Is God in Control at General Council?

I have a friend that describes being elected as the student body president while attending seminary. He says God started speaking to him about two weeks before the election. God was telling him that he would be student body president. He did not want the job so it is good God started dealing with him early.

He relates that there were about a dozen ballots, each time eliminating a group of nominations. Seems my friend was consistently on the bottom of the nomination list that was saved. When three names were left, one vote separated the front runner from the second runner and one vote separated my friend from the second runner. My friend should have been eliminated, but someone said, “There is not enough separation, lets hear from the nominees.” In two more ballots my friend was elected.

Now if God can control a simple election like that, I suspect God can also control the election process at each General Council. It is mostly Pentecostal ministers that are voting. Do we trust they can collectively hear God?

Will Your Church Someday House a Community Theater Group?

Less than a block from the church I attend is an old church building that was built by the Methodists in the early 1900's. It must have seated around 2000 people. I can only imagine how that church had a powerful, culturally relevant impact on that culture. The church had fallen into the hands of a small, liberal denomination that could no longer support the huge building. Now a community theater group has taken over the building.

As a fifty something year old Pentecostal, I am concerned that we develop culturally relevant methods to share the Gospel with a younger generation. It is a generation that has little understanding of the church. If we don't do that, perhaps in another fifty years a theater group will get a super good buy on another building.

Earl Creps is an authority and conference speaker on church growth and evangelism. His podcast, "Walk With Me" at http://www.earlcreps.com/podcast/ is worth listening to if you have a spare half hour. He addresses how the younger generation see us, the church.

The Future of the Assemblies of God is in Good Hands

As an older guy who has held Assembly of God credentials less than a year, I am impressed by the young pastors in our fellowship. I have read with great interest the blog Future AG (http://futureag.blogspot.com/). The reins of the movement will soon be turned over to these more youthful pastors and I am excited about the future.

The postmodern generation is a generation with great interest in the supernatural. (For the most part, my enlightened generation did not see the possibility of the supernatural.) As younger guys and gals move in the charismatic gifts before your generation, we will have people movements like we studied about in missions classes. I trust that you will find the methods to package the old Biblical truths in ways appealing to post moderns.

Older Pentecostals must demonstrate the presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives and the lives of their churches. Too many of our young pastors have not seen a real move of the Holy Spirit. If we cannot demonstrate the charismata, we are in trouble with our movement. What makes a Pentecostal different from a typical Evangelical is the Pentecostal worldview holds a very immanent God. Our “Pentecostal” God is here, now, and in us to change the world.

Hey older pastors, the younger pastors have trouble with “initial physical evidence” because we have not demonstrated it. In the last three years, other than myself, I have seen only one pastor preach on the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And that pastor was not AG, he was Baptist.

“Controlling and Manipulative Prophecy”

Some years ago, prophesying got Pete into trouble at the church he was attending but was not aware of the cause of the trouble. Over a period of time, the church relieved Pete of all ministries he was involved in. He lost his Sunday school class, small group, Bible study, etc. Pete had no idea what why this was happening. Counsel from a close friend from another state was that Pete should leave the church because he was not allowed to be effective in ministry.

It seemed when the senior pastor spoke, the Pete’s prophecies did not dovetail with the pastor’s messages. When the associate or a guest minister spoke, prophecies dovetailed with the message. A couple times Pete gave only the beginning of a prophecy and asked for someone else to complete the prophecy. The prophecies were completed by others.

When Pete returned from vacation, there was a microphone put up in the front of the church. The new policy was that prophecies were to be spoken into the microphone.

Uncomfortable with the loss of ministry responsibilities and a sense of growing estrangement from much of the church leadership, Pete decided to start attending a different church. About a year later, Pete asked a close friend what was going on at that former church that caused the trouble. The friend said that for about six months Pete had been prophesying against every decision the board had made behind closed doors. What capped off the matter was that Pete had prophesied about the need for moral leadership just after there was a moral failure on the church board and the broad took no disciplinary action. It was felt the board member was sufficiently repentant.

The purpose in using a microphone was to catch Pete trying to use his “false prophecy” to control and manipulate the church.

Things Pete could have done better:

1. Carefully examine prophecies that could be interpreted negatively, consider delivering it privately to the pastor or board and not the entire congregation.
2. Have followed the advice of another church’s pastor to talk to the church board. (Pete made the excuse to himself because he was busy with legal problems being sued in two different jurisdictions.)
   

Things the church could have done better:

1. Have called Pete into a board meeting or meeting with the pastor and confront him directly.
2. Listen to see if Pete’s prophecies ring true when the associate speaks or a guest speaks. Examine whether good prophecy or controlling and manipulative prophecy can come from the same person.
3. To not focus so much time on trying to find out whom was leaking information to Pete and be straighter forward.
4. Seriously consider whether the prophecies were valid instead of immediately assuming they were attempts at controlling and manipulating.
5. Have prayed for discernment.
   

Things the church did right:

1. They did not forbid prophecy as so many Pentecostal churches do now.
2. They did not expose the entire matter to the congregation.
   

In the Bible, prophecy was sometimes used to bring correction. Churches should consider that to be a possibility. Churches should confront the person prophesying if leadership feels the prophecy is in error. Churches have a responsibility to help mature their people in the use of spiritual gifts. Above all, all parties should be willing to be straight forward and discuss the issue.

I welcome comments. I have something to learn here.

Pete Prophesies

Yesterday Pete prophesied during the church service just before the pastor spoke. It fit in perfectly with the pastor’s message which is what we should typically expect. God would set a theme for a Sunday morning and prepare all the leaders.

A ten plus year church attender asked Pete if the pastor gave him his sermon notes before the service. How is it we have done such a poor job in training the people attending Pentecostal churches? It is as though the people do not have any idea what the role of the Holy Spirit should be. God forgive us for not doing better.