I’d like to introduce you to a dear friend of mine. His name is Geoff and he has retired to the local area. Geoff is the first to admit that he’s been around a while and yet he is one of the most positive people I know. Geoff is a living treasure of our movement. He is a retired Foursquare pastor the son of a Foursquare pastor. His roots go back to the very foundation of the pentecostal movement in Australia and despite the years, he can tell you stories about those days and the characters that made them so special. He loves to talk about his favorites, Oral Roberts, Kenneth Hagin and Kenneth Copeland. In recent times it’s everybody’s favorite aunt Joyce Meyer.
I am studying pentecostal ecclesiology right now and we had a fascinating chat this morning about the changes in the way we do church in recent times. Whilst preparing my essay I could not recall the last time that I had heard a tongue or interpretation in church, certainly not in the past 20 years or so. I asked him “When was the last time you heard them?” He said, “a few days ago in Bowraville”. He was referring to the Arena of Life Church there, where I knew that they value classic pentecostal distinctive. “OK Geoff”, I said, “I didn’t know you had been there, how about before that?” This time, I had him pretty much stumped except for a friend of his who had visited many years ago and gave a tongue and prophecy. The point of the story is that according to Shane Clifton PHD’s research, (Ref. Below), when the Assemblies of God decided to change their structure back in the late seventies to the senior pastor, mega church, model the three casualties were, small churches, women as senior pastors and gifted laity who were no longer required to participate in the decision-making process of their local churches.
This essay is proving to be tougher than I expected.
Blessings
Peter
Reference: Shane Clifton, Pragmatic Ecclesiology: The Apostolic Revolution and the Ecclesiology of the Assemblies of God in Australia, Australian Pentecostal Studies No.9, 2005/6,30