The
World Assemblies of God Fellowship or
Assemblies of God (
AG) is the
world's largest
Pentecostal Christian denomination. With over
300,000 congregations and outstations in over 110 countries and
approximately 57 to 60 million adherents worldwide, it is the
fourth largest international body of Christians. It prefers to be
referred to as a cooperative fellowship instead of a
denomination.
The Assemblies of God has missions programs that are designed to
establish self-propagating, self-supporting, and self-governing
national church bodies in every country. As of late 2006, the
Assemblies of God World Missions Research Office reported
constituencies in 110 countries and territories, with over 5,000
adherents added per day. As of 2005, the fellowship operated 859
Bible schools, 1,131 extension programs and 39
seminaries outside of the United States.
History
Origins
The Assemblies of God has its roots in the Pentecostal revival of
the early 20th century.
This revival is generally traced to a
prayer meeting held under the
leadership of Charles Parham, at
Bethel Bible College in
Topeka,
Kansas
, on January 1, 1901. It spread rapidly to
Missouri
, Texas
, California
and elsewhere. In 1906, a three-year
revival meeting under the leadership
of William Seymour began at the Azusa Street Mission in Los Angeles
that attracted believers from around the
world. The Pentecostal aspects of the revival were not
generally welcomed by established churches, and participants in the
movement soon found themselves forced outside existing religious
bodies. These people sought out their own places of worship and
founded hundreds of distinctly Pentecostal congregations.
By 1914, many ministers and laymen alike began to realize just how
far-reaching the spread of the revival and of Pentecostalism had
become. Concerned leaders felt the desire to protect and preserve
the results of the revival by uniting through cooperative
fellowship.
In April 1914, about 300 preachers and laymen
were invited from 20 states and several foreign countries for a
general council in Hot Springs,
Arkansas
, United
States
, to discuss and take action on these and other
pressing needs. American racial and cultural norms at the
time, such as Jim Crow laws, deeply affected such cooperative
fellowship of the early movement by excluding many African-American
Pentecostal leaders such as Charles Harrison Mason, founder of the
predominately African-American Church of God in Christ. Bishop
Mason credentialed such ministers in the early inception of this
cooperative fellowship.
A remaining fellowship emerged from the meeting and was
incorporated under the name
General Council of the Assemblies of God in the United States of
America. In time, self-governing and self-supporting general
councils broke off from the original fellowship or were formed
independently in several nations throughout the world, originating
either from indigenous Pentecostal movements or as a direct result
of the indigenous missions strategy of the General Council.
Prior to 1967, the Assemblies of God, along with the majority of
other Pentecostal denominations, officially opposed Christian
participation in war and considered itself a
peace church. The US Assemblies of God
continues to give full doctrinal support to members who are lead by
religious conscience to pacifism.
International fellowship
In 1988, the various Assemblies of God national fellowships united
to form the World Pentecostal Assemblies of God Fellowship at the
initiative of Dr. J. Philip Hogan, then executive director of the
Division of Foreign Missions of the Assemblies of God in the United
States. The initial purpose was to coordinate evangelism, but soon
developed into a more permanent organism of inter-relation.
Dr. Hogan was elected the first chairman of the Fellowship and
served until 1992 when Rev.
David
Yonggi Cho was elected chairman. In 1993, the name of the
Fellowship was changed to the World Assemblies of God Fellowship.
In 2000, Thomas E. Trask was elected to succeed Cho.
At the 2008 World
Congress at Lisbon
, Portugal
, George O. Wood, General Superintendent of the
Assemblies of God in the United States, was elected chairman.
Beliefs
The Assemblies of God's “Cardinal Doctrines" are
salvation through
Jesus Christ,
baptism in the Holy Spirit,
divine healing, and the
Second Coming of Christ. These
beliefs are considered to have a biblical basis and are thus
considered non-negotiable.
The doctrinal position of the Assemblies of God is framed in a
classical Pentecostal and an
Evangelical context. It believes both the
Old Testament and
New Testament are the divinely inspired
revelation of God to man and the
infallible authoritative rule of faith and conduct. It is
Trinitarian, believing that there is only one God,
yet three "persons" who are the
Father, the
Son,
and the
Holy Spirit. God created the
world and everything in it; however, man by voluntary transgression
fell and thereby incurred not only
physical death but also spiritual death, which is separation from
God. Man's only hope of redemption is through the shed blood of
Jesus Christ the Son of God. Salvation is received through
repentance toward God and faith toward Jesus
Christ. By the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy
Spirit, being justified by grace through faith, man becomes an heir
of God. The AG does not teach
eternal
security.
The Assemblies of God believes in Christ's
virgin birth, his
sinless life, his
miracles, his
substitutionary work on the
cross, his
bodily resurrection from the
dead, and his
exaltation to the
Right Hand of God as told in the
Bible. It also believes the
Second
Coming of Christ is imminent. The Second Coming of Christ
includes the
rapture of all who have been
saved followed by the visible return of Christ to reign on earth
for one thousand years. This
millennial
reign will bring the salvation of
Israel and the establishment of universal peace.
It believes in a literal
Hell where those who
do not receive Christ's salvation will go when they die. It also
believes in a literal
Heaven and that after
the Second Coming there will be new heavens and a new earth.
As classical Pentecostals, the Assemblies of God believes all
Christians are entitled to and should seek the baptism in the Holy
Spirit. The AG teaches that this experience is distinct from and
subsequent to the experience of salvation. With the baptism in the
Holy Spirit comes such experiences as an overflowing fullness of
the Spirit, a deepened reverence for God, an intensified
consecration to God and dedication to his work, and a more active
love for Christ. It is also important for empowering the believer
for Christian life and service. The initial evidence of the baptism
in the Holy Spirit is
speaking in
tongues "as the Spirit of God gives them utterance."
Sanctification is an act of
separation from that which is evil, and of dedication to God.
Sanctification is realized in the believer by recognizing his
identification with Christ in his death and resurrection, by having
faith in that union, and by submitting to the Holy Spirit. The
Assemblies of God believes
divine
healing is an integral part of the gospel and that deliverance
from sickness is provided for in the
atonement.
Baptism by immersion is practiced as an
ordinance instituted by Christ
for those who have been saved. Baptism is understood as an outward
sign of an inward change, the change from being dead in sin to
being alive in Christ. As an ordinance,
Communion is also practiced. The Assemblies of God
also places a strong emphasis on the fulfillment of the
Great Commission and believes that this is
the main calling of the church.
Structure
Internationally, the Assemblies of God is represented by the World
Assemblies of God Fellowship. At the national level, independent
and self governing Assemblies of God jurisdictions manage their own
affairs and choose their own leaders. Local churches usually
maintain great amounts of freedom from the national body, electing
their own pastors and managing their own affairs.
The World Assemblies of God Fellowship is an association of
autonomous national jurisdictions where the national jurisdictions
join by choice and are not subordinate to the world fellowship. For
this reason, the world fellowship is not a governing body but works
within a framework of consultation and cooperation. Led by a
chairman, the work of the World Assemblies of God is carried out by
the Executive Council which has approximately twenty members
representing different regions of the world: Africa, Asia Pacific,
Europe, Latin America, Middle East, North America, and Southern
Asia. The World Congress meets every three years, and during this
time delegates from the national jurisdictions elect the members of
the Executive Council. The World Assemblies of God Relief Agency
(WAGRA) directs its humanitarian work.
National fellowships
The World Assemblies of God Fellowship is structured as a loose
alliance of the following independent national fellowships:
References
-
http://worldmissions.ag.org/downloads/PDF/agwm_current_facts_08.pdf
Assemblies of God World Missions Research Office - AGWM Current
Facts and Highlights (2008)
- http://ag.org/top/About/statistics/index.cfm AG Statistical
Reports (the full one is for U.S. adherence, the summary is for
worldwide)
- World Christian Database, Asia Pacific Mission Office
- Resolution #10 - Voluntary Cooperative
Fellowship
- Assemblies of God World Missions Research Office - AGWM
Current Facts and Highlights (2007)
- Assemblies of God World Missions Research Office - AGWM
Current Facts and Highlights (2005)
- General Council of the Assemblies of God (USA) - Our
History (2006) [1]
- Jay Beaman, Pentecostal Pacifism: The Origin, Development,
and Rejection of Pacific Belief Among the Pentecostals
(Hillsboro, KS: Mennonite Brethren Historical Society, 1989)
- Fundamental Truths of the Assemblies of
God (AG website)
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