Wag of My Finger: Hospitality in the Assemblies of God
For a little context, you should listen to Episode 3 of The Presumptive Podcast (to be released tomorrow). Until then, I provide a major critique of my denomination.
I remember sermons, or at least pieces of sermons, which included the phrase “people of like, precious faith.” The idea was that our faith is similar (like) and precious (costly or hard to come by). Maybe it’s because the Assemblies of God has had a theological inferiority complex or maybe because the worst parts of us have been the most public (e.g. Swaggart, Bakker, etc). But our bonds of faith have been strong, perhaps even hegemonic. On the whole, I really think we lack the skills for self-critical reflection and for dialogue both within our Fellowship and without.
Indeed, truth is hard fought in our Fellowship, the quest of “the biblical truth” or epistemological truth. Many folks forsake friendship for the sake of biblical rightness. Too often this is cast in terms of theological conversatism or liberalism. And we remain blind to the shadows cast by early church leaders who fought to either conserve the practice of foreskin removal or to open the community to those uncircumcised. We wage costly battles on issues of divorce/remarriage and of whether justice/compassion should be included in our raison d’être. In fact, we allow such issues to break the bonds of our self-styled “Fellowship.”
How sad is it that our “Fellowship” is predicated on right belief? Communion in our church is largely dependent on orthodoxy. We have a “Commission of Doctrinal Purity” for crying out loud. But we call ourselves a Fellowship.
I hope that we can forge a way beyond worn debates about gay marriage, social gospel, and women in ministry and, instead, shift the conversation to hospitality and a deeper theology of friendship. Indeed, such conversations are happening, and such theologies are emerging. I hope we have ears in our Fellowship to hear.
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