True Discernment

 FROM whatwehavehereis:

In a few short weeks ministers from around the nation will convene on Indianapolis, Indiana for the 52nd General Council. The surprise resignation of our General Superintendent Thomas Trask (at least it was a surprise to us “small soldiers”) now gives us something a little more intriguing besides the rather blase list of resolutions in which I’ve had a little fun with here and here.

Undoubtedly at Council all of the right things will be said and a great time will be had by all – which will cause some who read articles like this in the aftermath to think people like me are crazy. But there are undeniable problems brewing at the grassroots level. Obviously we’re not close to the level of trouble the Presbyterian Church, USA is having (whose differences are related to homosexuality, biblical authority and interpretation, Jesus as the only means of salvation, the meaning of salvation and governance of the church) but the A/G issues began stirring over a decade ago with the ministers divorce/remarriage issue, and has continued with the gradual ecumenical softening of our movement.

While those issues are major and need addressed, they will only become part of the overall problem that is coming from within.

I know it’s typically said (spin) that diversity is a great strength – but diversity is one of life’s great paradoxes for it is also a great weakness as well. The diversity of which I speak is our doctrinal diversity. For it’s through these doctrinal lenses that positions are stated and stances are taken…and denominations are split. For within this movement that I love there is just about every wind of doctrine blowing. Consider this:

- Within the A/G there are ministers who are absolutely in love with Rob Bell and Brian McLaren and who consider themselves “Emergent”.

-In another sector you have those who serve the Willow Creek model and have embraced seeker sensitivity.

-Many others are Purpose Driven and have a thing for baseball diamonds. (Thank you Rick Warren for doing the thinking for an entire movement in the ’90′s – apparently we didn’t have anyone creative enough to come up with our own discipleship plan). The baseball diamond method was shoved into my hands when I first started as a church planter complete with the ‘insert church name here’ CD-rom. I’m happy to say it has all found it’s way to file 13.

-Still yet on another side you can find the TBN crowd, complete with gold dust and angel feathers, and by the way, Benny Hinn is NOT an A/G minister – he was for about one year – several years ago. I know of an A/G church in the southwest that went through this phase a number of years ago. They brought in an ‘evangelist’ who was not only having this feather manifestation, but was going Peter Popoff on people calling out addresses and pager numbers. They later caught her going through the church Rolodex looking up that information.

-Then there are A/G churches like the one on the on the east coast whose pastor invited a Catholic Priest into his pulpit to teach on transubstantiation.

-I personally and recently talked to an A/G pastor who no longer believes in scriptural inerrancy…yes really, and sadly. Another told me Genesis is poetic and not to be taken literally because the earth is definitely millions of years old. Yet another one quoted me the ‘gospel according to (Velvet)Elvis‘ by saying “doctrines are springs, not brick walls”. If they only knew how conservative I was they probably wouldn’t tell me such things – guess that’s what spikey hair and a gotee will do for you (I’m SOOOO relevant ;^).

Perhaps you can see my point. There is an explosion coming. It may not happen in my ministry lifetime, but there is only so long all of these ministry miscreants can coexist with the conservative classical Pentecostals of the A/G. I’ve been at the place for some time now where I find myself agreeing with John MacArthur and Ravi Zacharias types and feel more awkward around my own ‘fellow’ ministers.

Keeping the conservatives, liberals and heretics all happy within the A/G is going to require some kind of juggling act. I’ve seen some wonderfully crafted letters sent to our headquarters in Springfield, Missouri asking Thomas Trask to merely appoint a study committee to look at some of these doctrines floating around and it was met with crickets. Guess he didn’t want to light that fuse. But someone eventually will.