Assemblies of God

[quietbloke]

Precious jewels

 

[quietbloke]

Preaching the cross!

 

[Insureman23]

In America, I think there is a huge age divide in the Assemblies of God. I saw it first hand when attending a large Assembly of God, in Bakersfield California in 1990-1991 basically before and during the start of the first Gulf war in Iraq. I was a grad student at the time, but having problems in my classes especially the statistical methods class.


I went to an big Assembly that was 2 blocks, maybe 1/4 Kilometer to where I lived. It was real close, having to push the button to use the crosswalk at two intersections was the biggest hinderance to me getting to church.


They had lots of different ministeries there. They had a young singles / college age one I attended. Really large elaborate childrens church, with puppets etc. One of the notable things they had was this big retirement community that was next door to the church, so all the rest home people didn't have to drive or be driven in a church bus they could just walk or wheel chair their way there.


But I noticed a big age difference in the afteglows that made me think the younger generation was loosing it's Pentecostal nature of general fervency. I was struggling with a grad school program in psychology, and stayed after church for prayer quite often at least once a month, maybe twice a month when things were really bad. Sometimes I would stay behind just to pray to get more of the Holy Spirit etc.


But quite often I was the only young Gen X person there. That was typical. In my college age class I got the feeling that the some of the people my age or a little older were either embarrassed of a little indifferent to their Pentecostal roots. They basically came across like "Evangelical Free" folks (modern Evangelicals that worship like AOG, but no tongues or other Pentecostal stuff). And some of the younger grand kids would make jokes about their grand ma (basically being old time Pentecost) etc.


The Church was very unusual because you could see 4 generations of people attending. (Many Protestant churches in the states can skew either young or old predominantly).

But it did make me wonder about the denomination etc. I talked to other people I knew that said they saw similar things in their churches. But it was kind of interesting, I usually hang out with my old age group, but found myself hanging out with the old times, outside of Sunday school.

And the strange thing it is not like Pentecostalism or the Charismatic movement is dieing out in the states far from it, it is one of the areas of Christianity growing...


Anyway that is my experience in the 90s. Sadly, I left that church to try to go to a "Faith" aka "Word of Faith" Foursquare Church to help me with my life difficulties of the time. Probably one of the biggest mistakes of my Life. But also very educational!


Take Care!

I went to AOG back in the 80s and 90s. What church you go to now?

 

[Pavel Mosko]

I went to AOG back in the 80s and 90s. What church you go to now?

My current (unofficial) affiliation has been with a small denomination called the Charismatic Episcopal Church and I also help my best friend at times with his church (the guy in the video below) that comes from a branch of the Assyrian Church of the East.

Charismatic Episcopal Church of North America | The CEC-NA

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=622699755885392

And before that before my divorce I was Coptic Orthodox, still am theologically speaking in different ways. Before that was nondenominational Charismatic and raised in a conservative Lutheran church and synod (Wels and former Missouri synod) that also incidentally taught Cessationism.

 

[quietbloke]

I still fellowship with Assemblies of God in UK.

 

[quietbloke]

'Bind us together in love'

 

[quietbloke]

We love the Body of Christ

 

[quietbloke]

The Body of Christ is made up of all that are born again!

 

[quietbloke]

Keep us supporting!

 

[quietbloke]

Keep us persevering!

 

[quietbloke]

Keep us praying for one another!

 

[quietbloke]

Keep us spurring one another on!

 

[quietbloke]

Let us enjoy fellowship with one another!

 

[quietbloke]

Let us follow after all that is good!

 

[quietbloke]

We are here among family!

 

[quietbloke]

We are here among friends!

 

[quietbloke]

Under the cross of Jesus!

 

[quietbloke]

In the care of the Almighty!

 

[quietbloke]

Abiding in love!

 

[quietbloke]

Remaining constant!