Assemblies of God - Redefining the word "Voluntary"


As this Assemblies of God 2011 General Council website banner requests,
I am about to make my mark on their movement...
The word 'VOLUNTARY'. Does anyone out there know what it means? The big question is, does anyone within the Assemblies of God (AOG) religious organization know what it means? Let's look at a few quotes from their website and constitution, in which I will emphasize the words voluntary and obligatory in all caps.

According to the Assemblies of God contribution page, VOLUNTARY commitments may be revised at any time. The page describes automatic monthly contributions as follows: "As your commitment is an agreement between you and God, it is understood that you may revise your commitment at any time." The page also describes 'Faith Promise' donations: "As your Faith Promise is an agreement between you and God, it is understood that you may revise your promise at any time." OK, so it sounds like VOLUNTARY giving is not OBLIGATORY. I don't see any statement to the effect of "Your giving commitment, once VOLUNTARILY given, becomes OBLIGATORY and not optional". That's good. But...

Article II of the Assemblies of God 2007 Constitution tells us the nature of the Assemblies of God religious organization: "ARTICLE II. NATURE - The General Council of the Assemblies of God is a cooperative fellowship based upon mutual agreements VOLUNTARILY entered into by its membership, and shall be known as a fellowship of churches and credentialed ministers." So the Assemblies of God consists of churches and their ministers, and the fellowship is based upon mutual agreements (and by extension, not based on unilateral amendments to those agreements). However, Article VII makes it clear that for ministers, "VOLUNTARY" doesn't mean "VOLUNTARY." It states, "for the minister, VOLUNTARY cooperation means that when the minister decides to become a cooperating member of the Assemblies of God, this cooperation and participation thereby becomes OBLIGATORY and not optional." Cutting out the legalese, this literally says, "VOLUNTARY cooperation...becomes OBLIGATORY." Microsoft Word's built-in thesaurus tells me that 'VOLUNTARY' and 'OBLIGATORY' are antonyms. But the Assemblies of God redefines them as synonyms. Sounds a lot like how an evil, godless culture has redefined 'wicked' to mean 'awesome'. And 'bad' to mean 'cool'. And 'sick' to mean excellent. And 'killing it' to mean doing really good at something.

This redefinition of 'VOLUNTARY' becomes confusing if you're an Assemblies of God chaplain. Article VII further states: " All chaplains, military and institutional, will be OBLIGATED to their home district in the amount of 10 percent of their tithes from income earned from the chaplaincy. All chaplains are also encouraged to make VOLUNTARY contributions to the district in which they fulfill their assignments." Hmmm. Chaplains are ministers, right? So if they are encouraged to give "voluntary" contributions to their district, yet for ministers "VOLUNTARY" means "OBLIGATORY", then must the chaplain give in excess of their tithes - or face disciplinary action?

OK, so for ministers, 'VOLUNTARY' participation means 'OBLIGATORY' participation. But since the Assemblies of God consists of "a fellowship of churches and credentialed ministers", what about churches? Article VI states, "General Council affiliated churches are deemed to be sovereign, autonomous, self-governing, and self-determining bodies..."

The meaning of the word 'SOVEREIGN'. The meaning of the word 'AUTONOMOUS'. The meaning of the words 'SELF-GOVERNING' and 'SELF-DETERMINING. Does anyone out there know what these words mean? The big question is, does anyone within the Assemblies of God know what they mean? I can tell you from experience, they don't mean what the dictionary says they mean. And you had better know what they mean, comrade! (Read this out loud in a fake Russian accent for effect)

Assemblies of God 2011 General Council Resolution 21: Here's my take on the proposed resolution 21. Sure, it's an attempt at resolving this issue. But it's weak and pathetic with no teeth. Here's my summary of the resolution:
  • the AG was founded as a "Voluntary Cooperative Fellowship"
  • The General Council has redefined this to remove autonomy of local churches
  • Districts have taken their brothers to court (the Apostle Paul rolling over in his grave)
  • Districts in court have claimed the AG is "hierarchical" (except for several cases where it was more advantageous to claim the AG is NOT hierarchical)
  • We're confident that everyone was acting in love and good intentions (so there's really nothing to repent of)
  • We recommend that the AOG leaders (who could potentially be guilty of beating up their brothers) should investigate themselves to see if anything needs to change. While driving their luxurious cars through Springfield, Missouri, they should ask themselves if they might maybe sorta need to think about possibly repenting (if it's not too much to ask and if it doesn't interfere with their comfort too much).
Yes, I know we all feel like vomiting from the lukewarmness, but we must remember that it is at least an attempt to draw attention to the situation. And maybe one or two attendees to the 2011 General Council (who aren't bamboozled by the fancy website or distracted by the fine arts festival, or busy stoking their emotional fervor at the rad-dad youth convention services after playing miniature golf at Castles N' Coasters) might just question what prompted the writing of Resolution 21, and stumble across a humble little blog to read how the AOG "loved" our local congregation out of its church building and property, and then sold it to a non-AOG congregation. Just like Jesus would have done.

How Christian youth are supposed to dress and act per the AOG 2011 Youth Convention website
(because it's much more important to look and act "hip" like godless worldly teens than to obey Jesus)

Above is the banner from the Assemblies of God youth convention website. For the record, that's the Apostle John on the right side of the banner, pictured in the act of following Jesus' command to "make disciples...teaching them to observe everything I commanded you." My guess is he's teaching us how to carefully tip-toe away from religious man-made philosophies (like the idea that we should utilize worldliness to disciple Christian youth).

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