Assemblies of God

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The Assemblies of God is the world's largest Pentecostal denomination with approximately 52.5 million worldwide who are members of the World Assemblies of God Fellowship ^[1] as of 2005. In the year 2000, the Assemblies of God World Congress reported 107 fraternal fellowships and 10,000 converts a day worldwide ^[2]. The nation with the most Assemblies of God churches is Brazil with the Assembleias de Deus having 8.4 million members (only 3.6 million are associated with US branch and the World Assemblies of God Fellowship)^[3]. As of 2005, the fellowship operated 859 Bible Schools, 1,131 Extension Programs and 39 Seminaries outside of the United States ^[4].

History

The Assemblies of God, or A/G for short, was founded in 1914 at Hot Springs, Arkansas. The early founders were licensed white ministers of the Church of God in Christ, the largest African-American Pentecostal body founded by Charles Harrison Mason in 1897 [5]. Their affiliation with the Church of God in Christ was short-lived due to the racial climate of the Jim Crow Era in the United States. Subsequently, predominately white representatives from 20 states and a few foreign countries gathered to form a fellowship of Pentecostal believers. A fellowship emerged that was incorporated as the General Council of the Assemblies of God. E. N. (Eudorus Neander) Bell (1866-1923) was elected the first chairman. Central Bible College was started in the basement of the Central Assembly of God church in Springfield, Missouri in 1922.

The Assemblies of God has forerunners in groups that existed before its incorporation in 1914. In April of 1906, the Apostolic Faith Movement began in Orchard, Texas. A group of 20 ministers organized as the Church of God (not connected with the Church of God, Cleveland, Tennessee movement) near Slocumb, Alabama in February 1911. This Church of God and the Apostolic Faith Movement united around 1912. It was this group, now called Churches of God in Christ (not to be confused with the African-American Pentecostal body led by C.H. Mason), that issued the call for a general council to meet in Hot Springs in 1914. Regardless of these groups that existed before its incorporation, no early African-American denominational leaders were invited to the first meeting of this newly formed assemblies of Pentecostal leaders. The Holiness Baptist Churches of Southwestern Arkansas (org. 1903), under the leadership of William Jethro Walthall (1858-1931), united with the Assemblies of God in 1917. As opposed to other Pentecostal organizations, the A/G was not organized strictly around a Wesleyan view of holiness.

The early denomination not only suffered from racial organizational unity in this period, but a major ideological split occurred when the Jesus Only controversy arose. The Oneness teaching was rejected by the A/G, moving the organization as a solid trinitarian Pentecostal denomination.

Between the World Wars the movement kept a relative isolation from other Pentecostal and Evangelical groups, but after the Second World War the A/G started an aproximation with Pentecostal groups overseas, like the Federation of Pentecostal Churches in Germany, at that time many national denominations came to affiliate with the A/G. As well as establishing fellowship within the national borders, through the Pentecostal Fellowship of North America and the National Association of Evangelicals.

The A/G received the influence of the Latter Rain Movement in the 1950's, which the General Council condemned. Certain Latter Rain theology is now accepted by some churches and theologians of the Assemblies of God, such as the restoration of the five-fold ministry and the laying on of hands. The A/G still considers the Latter Rain theology of no Pre-trib rapture and manifested sons of God as being heresy.

Today the fellowship is organized under the General Council of the Assemblies of God (USA), with a constituency of 2.7 million and 12,277 churches[1]. The American AG is very ethnically diverse, reaching people of different races and cultures. The General Council's national headquarters are in Springfield, Missouri, where the administration building, Gospel Publishing House, and International Distribution Center are located. The General Council is a member of the National Association of Evangelicals.

Rev. Thomas Trask, General Superintendent of the General Council of the Assemblies of God (USA)

The Assemblies of God holds to a conservative evangelical Christian and Arminian theology as expressed in the Assemblies of God Statement of Fundamental Truths and the Position Papers, which emphasize such core Pentecostal doctrines as the baptism in the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, and divine, supernatural healing. Congregations are independent and autonomous from each other and the national headquarters. However, only the general and district councils has authority to ordain ministers and revoke their credentials. The ordination of women as head pastors (and all other positions) is allowed and about 17.6% (5817) of clergy are women.^[6] Although doctrine holds more closely to the Arminian tradition and its understanding of the role of Free Will, the governmental structure of the church follows a mostly Presbyterian model.

Beliefs

The Assemblies' doctrines are summarized in its Statement of Fundamental Truths.[7] Numerous other Christian groups share some or all of these tenets -- and some positions (like the Trinity) are considered more central to the faith than others (like divine healing). These positions are considered non-negotiable[8], although critics have questioned how well doctrinal integrity is maintained.:

The inspiration of Scripture.
The Trinity.
The Deity of Christ.
Original sin.
Fellowship with God can be restored by accepting Christ’s offer of forgiveness for sin.
Two ordinances: Baptism, by immersion after receiving Christ, and the Lord's Supper, as a symbolic remembrance of Christ's suffering and death.
Baptism in the Holy Spirit following conversion.
Speaking in Tongues as the evidence of Baptism in the Holy Spirit.
Sanctification is a declaration and progressive lifelong process.
The Church's mission is to seek and save all who are lost in sin; the Church is the Body of Christ and consists of all people who accept Christ, regardless of Christian denomination.
Divinely called and Scripturally-ordained ministers serve the Church.
Divine healing of the sick is provided for in the atonement.
The Blessed Hope: a Rapture preceding the bodily return of Christ to Earth.
Premillennial eschatology.
Final Judgement and eternal damnation of the lost.
A future New Heaven and New Earth, in which Christ will dwell with his people forever.

U.S. A/G Ethnic Fellowships

The fellowships affiliated with the Assemblies of God of the United States.

African Assemblies of God Fellowship
Assemblies of God India Fellowship of North America
Ethnic Arabic Fellowship of the Assemblies of God
Filipino-American Christian Fellowship of the Assemblies of God
Haitian American Fellowship of the Assemblies of God
Hmong National Fellowship of the Assemblies of God
National Black Fellowship of the Assemblies of God
National Chinese Fellowship of the Assemblies of God
National Deaf Culture Fellowship of the Assemblies of God
National Fijian Fellowship of the Assemblies of God
National Indonesian Fellowship of the Assemblies of God
National Slavic Fellowship of the Assemblies of God
Native American Fellowship of the Assemblies of God
Romanian Fellowship of the Assemblies of God
Samoan Fellowship of the Assemblies of God
Tongan Fellowship of the Assemblies of God
The Assemblies of God Church in Jordan [Jama'at Allah Al Khamsiniyah].
The Jamiat-e Rabbani is the Assemblies of God in [Iran].