Assemblies of God 2013 Statistics Released

[oneinkhorn]

Assemblies of God 2013 Statistics Released

http://ifphc.wordpress.com/2014/06/1...tics-released/

The Assemblies of God (AG) is one of the few major denominations in the United States to show continuing growth. The AG has now experienced 24 consecutive years of growth in the number of U.S. adherents, according to a press release from the AG National Leadership and Resource Center in Springfield, Missouri. The article compares the AG’s growth to the “declining attendance for many other North American evangelical denominations.”

http://ag.org/top/News/index_article...59&RSS_Source=

"The Assemblies of God is growing in America. But the real story is the ethnic transformation of the Assemblies of God. It is becoming less white and more reflective of the ethnic, linguistic and social diversity that exists in the global church."

[Dante]

Too bad Apostolic fellowships can't follow suit. The UPCI, PAW, and AAIFOCJ will continue to be predominantly the ethnicity they were founded by, because the Apostolic movement in America is founded on racism and division.

[Michael The Disciple]

To bad the AOG forced all the "Oneness" out of their organization 2 years after it was formed.

[Praxeas]

Originally Posted by Dante

Too bad Apostolic fellowships can't follow suit. The UPCI, PAW, and AAIFOCJ will continue to be predominantly the ethnicity they were founded by, because the Apostolic movement in America is founded on racism and division.

Yeah...I disagree.

I live in SoCal. Most of my local fellowship is Mexican American with some blacks, whites, filipino and at least one Okinawan

It pretty much represents the racial makeup of this city.

Also most of the blacks go to nearly and traditionally all black churches. That's not our fault. That's where they want to go. We reach out to every race.

In fact, while pointing fingers at the Apostolics, I can take you to several Hispanic congregations, Japanese congregations, Black congregations etc etc and they are NOT Apostolic

[commonsense]

I'm not AOG and have never been AOG but they're doing something right.....

(have had many friends and relatives that were part of the AOG)

[votivesoul]

Originally Posted by commonsense

I'm not AOG and have never been AOG but they're doing something right.....

(have had many friends and relatives that were part of the AOG)

Maybe. But then again, many (not all) AoG churches are watering themselves down so much they differ little from a typical non-denominational evangelical church (Consider how once upon a time nearly 100% of AoG constituents had received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Then it was decided that just the ministry needed to have received the Holy Spirit and spoken in tongues in order to be licensed, and now? Who knows. When you make the baptism of the Holy Spirit any optional experience subsequent to salvation, no wonder people stop caring enough to seek it.).

With this being the case, since people from all backgrounds and associations like to church shop and hop, numerical growth may only be an indicator of already professing and believing transplants from a non-AoG church.

While it may mean the ranks are swelling, it doesn't necessarily mean the AoG is actually growing in terms of fulfilling the Great Commission (i.e. winning the lost).

[Amanah]

I love my AoG friends, they are awesome people.

I love my UPC family too, here in FL we are very diverse, many black, Hispanic, and other ethnic backgrounds.

We are also having revival, 42 filled with the HG on Pentecost Sunday, people being filled and baptized almost everyweek.

[navygoat1998]

Originally Posted by votivesoul

Maybe. But then again, many (not all) AoG churches are watering themselves down so much they differ little from a typical non-denominational evangelical church (Consider how once upon a time nearly 100% of AoG constituents had received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Then it was decided that just the ministry needed to have received the Holy Spirit and spoken in tongues in order to be licensed, and now? Who knows. When you make the baptism of the Holy Spirit any optional experience subsequent to salvation, no wonder people stop caring enough to seek it.).

With this being the case, since people from all backgrounds and associations like to church shop and hop, numerical growth may only be an indicator of already professing and believing transplants from a non-AoG church.

While it may mean the ranks are swelling, it doesn't necessarily mean the AoG is actually growing in terms of fulfilling the Great Commission (i.e. winning the lost).

We have been in the Assemblies almost from the moment we left UPC, and every church we have been part of has been very Pentecostal. Our church is very Pentecostal and it is a large church, nothing like hearing the throngs of people when the Holy Ghost falls.

I don't disagree with you, but I will say this that the future of the AG will be Spirit filled, about 80 percent of all kids that go to youth camp or any of the camps for that matter come back Baptized in the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in other tongues as the Spirit gives utterance.

[navygoat1998]

Originally Posted by Amanah

I love my AoG friends, they are awesome people.

I love my UPC family too, here in FL we are very diverse, many black, Hispanic, and other ethnic backgrounds.

We are also having revival, 42 filled with the HG on Pentecost Sunday, people being filled and baptized almost everyweek.

[KeptByTheWord]

Let's face it - people like to find others like them to fellowship. That is why you see a church made up of one race, like Japanese, or Korean, or Spanish. They can relate to one another because they share similar backgrounds, genetics, and lifestyles. It may or may not have to do with the spiritual aspect of it, but more based on the fact that one Korean can relate to another Korean because of their culture. Their culture may mean more to them than they realize, and seeking fellowship with others who come from the same culture may be comforting to them.

There are others who don't feel the need to draw from their culture to find relationship.

I don't think it should be a mandated, or bad thing to have an all black church, or an all Korean church, or even an all American church!

For example, I have a Korean friend. She loves rice. Her children love rice. Her American husband tolerates it, but really doesn't like eating rice, and loves potatoes. She can't stand potatoes. She would rather eat rice than potatoes. I don't understand that. I love potatoes as a staple food for meals, and she loves rice. There is a cultural taste difference there that comes from her heritage, and one that comes from mine.

I shouldn't expect her to only eat potatoes, and she shouldn't expect me to eat only rice at meals we share together. We accept each other's differences. But my point is, that her culture and who she is, is different from mine. If she chose to go to a Korean-only church, I would understand that. If I choose to go to an All-American church, isn't that okay too?

See.... we try to fit everything and everybody into a nice tight little box, but it really doesn't work that way. Culture, race, background, family... all those things are important in relationships, and instead of judging one another, we should be accepting of our differences. If one culture group wants to worship together, let them. If they have no problem worshiping and fellow shipping with other cultures, than that is great too!

To sum it up... let's accept one another's differences, instead of trying to make them all fit into one tight little box.