactory comparison or contrast, he does list a fascinating and compelling set of questions that could be used as a starting point to find some of those essentials. I will quote the list here, as they appeared in his blog today:
I challenged their thinking on why and how they go about these church tasks. Here is a brief synopsis of the tasks and my challenges that we discussed. ——————– WORSHIP — why is it always music? why the same songs? why only pretty people on stage? why all the lights? why do people have to audition to worship God? why is there no creativity in your times of worship? do not tell me what to do (raise hands, turn to the person on my left, etc.) why is everyone wearing the same color clothes?
TEACHING — why is it always the same teacher, with the same linear style, for the same length of time, at the same time in the service? can’t we have multiple teachers with multiple styles? and please don’t think the teaching is the most important part of the service. don’t get me “ready” for the message. scripture always noted the message from the Lord came first, then came the response of worship. oh yeah, and please do not give me all the answers. I’d like to do some self discovery and also some discovery with my small community. just put me on a path toward truth.
FELLOWSHIP — do not have sign-ups or organized times to hangout. do not have assigned topics for these times. fellowship will happen naturally — why? because I value it immensely.
EVANGELISM — please do not have organized outreach events. also stop with all your programs to attract the world to come to the church. the church is supposed to go into the world. stop “commissiong” missionaries and parading them across the stage as “special”. we are all special, and are all missionaries. my entire life is evangelism, it’s not an event.
LEARNING — please do not make a “system” for all of us to go through to become “spiritually mature”. don’t make me “run the bases”, or put me in a 101, 201, 301, 401 process. allow me the freedom to learn what I need to learn according to my life’s situations.
CHURCH FACILITIES — why do you spend so much money on your building? I don’t care about the place we meet. It is so unimportant. I’d rather you spend the money on impacting the community, not new carpet, or a building campaign. please do not spend $5 million dollars on dirt (land) that you won’t use for at least 5 years. do you know where I’ll be in 5 years?
CHURCH CULTURE — please get out of the “ghetto” you have created of christian everything. (schools, music, clothes, video games, fortune cookies, etc. — it is ridiculous — you are addicted to the culture you created) please join society. I am the church all week in my neighborhoods, work, school, etc, then I get together with my community once a week for encouragment.
SERVICES — stop trying to provide something for everyone. it is ridiculous. all you do is provide goods and services to a bunch of people. church shouldn’t be safe, or comfortable. don’t advertise you have coffee and krispy kreme donuts. don’t you see how desperate that looks. take a stand, be bold, and stop people pleasing. it’s sad and sickening.
OTHER STUFF — I’d like depth, community, and creativity in the church. I can’t get that in your “mega church” desires. give me small communities to do life with people. oh yeah, and don’t charge me for truth, hope, and love. (would you charge your mother for your latest sermon series?) let’s share information because we are the same family. stop trying to profit in the name of Jesus.
Some of these are brilliant and useful questions. I really like them.
But if you answered them the way you think an emergent church would, does that make you emergent? Are these questions truly pointing to the essence, the heart, of what it means to be “emergent?”
It’s well worth thinking about. I hope Greg’s questions got some pastors thinking seriously about whether their practices are doctrinally founded, whether they’re temporary modes that need to be changed, and whether their church’s cultural relevance is in jeopardy. I only wish a similar list of questions could’ve been put to Greg for him to ferry to the dis-assembled and deconstructed church he was describing and defending.
So, I thought I’d do that myself.
Here’s a mirror image of Greg’s questions. Note, this is an exercise in reflecting back the assumptions behind Greg’s questions from another perspective. I happen to think many if not most of Greg’s questions deserve to be asked, and should be asked often.
But they shouldn’t be asked uncritically.
Without further ado:
WORSHIP — Is there a compelling biblical or philosophical reason to not use music in worship? Do you think new songs aid worship better than familiar songs? Are you intolerant of pretty people, or are you implying that we must search out the un-pretty and compel them to lead worship? What does lighting have to do with worship, devotion, sacrifice, and service? Does candlelight improve your ability to read the Bible? Do you think the worship team itself is un-spiritual, or do you only object to qualifications for service? Do you think it is unbiblical to seek qualified servants for church positions? Is there an approved list of creative activities suitable for worship, or can I do whatever sparks my creative flare? Can I bring a small block motor to church and worship God creatively with my hands and tools while working on some minor repairs? If not, who gets to narrow the acceptable list of creativity activities down, and who decides when it’s too narrow and therefore too much like old-school church? Does the scripture anywhere instruct you on how to worship or conduct yourself in church (raise hands, greet with kisses/handshakes, etc.)? Does a variety in clothing somehow denote greater spirituality, or is it more conducive to worship?
TEACHING — In what sense are multiple teachers with multiple styles an improvement in communication and teaching? Or is this just another alternative to allay boredom? Can you find evidence the Bible prescribes one over the other? Does a non-linear style consistently communicate more effectively for a greater number of people? Does a random length of time for the service improve your church’s response to worship, teaching, fellowship, or ministry? Who are you or anyone else to say what is “most important” about any given service, anywhere? Isn’t God sovereign, is not the most important thing what he desires from you? Cannot he chose what is most important and useful at any given time? Isn’t it irrelevant whether worship prepares you for teaching or whether teaching prepares you for worship, when study and worship should be present in the Believer’s life at all times anyhow? Does the emergent church philosophy of liturgy somehow produce this result better than old-style worship? Scripture usually doesn’t concern itself with specific liturgical forms and the order of service. If preachers are supposed to only put you on the “path to self-discovery,” does this self-discovery automatically happen? Does a complete sermonic discourse somehow prevent self-discovery?
FELLOWSHIP — Do sign-ups and organized times prevent true fellowship? Does having it any random time improve it? Are people better able to respond when they don’t know when or how long to meet? Do you actively practice moving your small group meetings to different, random nights for random lengths? How do you all show up at the same place at the same time for any kind of small group meeting? Does having an assigned topic for discussion in a small group somehow destroy its authenticity? Do random topics improve the transformational power of the Bible study or the fellowship?
EVANGELISM — Do outreach events damage the presentation of the gospel in some way? Do outreach events diminish the church or always create false conversions? Are all attenders at an emergent church genuine converts? What is the fundamental objection to outreach? What is the essential difference between attracting the world to come to the church vs. the church going into the world? Is it a matter of context? Geography? Location? If the world does come into the church in response to a program, how is this bad? In the “my entire life is evangelism” philosophy, does that naturally involve significant donations so that missionaries can actually fulfill their calling? Is there some process where emergent church practitioners naturally and automatically pledge support for missionary endeavors? Or is missions work another expensive, organized event you despise?
LEARNING — Do you object to systems themselves, or the idea that any system can ever help produce maturity? When you read your scripture devotionally, do you randomly jump to any passage every time you open the text, or do you perhaps have a system in place? Are all systems bad? Are systems, classes and programs necessarily and automatically at odds with each other?.
CHURCH FACILITIES — Has God ever demanded ornate, expensive architecture for his house of worship? Why did God spend so much money on the temple? Why did the early church not object to continuing to meet in the temple or in synagogues where available? Why do you think God is poor? Why do you care about the place you meet? Why do you care about the building you’re not even meeting in that the church is building with money that is not even yours? Or do you suspect that all such buildings are necessarily un-spiritual, sinful, and that God never wanted temples for his people to worship in?
CHURCH CULTURE — Please get out of the “ghetto” you have created of “emergent” or “postmodern” isolation. (It is ridiculous — you are hateful toward the culture which created you.) Please rejoin the church and reform it from within.
SERVICES — Notice how homogeneous your small groups have become. You’re “different like all your other friends.” On the outside there is plenty of variety, but on the inside, there’s cultural homogeneity. When are you going to wake up and realize that different people from different ages, cultures, and backgrounds have different needs? Stop fooling yourself into thinking that asceticism is more spiritual than modernism. If you don’t like the Krispy Kreme donuts, just say no.
OTHER STUFF — I’d like depth, community, and creativity in the church. It doesn’t sound like I can get that in your ad hoc, leaderless, system-less, random, small-group house churches. Give me a community where I can not only find people like me, but lots of others completely unlike me who can disagree with me, rub shoulders with me, and do life together with me. Oh yeah, and I won’t be buying your sermon series, because I know you don’t like series, won’t be spending the money on a recording system to capture it, and won’t be interested in presenting enough teaching for me to really think about because your sermon will only put me on the “path the truth” anyhow. I’d sooner listen to a sermon of substance, and pay for it, because the laborer is worthy of his hire.
Enjoy.
Here are some other bloggers who thought Greg’s list was compelling enough to link to. Jeff at rustyhinges is convinced we can’t change because we won’t change. Maybe he’s right. Grace, over at Emerging Grace, takes Greg’s questions for a nice long ride, so far turning it into a thoughtful, four–partseries. Richard Passmore at Sunday Papers is asking for a “an authentic theologically grounded redefinition of church.” I’d add “biblically grounded” to that, too. Etanisla at Careless Thought admits that this is why she’s left church for good. Commenter ScottB, an ex-A/G youth pastor over at the less travelled blog, cynically exclaimed in surprise that the conversation even happened at all. Shane, at The High Places takes the time to actually answer and respond to Greg’s questions (good post, if I’d seen it first, I probably wouldn’t have written this). Dave King over at IdeaJoy, inspired by the list, is asking some good questions of his own, like wondering whether the PoMo movement and the old-school churches are both mere distractions and that the real question ought to be: “Why aren’t we loving people?”
Indeed, why? And is the emergent church truly better at this than any existing church structure?
Can the emergent church learn to love the old church?
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. You will find information on joining one of these teams at healthcareministries.org
Group Volunteers: There will soon be a need for church groups to participate in reconstruction projects. Right now there is no infrastructure to support this. However, we will keep you updated on this need at the appropriate time.
Convoy of Hope: Convoy of Hope continues to increase the number of distribution points in the disaster area. As of yesterday, Convoy of Hope has distributed 126 truckloads of ice, water, food and other relief supplies with another 30 truckloads scheduled to arrive in the next couple of days.
Prayer: Pray for the people in these areas. Pray for volunteers, pastors, and churches that are on the ground ministering God’s love to those who have lost everything.
Compiled by the
Office of Public Relations
General Council of the Assemblies of God
Hi. I’ve performed some major updates to the Pneumablogs page. I probably have too many personal journal-style blogs represented here, so over time some of the links may be dropping off. See, especially, my comments at the end of the page regarding “cat” blogs and “boss” blogs.
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.
You scored as Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan. You are an evangelical in the Wesleyan tradition. You believe that God”s grace enables you to choose to believe in him, even though you yourself are totally depraved. The gift of the Holy Spirit gives you assurance of your salvation, and he also enables you to live the life of obedience to which God has called us. You are influenced heavily by John Wesley and the Methodists.
Okay, that being done, I hopped over to take the related, “Which theologian are you?” quiz. Here are the results:
You scored as Anselm. Anselm is the outstanding theologian of the medieval period. He sees man”s primary problem as having failed to render unto God what we owe him, so God becomes man in Christ and gives God what he is due. You should read “Cur Deus Homo?”
I’ll leave it to you to decide what all this means. I’m surprised the SDA church showed up in the #1 slot, it didn’t when I took the test on a different day … so perhaps my results would vary depending on how I feel on any given day? Is my faith and doctrine that fickle?
My complaint about this, of course, is that no brief online quiz can adequately “slot” me—or anybody else—into accurate pigeonholes because the test developer will inevitably have blind-spots they cannot control for. For example, where is the Foursquare church or the Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee) on the denominational list? Where are William J. Seymour or Stanley Horton or Dallas Willard on the theologians list? Where is the “neo-Evangelical” or the “pragmatic-Evangelical” theology represented on the theological list? And why is “Holiness” so far separated from “Pentecostal?” The Pentecostal tradition is strongly influenced by Methodism and Holiness traditions. In fact, why is Pentecostal lumped all together with Charismatic theology? I suspect it’s because the test creator assumed that if I accepted the subsequent-to-salvation experience of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and phonemena like tongues and miracles, I’m no different than any Charismatic? But, truthfully, there are Charismatic strains running through all the orthodox traditions, and there are many Emergent groups with a strong Charismatic bent. And, similarly, there are Emergent theologies coming out of all the major traditions, as well.
And how in the world am I equally Calvinistic and Arminian? Wonder of wonders.
So, no surprise that I have bones to pick with the quizzes. But they’re fun to take and, who knows, maybe I’ll visit a Seventh-Day-Adventist church one day and really, really, like it.
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 sites set up at the following locations:
Biloxi, MS-917 Division Picayune, MS-795 Memorial Blvd. Slidell, LA-Harvest Church, 3184 Pontchartrain Dr.
Additional distribution points are being planned.
Suspension of Mail Deliveries to storm-stricken areas
The U.S.Postal Service is not accepting any Standard Mail or Periodicals Mail — from any source — addressed for delivery within the following three-digit ZIP Code ranges:
369 393
394 395
396 700
701 704
This emergency action has been taken as a result of severe facility damage, evacuations and other issues resulting from Hurricane Katrina.
HOW TO HELP
Cash: Cash donations help the most people the fastest. You may give online at
Disaster Relief: Our first effort is to minister and help those people impacted by Katrina. After that, we will work with the Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi Districts to rebuild churches and restore our houses of worship. You may contribute to this rebuilding of churches at
http://ag.org/. Again, 100% of all gifts will go directly to the Disaster Relief fund.
Tangible items: The mission right now is to respond with immediate life necessities of water, ice, food, diapers, and baby formula. COH is receiving these items through corporate donors and at this time cannot handle individual donations of items. However, large pallets that have been shrink wrapped with any of the above items will be received by COH which is located at:
Convoy of Hope 330 S. Patterson Ave. Springfield, MO 65802
Housing Requests: Those wanting to open their homes to displaced persons may get information from the following websites:
The Louisiana District office today sent out a message that they are no longer taking calls for available housing. They have many sources of available housing listed but the demand is not that great.
Individual Volunteers: The community infrastructures in the devastated areas cannot coordinate and support individual volunteers at this time.
Group Volunteers: While there will be a need for many church groups to participate in reconstruction in the future, again the community infrastructures right now cannot handle this. We will keep you updated on this need at the appropriate time.
Medical Teams: HealthCare Ministries at headquarters will be coordinating medical teams to go to these areas. You may get information on the web at http://www.healthcareministries.org/ on how to join a team or assist in this need.
Prayer: Pray for the people in these areas who have lost everything. Pray for pastors and churches in the areas as they minister Christ’s love to the hurting.
Compiled by the
Office of Public Relations General Council of the Assemblies of God
Watch for regular updates on the Hurricane Relief ministries.
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.
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 hands are being turned away. Later, after people are let back in to assess damage, that’s when the sweat and toil of rebuilding will begin. At that point, you should contact the Louisiana District office (see below) to offer assistance and get coordinated.
To contribute financially, here is where you should go:
Assemblies of God Benevolences/Disaster Relief 1445 N. Boonville Ave. Springfield, MO 65802-1894
Nobody’s really sure what churches in Louisiana were hit and which still stand at this point. But I’d expect to see a list of impacted churches and ministries in the days to come so that churches in the greater US can “adopt a church” to help out with financial and hands-on assistance. If the A/G or Louisiana district websites don’t do this, perhaps somebody else will make that kind of matching program work. If I can get my hands on such a list, I’ll post it here.
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. Maybe it’s true, maybe it’s not. I’m thinking that the music world owes Christianity a huge debt for keeping music alive through the medieval era with strong monastic musical and chanting traditions. I’m thinking rap, blues, and R&B owe a lot to the spiritual songs birthed and nurtured by the slaves who clung to their hope in Christ through song. I’m thinking that the printing world owes a debt of gratitude to Gutenberg and others who transformed the creation of literature for the sake of more effectively printing Bibles.
But, I could be wrong.
I saw a piece, today, from ContraCostaTimes.com, titled, “Blogosphere evolving with vlogs.” It describes the latest phenomenon on the web: video blogging, or vlogging. First was the Internet, then there was the Web with attractive easily navigated pages, then came weblogs—nothing more than a website with an easy-to-update CMS component—then came podcasting, and now video blogging.
And it seems there are some churches out there using it already.
The article quotes a friend of mine, A/G minister, Frank N. Johnson calling the church to really take advantage of the medium, and do more than simply post service times online:
“Too many churches now use Web sites only to present service times, staff biographies and other facts,” said Frank Johnson, a licensed Assemblies of God minister and the founder and principal administrator of Strategic Digital Outreach, a new ministry in California that helps churches and other ministries do electronic outreach and evangelism.
“If the church could catch a vision for using video technology to present an authentic presentation of the life of the church — not rehearsed videos, but spontaneous records of conversations, laughing with one another, weeping with one another, people sharing their lives, etc. — the average person might take notice,” Johnson wrote in an e-mail interview.
“I would love to see churches start using their Web sites to present video profiles of people within their congregations so that the average person could get a sense of what the life of the church (not the organization, but the people — the true church) is really like.”
I like that. It dovetails with some ideas I was giving a pastor friend of mine out in Colorado a couple weeks ago. The easiest thing to do is put your church bulletin out there. But what if the pastor gave the church secretary his sermon outline and manuscript before the service so that people could come prepared? How about making the outlines and text part of a blog, so others could comment? How about automatically pushing the recorded sermon out as a podcast for folks who couldn’t make it that service, and so visitors could hear the kinds of messages they’ll get at that church? That’s the first level of stuff that can be easily done.
How about sending your volunteer tech team out with a flash recorder and a microphone and interviewing one person each week in the church and getting their testimony out there as a podcast? Interview them over lunch or at work. Make it real. How about videotaping it and putting it out there as a vlog and featuring it in the Sunday night service? Make it part of a blog site and invite a community to form around the personal testimonies of your people recounting how they came to faith in Christ and describing how the power of God has changed their lives? How about inviting the staff ministers to post midweek thought pieces that reveal their ministry focus, their purpose, what drives them, and updating folks on the news of the week? If you’re concerned about privacy and stalkers, put it behind a sign up screen with confirmed email addresses. How about inviting mature believers in the church to join the community as guest bloggers, posting their thoughts, advice, and commentary? How about specialized blogs for long-term Christian ed. courses including notes, outlines, commentary, asides, and question-and-answer interaction? How about a gallery featuring the best of your church member’s artwork, photography, short stories, and essays? How about special-interest blogs run by church members that form communities around hobbies and professions? A surfing blog, a health-and-wellness blog, a tax-season blog, a stay-at-home-moms blog, a youth sports blog, and on and on.
All this is possible. But, as the meme suggests, I don’t see many churches experimenting with this. Some have, to be sure, but they’re not publicized or talked about much. Is the experiment a failure?
As Brett Eastman says in his small groups materials, “God wants the Church to get larger and smaller at the same time.” With megachurches (churches over 1,000 attending) continue to multiply, I would think the Internet is a great way to create and foster community when it’s impossible to know everybody’s name when going to the “big church” services.
The Internet should never replace face-to-face fellowship and hospitality. But surely there’s a place for truly taking advantage of this communication medium to share the good news that the Kingdom of God is at hand.
Final thought: Referring to the title of this post entry: To those of us who are Pentecostal or Charismatic, if we are truly filled with the Spirit, then we will be missional in our thinking and lifestyle. We will be change agents in our culture and in the arenas where cultural dialog occurs, like St. Paul on Mars Hill. If there was ever an era where we should not shy away from technology but use it to full advantage, it is in this burgeoning Internet-enabled millenia. Don’t leave it to the pornographers and peddlers of commerce. It’s half an hour’s work to set up a blog on a website, and the cost can be as low as $5 a month. Get your thoughts out there. Tell your testimony. Engage culture. Speak to issues. Believers are called to love the Lord with all our heart, mind, soul, strength, and body. We too easily forget that loving God with our minds means using our intellect, sharpening it, honing it, and using it to communicate. Witness for God does not merely happen by “living my life so that others can see Christ in me.” It also means doing what the word implies: witness. Your words must get out there whether as waves breaking on men’s ears, ink poured out on paper, or bits and bytes slung through the ether. There’s a dearth of Spirit-filled bloggers out here. Come on in. The water’s fine. Just avoid the sharks.
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:
And a new quartet from Seattle called Witherspoon (no, not the actress).
This would would be at Disney’s little-known “Night Of Joy” Christian music event, held next month on September 9–10.
Congratulations to the kids of Evangel A/G. I guess you’re big time now? Pass “Go,” skip the whole Teen Talent brouhaha, and go straight for the Mouse. At least you’re going to eat better at Disney than you did to get ready for the competition. (Teams had to submit “100 original UPC/bar codes from select Kellogg’s, Cheez-It, Famous Amos, or Keebler products” with their contest entries.)
Good thing the 1996 A/G boycott of Disney is long over, eh? If only we’d known about this Disneyfied Gospel music gala (which has been running since 1983), we might not have gotten so het up over that whole “Gay Day” thing.
Let’s just hope it’s not really “magical.” Potterphobes just might rise up in arms and Pat Robertson could call down more “terrorist bombs … earthquakes, tornadoes and possibly a meteor.”
In the Paris Newsstory 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 in mind. We’re grateful it wasn’t even worse.”)
We heard a lot of this kind of talk after 9/11, and it distracted me then, too, because I suspect this language must cause pain for the survivors — and it must make it even harder for non-believers to want to serve or worship a God who seems so callous and arbitrary.
Christ told us not to fear the one who can destroy the body, but rather to fear the one who can destroy the soul (Luke 12:4-5). The real protection we need is from God and his holiness. As long as we are sinners, unable to attain holy perfection by our own strength of will, then we are targets of God’s ultimate judgment. As one of CS Lewis’ characters remarked about Aslan the Lion:
“No, he is not safe… but he is good.”
The moment we are conceived we enter into a world that is under the sway and influence of sin and is the rulership of Hell. There is never a moment when one of us is not in danger of physical death—we live precariously a moment’s breadth away from death.
That we are alive at all is a miracle, not a given.
And yet, for the true believer, death is not something to be feared. If you believe God has prepared a place for you in his Father’s house, then you know that death is only a transition into something much better, something that the joys of this life were only a mere, grimy, prelude to.
So, who is the recipient of greater grace and mercy? The widow Armstrong, left behind to muddle through this vale of tears, sorrow, and grief, alone without her husband? Or her husband, who is even now a part of the great cloud of witnesses cheering her on?
To live is Christ, to die is gain.
Someday, maybe, I’ll understand. Meanwhile, I’ll probably join Mrs. Wolfe in using language that is simply inadequate to the task.
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 with, killed the pastor, killed two women hiding behind their horse trailer at an intersection down the road, shot at a house, then went home and killed himself.
Police are looking for motives, but no amount of reflection or evidence will make sense of this.
Update: Yet another good update, this time from The Paris News (Paris is the town with the SWAT team that responded to the call for help). More details include: the man arrived at the church in his truck, drove it across the street, and then walked back with a gun. Both men were killed from only feet away. The pastor’s wife was a witness, and she survived, and two other church members managed to run into the woods without getting shot.
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 of a movement of the spirit of God,” he said. “People are becoming empowered to fulfill the purpose God has for them.”
Church-growth watchers, though, are more pessimistic (and less spiritually-minded) than Dave Argue. The article cites sociologist Dean Kelly, author of the 1972 book Why Conservative Churches are Growing:
He attributed the growth largely to the greater strictness of the conservative churches, which he defined as “complete loyalty, unwavering belief and rigid adherence to a distinctive lifestyle.”
Maybe that explains why there are not more Pentecostal bloggers, but it really doesn’t explain the explosive growth overseas — not in my mind.
[I]t is precisely this liberal attitude that has turned off so many Americans from mainline Protestant churches. Instead, these churchgoers prefer to hold fast to tradition and orthodoxy. They want their church to adhere to central dogma such as the virgin birth, the resurrection and the trinity. They also aspire to a higher level of spirituality that demands sexual restraint and a commitment to the Ten Commandments.
[snip]
Shiflett believes the rise in conservative Christianity is linked to the desire by Americans to preserve their faith and religious heritage. Unlike the liberal denominations that favor heresy, conservative churches bring the authentic message of Christ to their flock. Americans are attracted to the spiritual challenge of the Gospel and want to be held to this higher standard of faith.
If fences make good neighbors, then rules make good Christians? I’m not sure about that, but maybe there’s something about Shiflett’s perspective when he talks about authenticity. After all, if there is a God, and I believe there is, then wouldn’t he desire authentic worship? And if God’s Spirit is drawing more people to him in a latter-day spiritual awakening, wouldn’t this be happening among the churches that are not accommodating the politically correct immorality of a liberal age? What could be more inauthentic than a church which denies the relevance of the Scripture and it’s moral codes for life?
I don’t think it’s about a desire to have more religious rules in our lives that is drawing people to conservative Evangelical churches. It’s the Spirit of God drawing us back—and this kind of spiritual awakening brings with it a natural, authentic, change in people’s behaviors.
After all, if you love God you will keep his commandments. It’s not the other way around: if you love commandments you’ll find God.
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 singing, sermon and summons all fall in the same place each week, but don’t tell anyone.
Some of the services are a grab bag. Nothing is written, so you have to pay attention or you might get lost. Even here there usually develops a pattern: Fast song, fast song, slow song, prayer, fast song, offering, sermon, altar call.
Each service seems to be ordered by the traditions laid out by that particular church, the denomination, the pastor, and the age of the congregation. The younger the congregation, the more likely you are to see a guitar in the choir.
But what is most compelling to Kathryn is not the traditions, or lack thereof. It’s the heart of the church, the worship, not the components of the services themselves. She concludes her article with a useful definition of true worship:
Worship is about the lowering of oneself out of respect or awe. It is my lowering myself before God to allow Him to direct my life. Worship is about me pushing down my desires and emotions, and choosing to listen to the words of God and follow His way.
Worship is not about whether you choose to kneel when you pray, close your eyes when you pray or lift you hands when you pray.
True worship is when you see with the eyes of Jesus, you hear with the ears of Jesus, you feel with the heart of Jesus and you speak with the words of Jesus.
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 spineless. Mainliners, for their part, have viewed Pentecostals—when they viewed them at all—with disdain, judging them theologically primitive and culturally unwashed. No one took prisoners.
My aim is modest. It is not to foster ecumenical dialogue (though that would be nice), nor ecumenical worship (though that would be even nicer). I only hope to suggest that the standoff should cease—not for reasons of Christian unity, but so that each tradition can be more true to itself. Pentecostals can become better Pentecostals, and mainliners can become better mainliners, by paying attention to each other’s strengths.
It’s well worth the read.
We publish so much stuff that I rarely get a chance to read our own magazines. I read Christianity Today more before I became an employee more than I do now!
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 upon the necessity of Spirit baptism for all believers — for out of that dynamic experience issue the supernatural gifts of the Spirit and their resultant ministry gifts. This book proclaims a challenge to return to the headwaters of this great river: Christ himself, the great Spirit baptizer and the dispenser of His gifts! Paper.
Read that carefully and you’ll see that this book could have been written back in 1952 when Brother Bridges got his start in the Texas district. The principle focus, as belied by the title, is not about postmoderns, postmodernism, or even the emergent church. It’s about spiritual gifts, which are rather timeless in their exercise and function, aren’t they? Truly, what the Apostle Paul had to say about spiritual gifts 2,000 years ago in 1 Corinthians 12–14 is just as relevant today as it was at Azusa.
If the book is true to its blurb, it’s probably about as useful a read on the spiritual gifts as any book edited by any respected and well-seasoned Pentecostal minister. We shouldn’t begrudge the authors the credibility and standing they bring to this text before reading it.
However, I suspect the titling of the book has to do as much with marketing as it does with subject matter — if not more so. Publishing houses, even at the A/G, reserve the right to assign whatever title they believe will sell. And make no mistake, GPH is a business, and it’s in the business of selling books.
You think they whiff a trend (a decade too late)? Consider: you’re the head of the division of the A/G publishing arm, and Brother Bridges wants to compile a book. He’s the treasurer, the guy who literally signs your checks. Do you say “No?” Not only should you keep your boss happy, you have a guaranteed readership. People, fellow septuagenarians no doubt, will buy the book. Yes, sir. It’s on the reading list for a course at AGTS: Ministry on the Edge: The Mission to Post-Christian America.
But slapping the “postmodern” stuff in the title? I suspect that’s just marketing. Now, I haven’t read the book, and I likely won’t, but if it doesn’t have a strong postmodern application and focus I wouldn’t be surprised. But I would be ticked off.
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 becoming morally dissolute by many accounts. So, bishops from the American Anglican Council went abroad, appealing for intervention from a more courageous and bible-based sponsor. They found it in the provinces of the Episcopal Church of Rwanda and Southeast Asia. And now, this missionary outreach from Rwanda is growing almost as fast in America as it is overseas. The Church of Rwanda is a full member of the Anglican Communion, so it’s not like the churches in America seceded or anything. They just found new sponsors, and a new voice at the table.
While I attended Kevin’s ordination last night, I was struck by how unfamiliar and yet comfortable I was in the service. Coming from a Baptist and Assemblies of God background, my church liturgy style is much less formal, less symbolic, and involves a lot less reading and responding. However, the AMiA is a fully Evangelical church, and, get this, it’s Charismatic. When fellow ministers laid hands on the ordination candidates, I clearly heard a few prayers in tongues come over the loudspeaker. There were a couple Vineyard songs thrown in the mix, and the worship team felt as familiar to me as anything I’ve seen in our A/G churches. I was nervous about communion, because I wasn’t sure if it would be “closed,” like Catholic communion often is, but it was made clear that those of us who were not Anglican should feel free to join in communion if we followed Christ as Savior and Lord, and we were provided non-alcoholic grape juice if we preferred not to drink the wine.
(Can I tell you that the bread served at this communion was rather tasty? I’m used to the tasteless prepackaged crackers that remind me of soup crackers, or the paper-thin wafers that resemble cardboard as much as they do bread. But this stuff, oh, this was manna from Heaven.)
As the AMiA FAQ page says, no church is admitted into the the Mission if it’s not fully missional—meaning, it must be fully committed to evangelism and reaching the lost, not merely grabbing believers from other churches. Indeed, the stats on the site indicate that at least 60% of the congregants are new believers.
Wow.
I got another surprise when I read the brief bios on the order of service and realized that one of the candidates for the Diaconate is an ordained Assemblies of God minister from Arizona (note the verb: “is,” not “was”). I made a point to spend some time with him at the reception following.
Jack (I won’t use his last name) did not leave the A/G out of any sense of dissatisfaction. There was no moral failure, he was not in trouble with anybody, and he isn’t a lapsed Pentecostal. He grew up Lutheran and while in the Navy he came back to the faith. Afterward, he went to Northwest College of the A/G up in Washington state, attended a Wesleyan seminary, and entered ministry in the Northwest district. But God and the perpetual overcast skies eventually began working on him for a major life change. When his wife pointed out a job posting at a church in Arizona it deeply resonated with him. After a few long and comfortable phone calls he went to interview at the church and the rest, for him, is history.
The truly amazing thing, for me, was that he hasn’t lapsed his credentials. He’ll hold on to them until he is ordained into the priesthood, and he’s in good standing with his district. The district officers know what he’s doing, and he has gotten no flak over it!
I asked him what was the biggest challenge in adapting to the Episcopal way of doing church, and he told me it was the liturgy more than anything else, even though it was comfortable and felt like “coming home” due to his Lutheran childhood. I asked if his theology had been challenged, and both he and his wife said, “No!” simultaneously. His perspective on things has changed, but not his core doctrinal outlook.
I asked him, “If Tom Trask were to ask you what one piece of advice you would give to the Assemblies of God as we listen to the Spirit and try to follow God’s leading, what would you say?” He replied, “Be more open to the rich traditions of the church.” He related how the symbology and the liturgical traditions have a deep meaning that have added to and strengthened his faith, not distracted him from it. His focus is not on the ritual, but the ritual sharpens his focus and teaches at the same time. He talked about the so-called “Wesleyan Quadrilateral,” the four lines of authority for the believer: scripture, tradition, reason, and experience—with the Bible having preeminence. Noting that the Assemblies of God and Methodism share a lot of theology in common, he remarked that we accept scripture, we accept experience (a major bulwark of Pentecostal theology), we accept reason—with less suspicion now than we used to—but we are weak on tradition. Jack has come to believe that this is something we are missing in the A/G, and we would do well to learn from the deep well-spring of church history.
I tend to agree. Turn on TBN and you’ll see the evidence of a Pentecostal/Charismatic faith that is not rooted in tradition: it’s easily influenced and swayed by every “new thing” that comes along. Admittedly, TBN is not an Assemblies of God entity, but who in the A/G hasn’t noted the winds of “new doctrines” that sweep along from time to time?
In truth, we do have our own traditions. And we do have our own liturgy—though it is not recognized as such. But couldn’t our traditions be enriched by the larger church world rather than rejecting it all outright as dead faith? I don’t know. What would such a church look like?
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, The Christian Post website reported on the keynote speaker at one of the last rallies last week, Malawi A/G President Lazarus Chakwera. He reportedly “thanked the American audience for sending full-gospel missionaries to Africa.” What the report didn’t say, and which I’m sure is going to happen, is that it won’t be long before Malawi is sending missionaries here. The article went on with these sobering statistics:
Malawi is just one of dozens of African countries where missions is sprouting and spreading like wildfire. Though the Assemblies of God began in Hot Springs, Arkansas, most of its adherents reside outside of the U.S.; of the 53 million AG members, only 3 million are American.
Malawi is a case in point. There are now 639,088 Assemblies of God members and adherents in Malawi meeting in 3,114 churches and preaching points. Only six years ago, the church had 63,500 members and 1,018 churches and preaching points.
Wow. Did you get that? First, the American A/G church measures less than 6% of the total A/G adherents worldwide. Out of 20 A/G churchgoers, only one lives in America.
Second, the A/G church in Malawi has experienced a 1000% growth curve in only six years. It didn’t double in six years. It didn’t triple. It exploded to ten times its size. If your local church grew that fast it would go from 200 members to 2,000 members. Can you imagine that kind of explosive growth? No geopolitical border can contain that kind of enthusiastic evangelism. It has to spill over. And don’t think they won’t be coming to America to spread the good news.
And may it happen quickly!
Some more interesting items came out of Chakwera’s message that night. Strongly echoing Margaret Poloma’s conclusions in her book, The Assemblies of God at the Crossroads, Chakwera said, “Institutional structures are necessary, but they should never become impediments that choke the life of a movement.” Already this Malawan evangelist is giving us a prophetic word. He warns us to “guard against following the path of other denominations that have allowed bureaucratic processes to replace the Holy Spirit’s leading. Any religious movement can die if it strays from biblical moorings…. When we cease to be a Spirit-led movement, we end up being like any other organization.” Good words, and true
As a harbinger of how the global South will further change the complexion of the predominantly white A/G, we find in other news that “65.6 percent of overall growth in the AG was Hispanic.” Another article revealed, “In the past dozen years in the Assemblies of God there has been a 91 percent increase in the number of black churches, 50 percent hike in Asian/Pacific islander congregations and 31 percent rise in Hispanic churches.”
This is great news! In my mind, the only truly Pentecostal church is a very diverse church. I should probably just say the only truly Christian church is a diverse church. Even a cursory read of the early chapters of the book of Acts will reveal that diverse languages, diverse ethnicities, and diverse religious backgrounds all came together in Christ to worship and serve God. This kind of diversity was an earmark of what God truly intended for his Church.
The A/G fellowship is a primitivist movement. That means, we hearken back to the early first century church and look to it as a model for our church today. I consider it good news that this council’s Spiritual Life Report strongly reaffirmed this stance for our fellowship. I’m just not sure that the committee that drew it up thought strongly enough about the implications of the early church’s diversity and ethnicity in the challenges they brought before the A/G. Like the early church, the early 1900’s Pentecostal outbreakings were deeply diverse with William J. Seymour leading the way.
I believe Heaven will be a true tapestry of diversity, and if we want to experience a little of Heaven on Earth, our churches need to reflect this.
Thank God it’s happening, even without our white leaders making much sense of it.
In fact, I’m sure this wasn’t intentional (perhaps I’m charitable), but Thomas Trask, the newly re-elected General Superintendent (head honcho) of the American A/G fellowship sounded a bit condescending when he allowed that,
“ethnic minorities bring a unique contribution to the Fellowship that will enable the Assemblies of God to reach the entire nation with the gospel.”
Granted, those weren’t Trask’s actual words. That was the news writer summing up his message. The news article concludes,
“The Fellowship realizes that as the country grows more ethnically diverse so must the church. And the changing demographics have provided the unparalleled opportunity to reach foreign nations – within the United States.”
Why does our country’s growing diversity drive our own changing face? America has always been diverse. Why shouldn’t our churches’ demographics reflect heavenly diversity rather than mere American diversity? Sure, we can argue that there have always been more whites in America, but newspaper reports at the time of the Azusa Street revival led by Seymour indicated diversity within that revival setting was the norm, at a time when that was revolutionary! (Consider: the revival was labeled a “disgraceful intermingling of the races.”) (Also, see “God’s Antidote for Racism,” a message given at AGTS.)
Why didn’t it stay this way? Why isn’t it normal for the A/G to be racially intermingled?
Because the A/G, over the years, has become white, paternalistic, middle-class, and deeply Americocentric. Unfortunately, I’m not sure our leadership recognizes we have fallen far from this gracious diversity. In another article, Trask is quoted,
“I love these brethren…. God has raised up these men to bring to the Assemblies of God a diversity that is long, long overdue.”
Overdue? Yes. It is. But we had it, I think. And we quickly lost it.
What our current leaders don’t realize is that what is happening is more than renewed diversity, it is the beginnings of a sea change in the complexion and ultimate global focus of Evangelical and Pentecostal leadership. Like it or not the white, middle-income, Americans are vastly outnumbered. It won’t be long before we have to let go of our colonial mindset and stop merely “welcoming” our ethnic brethren like we’re the lords of the manor and start turning to them as equal partners and even seeking their guidance as elder mentors who have had their faith challenged by hardship, predation, and abuse such as we in a America never dreamed of.
You think I’m kidding that we still have a colonial mind-set? Look, the A/G is probably among the least colonial-minded of most of the missions-sending agencies out there. Our missionaries live and die by the rule of the “Indigenous Principle”: send missionaries, evangelize, train local leaders, help them get financially independent, then move on. But while that’s true of our missionaries, why does this quote smack of colonialism?
“Guidelines were created for national or global ministries that wish to be affiliated with the AG.”
Why aren’t we considering guidelines for us to seek affiliation? Because we’re still very Americocentric in our mindset. Anyone else but me see a paradigm overthrow coming?
Not only are ethnic minorities on the rise in the A/G American church, the whites are on the decline. Currently, there is a greater percentage of minorities in the A/G church in America than there is in the US population at large. Seventy-five percent of Americans are white. But in the A/G only 60 percent are white. And, surprisingly, since 2001,
“the number of those classified as ‘white’ has slightly decreased, by about .3 percent.”
I hope you don’t think I’m merely bashing my fellowship. I love the Assemblies of God. As my college prof LeRoy Bartel was fond of saying, “It’s the only sane way to be Pentecostal.” But if there’s another Great Awakening fomenting (and I think there is), if we want to be relevant to the world as it is and not how we wish it to be, if we want to truly be people of the Spirit, and if we want to enjoy fellowship and worship like it’ll be in Heaven, then we must let go of parochial, colonial, white-bread American ways of thinking and see the church as a true global whole. It’s not just America at the top with a bunch of second-rate Christians who must be taught by their superiors anymore. We still have a seat at the table, but we need to graciously realize that there is no head at this table but Christ. There is no head of the class but Christ. We are not the teachers anymore. We are brothers and sisters learning from each other, sitting together at the feet of Christ. And our churches should reflect that—yesterday.
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 A/G, this last week, I noticed that the new coffeehouse in the newest part of our building is now open for business, and it was open for business just before services.
I’ll admit, I haven’t thought much about it, but somehow, it seems slightly disturbing to have a coffeehouse on the premises selling coffee. But, then, I thought about it some more and wondered why I don’t have a problem with churches selling tapes and CDs of the services. And little bookstories off the lobby? And then one of the associate pastors, Rev. Stuart Ross, assured me that the coffee itself was donated, and all the proceeds go to a missions ministry.
“…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 are being displaced by the long-term rapid growth of Christianity in the Global South. For more on that, see Philip Jenkins’ book, The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity, and an article in Atlantic, “The Next Christianity.”
I used to work at the national headquarters for the General Council of the Assemblies of God, in Springfield, Missouri (from 1991 to 1999). I was forever getting emails and phone calls from around the country, and sometimes around the world, from people who mistakenly thought it was the “World Headquarters” for the A/G. But there is no world headquarters for A/G adherents. There really isn’t even a national headquarters the adherents: the A/G is a “voluntary, cooperative fellowship of ministers.” Which means, it’s like a denomination, but it’s not. The churches are congregational: they own their own property, the ministers are self-employed, and oversight is somewhat loose. There is oversight, but it’s not as rigid or as bureaucratic as I suspect you might find in other denominations with a more ecclesiastical structure. The national headquarters is primarily a printing house, a missions-sending agency (both home and abroad), and provides licensing oversight for the credentialed ministers of the A/G. There are many national programs of course, Christian Education, Youth programs, Women’s Ministries, etc. But they are not authoritative in the sense that every A/G C.E. or Youth program (or whatever) must follow the game plan.
In 1989, Margaret Poloma wrote The Assemblies of God at the Crossroads, asserting that bureaucratic ossification was threatening to move the Fellowship away from its core purpose and mission. I understand a lot of folks strongly disagreed with her conclusions, and felt that, as an outsider, she read us wrong. Others, 16 years later, might disagree.
I think we’re finally starting to get the message, though. So, while we A/G folks are relishing increased growth in comparison to our uneasy friends from Utah, there’s still a threat. I don’t think we’ve left the crossroads Poloma identified. And I’m not sure our Fellowship has recognized that the Global South will eventually unseat us at the implicit “center” of the classical Pentecostal world. But, then again, does it matter?
As long as Christ is preached…
Update: I think I found the article that started this, out of Utah by way of the AP. It’s well worth the read. I especially found this quote provocative:
The LDS message has found an audience in Latin America and the South Pacific, where Mormon missionaries can tell people God did not neglect them. The Book of Mormon is the story of a Hebrew family that migrated from Jerusalem to the New World and tells of a visit to their descendants by Jesus Christ after his resurrection. Still, the church may not fare as well as other Christian religions in Africa and China, since it has no such reassurance for them, he said. Mormonism is “so thoroughly American,” McDermott told The Tribune in a recent phone interview. “God visited Joseph Smith in upstate New York. Eden began in Missouri and the millennium will end there. The new exodus took place in North America.”
I honestly never thought much about Mormon penetration into other cultures, and the Americo-centrism of the faith. I admit that for all the numbers and growth projections I’ve heard, looking back, I do think most of the numbers I ever heard were from growth in Latin American countries.
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?
Bethany 
Chi Alpha pastor Glen Davis guffawed at the news and then 
Malawi is just one of dozens of African countries where missions is sprouting and spreading like wildfire. Though the Assemblies of God began in Hot Springs, Arkansas, most of its adherents reside outside of the U.S.; of the 53 million AG members, only 3 million are American.
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. 