Tory, Brad, Mark, Jeff, Paul, and George!
What a great joy to have a day with you on Tuesday. I so appreciate the time and effort you spent. It was an enriching day for me, and I so appreciate all your wise counsel.
I only wish every young minister in the AG (and every older one too) could have been in the room with us, and maybe with the suggestions you've given me we can make that happen in cyberspace.
I want to repeat what I said to you about one of my favorite sayings. It's from Deng Xiaoping, chairman of China after Mao Zedong died. Deng instituted economic reform in capitalistic ways and incurred the ire of the Maoists. Deng Xiaoping responded by saying, "I don't care if a cat is black or white so long as it catches mice!"
That's how I feel about how we do church. The New Testament itself shows us there are various kinds of churches. I'm not concerned about how we do "church" so long as we are "catching" people for Jesus. Issues of governance, service styles and times, formal or informal dress, types of buildings, days of worship -- are not the important issues. The important issues are: "Is the church seeing people come to Jesus, are they being filled with the Spirit, delivered, healed, restored?" We must, in the Assemblies of God be more concerned about end results than fussing with one another over means.
I appreciate the spiritual energy, creativity, and vitality that young pastors and ministers bring to our Movement, and I trust that in these days to come we can be yoked together in better ways to advance the mission of Jesus in our world!
Blessings!
George O. Wood
General Superintendent
Friday, October 26, 2007
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16 comments:
Wow. That was extremely refreshing.
Wow, that was refreshing.
Simply...Amen. Thank you Dr. Woods.
Uniting. Thank you.
Dr. Wood,
The privilege was all ours! A day I will not forget! I'm still trying to collect my thoughts!
Thanks,
Mark
Thank you Dr. Wood! I am envious of the five.
My Hope and prayer is that at the end of the day we are still - Assemblies of God, otherwise, what's the point of being Asemblies of God.
Please allow my voice to join the refrain. How refreshing to hear that we're majoring on the heartbeat of Jesus instead of the pulse of the midwest.
Thank you guys for representing us!
I was especially encouraged and blessed by the individual posts about the visit on three of your blogs. I hope you don't mind, but I wanted to share the permalinks to them just in case other futureager's haven't seen them:
Jeff's "Story Telling"
Mark's "A Lesson in Leadership"
Brad's "Encouraged"
All of these posts were awesome and gave more insight into Dr. Wood's persona and leadership style. Thanks again!
Wow! Do you think younger ministers will start to be credentialed under him? We had a big meeting here at Valley Forge Christian College concerning the average age of a credentialed minister in the AG being so high. I wonder if younger ministers will see the changes and hop on board!
Brandon Lemois
Crazy thing is that if the "cat" didn't articulate his "pentecostalism" exactly as the GS wanted, no matter how many "mice" are caught--he would'nt be allowed in the house. AND, I'm just as concerned about what we do with the mice we "catch" as I am with the catching thereof. If GW's comments are authentic, then will he REQUIRE GPH to stop the era of "Cultural Revolution" and start publishing materials from creative AG people--even if they differ from the PARTY line? Maybe then we'd be able to sign our names and not use ANONYMOUS for fear of ACTUAL Tiananmen Square reprisals!
Anon- Whoa, dude, major downer there. You totally killed my buzz.
In all seriousness, we've got a new GP that's expressing openess to positive change in both words & deeds. The last election showed thats change is happening, but not too fast. There are exciting, good times!
The AG is a *very* losely organized fellowship. There's a lot of room for disagreement - too much, some would say. There are pastors activly & openly preaching against "party line" positions, as laid out in the position papers. (Take for example a certian Springfield pastor who openly preaches against women in ministry...)
There's been many pastors who have posted on this blog (not anonymously, I might add) stating disagreement with the "big 16". I have never heard of reprisals or consequences, unless that teaching leads to a heresy. At least from this part of the field, I'd say that in some areas there's too much freedom to deviate from the party line on some issues- but that's been depated to death on this blog months ago.
As for GPH - you never signed a statment saying you had to use them. Given the results of a recent poll on this site, it doesn't look like too many people use them anyway. If you don't like their stuff, shop elsewhere. The USA is a capitalist country, you know. Competition is good. If you can't find anything you like, start up your own resource site! What a country!
Seriously, a lot of life is what you make it. Same for the AG. If you're unhappy, you need to talk to your local leadership. God put them there for you.
Anyway, back to focusing on the field & catching mice. Us cats can have fun trying different methods, and we're going to keep our joy doing it. And I welcome the new vision of our new "head cat" with joy!
my question is...if you don't believe in initial physical evidence any more (because this is where this is all leading) why stay in the AG which was birthed the movement to begin with?
Yes, I would be attacked also like the previous poster!
Thank you Dr. Wood
Wow is right! I did not think Dr. Wood was the man for the job but I prayed for God's divine hand in selecting our next leader and it is apparent He did just that!
This was AMAZING and gave me a rush! What a heart and what a vision. Finally to hear a focus on what really matters - love the cat story! It is refreshing to hear this - I can already see the bridge being built between generations!!
You ROCK Dr. Wood!
David
How can this happen and will anyone help us?
I just received a letter toady form the Southern Missouri District council of The
Assemblies of God. Following is a copy of the letter's contents;
Dated November 29, 2007
Dear Fellow Ministers:
We Trust the blessings of God are greatly upon each of you during this special Holiday
Season.
In our October presbyters meeting a motion prevailed that no Assemblies of God
credentialed minister in our district will be allowed to attend a non-Assemblies of God
Church unless they are given permission by the Presbytery Board.
It was also moved that the District write a letter to those ministers that have been
brought to our attention who are attending a non-Assemblies of God Church indicating it
will be necessary for them to receive District Presbytery approval for them to do so, or
their credentials will be in jeopardy.
If you or some credentialed minister in your church falls into this category, please
comply or encourage them to follow through with this action.
May God continue to bless you and your family as together we strive to enhance the
Kingdom of God.
Sincerely in Christ
Bill Baker
Superintendent
Southern Missouri District Council
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