Tomorrow, the 52nd biennial business-meeting for the General Council of the Assemblies of God begins. On Thursday, our next General Superintendent will be selected. Here are my thoughts on matters over which I have no input or influence, and which are probably inappropriate for me to publicly opine over. Unfortunately, that doesn't stop me from writing! If you read this and think I'm an idiot for writing it, just remember: you read it!

[Skip all the blather and just see my pick for the vote, if that's what you're after!]

The Generational Exchange … Happens Now

Stop now. Before you go any further, before you cast your nominating vote, before you accept your nomination (as if anybody reads this), go listen to

The editors of Leadership journal have posted another incisive commentary on the state of the Church today in their Out of Ur weblog. It’s about how we (in the Western church) have turned the gospel into a pimping enterprise. There’s nothing really new here, it’s the same complaint Bonhoeffer had about “cheap grace.” But the language is, well, provocative. From church planter Jonathan Yarboro:

I submit for your consideration two apparently unrelated questions:

I submit that the Assemblies of God is as much like a cult as the Wikipedia is authoritative. We are, instead, a movement.

A Word on Wikipedia
Over the last few months Wikipedia has taken much heat over its collaborative form of public authoring and editing. Nearly anyone can post an article, make an edit, or undo edits. This is good, and not-so-good: The good of it is that Wikipedia benefits from the collective mind of many editors. Where one editor may have it wrong, several others can guide an article to incremental perfection (in theory). On the other hand, one misinformed or biased "editor" can make subtle or egregious changes, and it may not come to the attention of those best armed to correct it. Thus, Wikipedia's

Blogging from the heartland, Sean MacNair calls it like he sees it. In a brief post he concisely serves up highlights from 100 years of American church renewal (See: "The Pardoner's Tale: My best (stolen) idea so far this year"). He buzzes over Pentecostalism, the Charismatic renewal, healing revivals, Billy Graham, the Charismatic Catholic renewal, the Jesus Movement, the megachurch-cum-denomination trend, worship innovations, and the Emergent Conversation. His point: Renewal threatens the status quo but ultimately gets institutionalized, fades into oblivion, or is assimilated into the mainstream.

Buried in his post is a subtle criticism of the movement that spawned them all, and the institution that formed as a result: Pentecostalism and the Assemblies of God.

Earlier this week (November 1), Tim Morgan at Christianity Today posted a story about the South to South Encounter of top Anglican delegates in Egypt. Morgan’s story is an excellent overview of the current issues threatening to tear apart the Anglican world. It’s worth the read:

Following are some key quotes from the story:

From an eight-page statement released after the meeting:

Regarding the growth

I’ve described elsewhere here my first experience at an Anglican church when I attended my boss’s ordination to the deaconate in the Anglican Mission in America (sometimes jokingly referred to as “Anglicans missing in America”). That night opened my eyes to the growing charismatic world within a much older church tradition than my own (the Assemblies of God). Of course, I’ve heard of Episcopalian, Lutheran, Catholic, and other mainline churches going charismatic for years, but I’d never stepped foot inside an old-school church reveling (or at least basking) in the Spirit.

Of course, I didn’t see any of that swinging-from-the-chandelier or slaying-in-the-Spirit business going on, but imagine my provincial Pentecostal surprise to see firsthand that charismatic renewal in a mainline church doesn’t just mean they get to wear those spiffy tab-collar shirts. I encountered an

Seems the old meme that the Mormon faith (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) is the fastest growing faith in the world has become officially dated. KIDK TV news, out of Idaho Falls is reporting:

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