General Council of the Assemblies of God

The Assemblies of God USA (AG), officially the General Council of the Assemblies of God, is a Pentecostal in the United States founded in 1914 during a meeting of white Pentecostal ministers at Hot Springs, Arkansas (with exception to CH Mason), separating from the historically black Church of God in Christ. The Assemblies of God is a Finished Work Pentecostal denomination and is the U.S. branch of the World Assemblies of God Fellowship, the world's largest Pentecostal body. With a constituency of over 3 million, the Assemblies of God was the ninth largest Christian denomination and the second largest Pentecostal denomination in the United States in 2011.National Council of Churches (February 14, 2011)
"Trends continue in church membership growth or decline, reports 2011 Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches"
accessed February 17, 2011. The statistical figures used in the 2011 Yearbook were collected in 2008.

The Assemblies of God holds to a conservative, evangelical and Arminian theology as expressed in the Statement of Fundamental Truths and position papers, which emphasize such core Pentecostal doctrines as the baptism in the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, divine healing and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. It defines for itself a fourfold mission to evangelize others, worship God, disciple believers, and show compassion.Assemblies of God USA
Our Mission and Core Values
. Accessed March 10, 2011.

The fellowship's polity is a hybrid of presbyterian and congregational models. This tension between local independence and national authority is seen in the AG's historical reluctance to refer to itself as a denomination, preferring the terms ''fellowship'' and ''movement''. The national headquarters are in Springfield, Missouri, where the administrative and executive offices and Gospel Publishing House are located.

It maintains relationships with other Pentecostal groups at both regional and national levels through the Pentecostal/Charismatic Churches of North America and the Pentecostal World Fellowship. It is also a member of the Wesleyan Holiness Consortium and the National Association of Evangelicals.

History

Origin

The Assemblies of God has roots in the Pentecostal revival in the early 20th century. The Pentecostal aspects of the revival were not generally welcomed by the established churches, and participants in the movement soon found themselves outside existing religious bodies. They were forced to seek their own places of worship, and soon there were hundreds of distinctly Pentecostal congregations.

After Charles Parham—an unordained former Methodist Episcopal supply pastorBlumhofer 1993, pp. 44-45.—began promoting the idea that speaking in tongues was the initial evidence of the baptism in the Spirit around 1901, he began to attract a considerable following, which he loosely organized as the Apostolic Faith Movement in 1906; prior, he established a Bible school in Kansas and invited "all ministers and Christians who were willing to forsake all, sell what they had, give it away, and enter the school for study and prayer" leading to the Bible and Parham as sole instructor (or the Holy Spirit's mouthpiece).Blumhofer 1993, p. 47-50. However, with the rise of the Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles, California, and an accusation of sodomy against him in 1907, he lost and never recovered his influence. After renouncing Parham, the severely weakened Apostolic Faith Movement regrouped around Howard A. Goss, L. C. Hall, D. C. O. Opperman, and A. G. Canada. They were later joined by Eudorus N. Bell, previously a Southern Baptist minister. The Apostolic Faith Movement had its strength in the rural areas of Kansas, Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri.

In Pentecostalism's early years, organizational affiliation was fluid, and many ministers of the Apostolic Faith Movement, which was a white organization, were also licensed by Charles Harrison Mason's predominantly African-American Church of God in Christ. In 1907, Goss had received a license to preach from Mason's group, and he claimed that Mason had given him permission to issue ministerial credentials under the Churches of God in Christ name for the "white work". By 1910, the name "Churches of God in Christ" was seen as a more biblical name and began to be preferred over "Apostolic Faith".

The Apostolic Faith Movement played a leading role in organizing and institutionalizing Pentecostalism in the Midwest and Southwest and from 1909 to 1912 absorbed smaller Pentecostal groups. It also established relationships with Pentecostal missions in the Midwest. The Midwestern Pentecostal movement centered around the Stone Church, pastored by William Piper, and the North Avenue Mission, pastored by William Howard Durham, both in Chicago, Illinois. Durham was the lead promoter of the Finished Work doctrine which, in time, the Apostolic Faith Movement would adopt and in doing so discard the Wesleyan view of sanctification as a second work of grace.

Between 1906 and 1908, the Pentecostal message had spread among Christian and Missionary Alliance (CMA) churches and conferences. At first, it was greeted positively by the CMA leadership, but the doctrine of initial evidence divided the organization. Former CMA Pentecostal congregations in the Midwest and Northeast were left without oversight and began associating with the Apostolic Faith Movement and the Chicago Pentecostal missions.

Early history (1914–1929)

General Council of 1914

By 1914, many white ministers nominally affiliated with the Church of God in Christ had become dissatisfied with the arrangement.Vinson Synan, ''The Holiness–Pentecostal Tradition: Charismatic Movements in the Twentieth Century'', (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1997), pages 153–155, . Apostolic Faith Movement leaders Bell, Goss, Opperman, M. M. Pinson, and A. P. Collins issued the call for a general council to "Churches of God in Christ, and to all Pentecostal or Apostolic Faith Assemblies". What resulted was a merger of the Apostolic Faith Movement, Chicago Pentecostals, and CMA Pentecostals in 1914 at Hot Springs, Arkansas. The 1st General Council was attended by predominantly white representatives from 20 states and missions in Egypt and South Africa. The fellowship that emerged was incorporated as the ''General Council of the Assemblies of God''. Bell was elected the first general superintendent. Five major reasons were given for calling the meeting:
#Create unity in doctrine and in identifying Pentecostal congregations.
#Develop ways to conserve the work at home and abroad.
#Develop a workable system for the support of missionaries.
#Charter local churches under "one Bible name".
#Discuss the possibility of a Bible training school.

Other actions taken at the 1st General Council addressed women in ministry. The Pentecostals who founded the Assemblies of God had no objections to women being engaged in ministry. The Pentecostal belief in personal experience, Spirit baptism as empowerment for service, and the need for evangelists and missionaries encouraged women to be active in all types of ministry. What concerned some Pentecostal leaders, such as Bell, were women exercising independent authority over men. The council therefore approved of the granting of credentials to female evangelists and missionaries while restricting the office of pastor to men, and it was not until 1920 that female evangelists could vote at denominational meetings. By the fall of 1914, out of 512 credential holders, 142 were female missionaries and evangelists.

After 1914, the Church of God in Christ became predominantly Black or African American and the Assemblies of God would remain predominantly white. However, there were African Americans involved in the early years of the Assemblies of God. The African-American pastor Garfield Thomas Haywood, for example, pastored one of the largest churches and was an influential voice within the fellowship until he withdrew from the denomination after 1916.Synan, ''The Holiness–Pentecostal Tradition'', 172–173.

"New Issue" and doctrinal clarity

The founders of the fellowship did not intend to create a denomination and originally had no creed or doctrinal statement. However, in response to several doctrinal issues, the most important being the Oneness teaching, the AG felt the need for agreement on central doctrines and to reassure evangelical Christians of its adherence to orthodox belief. Oneness Pentecostalism rejected Trinitarian theology, instead identifying the Jehovah of the Old Testament with the Christ of the New. Furthermore, Oneness adherents believed that Christians, regardless of a previous baptism, should be baptized in the name of Jesus, rather than in the name of the Trinity. By 1915, it was adhered to by many in the fellowship, including founders such as Goss, Opperman, Hall, and Henry G. Rodgers. Other influential leaders, such as G. T. Haywood, adopted the Oneness doctrine as well.

In 1916, the 4th General Council met in St. Louis to resolve the "new issue". In a move that caused not a little anxiety, a committee introduced the Statement of Fundamental Truths. Oneness proponents and others saw this as an attack on the authority of the Bible, yet it was adopted along with a recommendation that AG ministers use the Trinitarian baptismal formula. Old preaching credentials were recalled and new ones issued with the Fundamental Truths included. Oneness believers, including a third of the fellowship's ministers, were forced to withdraw, a loss especially felt in the South where the Oneness doctrine had the most influence. A side effect of this was a transition in leadership from former Apostolic Faith leaders, many of whom accepted the Oneness teaching, to men with Christian and Missionary Alliance backgrounds. The Oneness dissenters formed the General Assembly of the Apostolic Churches, which later merged with another group to form the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World.Synan, ''The Holiness–Pentecostal Tradition'', 173–174.

Among the Fundamental Truths was a statement regarding speaking in tongues as the initial physical evidence of Spirit baptism. Its inclusion was challenged by F.F. Bosworth, an executive presbyter, who argued that while for many speaking in tongues was an evidence of the baptism it was not the only evidence. The issue was decided at the General Council of September 1918 where Bosworth, who two months earlier had resigned so as not to damage the fellowship, was present and invited to address the council. Following debate two resolutions were passed which assured that initial evidence would remain an official teaching of the fellowship.

While doctrinal controversy led to the withdrawal of ministers, the fellowship experienced growth in subsequent years. District councils were organized in various regions of the country and, where these did not exist, home missionary fields were designated to maximize evangelistic efforts. In 1917, W. Jethro Walthall led his Holiness Baptist Association of southwestern Arkansas into the Assemblies of God.Mario G. Hoover, "Origin and Structural Development of the Assemblies of God," third edition (MA thesis, Southwest Missouri State College, 1968/1988), p. 3. District councils and missionary stations were established outside the U.S. also. By 1921, there were districts in Canada (see Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada