Posted on 07/03/2011 8:46:46 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The Assemblies of God, one of the largest Pentecostal denominations, is growing faster than the U.S. population.
AG reported that its U.S. adherents increased four percent in 2010, which is several times higher than the U.S. population growth rate, which is about one percent a year. Adherents of the Assemblies of God USA have surpassed three million followers, 3,030,944 to be exact, in 2010.
This is the largest annual percentage increase since 1983, according to AG records.
In terms of official membership, AG reported a 2.5 percent increase, to 1.75 million members. Attendance at major worship service, water baptism, spirit baptism, and conversions were also up, according to statistics.
The largest decline was seen in the Sunday evening service, where attendance drastically fell 4.1 percent, to 399,728.
“This is a unique moment in the history of our movement,” said Assemblies of God General Superintendent George Wood in a video promoting the denomination’s annual General Council meeting next month in Phoenix.
The Assemblies of God in the U.S. was founded in 1914 after an early 20th century Pentecostal movement. While expanding outreach work and establishing relationships with other Pentecostal churches, Assemblies of God became a worldwide movement. The church believes in baptism in the Holy Spirit and present-day speaking in tongues.
Wood has previously attributed the higher statistical numbers to diversity. More than 38 percent of the U.S. Assemblies of God members are ethnic minorities.
The latest report backs up Wood’s claim, showing that ethnic communities defined by language have the largest percentage net gains. The national Slavic group was up 113.7 percent and the Southern Pacific community was up 25.2 percent, according to the report. The West Spanish language region was up 9.7 percent and the language regions classified as "other" was up 9.4 percent.
Part of the reason for the fellowship’s growth may be the result of Wood’s leadership. Wood was elected to lead the U.S. Assemblies of God in 2007. He quickly established initiatives to emphasize church multiplication, training young leaders and resourcing churches and individuals for more effective ministry, officials stated.
Wood previously served as general secretary for 14 years and has more than 40 years of ministry experience. He was assistant superintendent of the Southern California District from 1988-1993, after pastoring Newport-Mesa Christian Center in Costa Mesa, Calif. for 17 years. Wood was elected chairman of the World Assemblies of God Fellowship in May 2008.
In 2009, officials reported having more than 63 million Assemblies of God followers worldwide. At the U.S. General Council meeting in the same year, Wood encouraged struggling leaders not to be weary in their ministry work, even if the harvest may not come in their lifetime.
"The breakthrough will come," Wood told thousands of Pentecostals in Orlando, Fla., at the 2009 meeting. "God will not forget your work."
AG Churches joined with Mormons, Catholics and other evangelical Churches to fight the Gay marriage agenda at the ballot box in California. They won and defeated Prop 8 (Gay Marriage) but the courts are trying to unravel the will of the people.
Also, AG is apparently behind Teen Challenge, the most successful drug and alcohol rehabilitation program in the world.
If that keeps up, they will be bigger than the population of the world!
“AG Churches joined with Mormons, Catholics and other evangelical Churches to fight the Gay marriage agenda at the ballot box in California. They won and defeated Prop 8 (Gay Marriage) but the courts are trying to unravel the will of the people.”
Prop. 8 only passed by 52% in 2008. If our black robed masters allow it to be upheld, look for the statists and homosexualists to call for another popular vote to repeal it.
Freegards
AG Churches joined with Mormons, Catholics and other evangelical Churches to fight the Gay marriage agenda at the ballot box in California.
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Actually, the Evangelical and Penecostal churches did a lot more in CA grassroots wise than the LDS and we didn’t join with them, we fought them on our own and hard. I was in the middle of that fight in the Palm Springs area (high gay pop) and the LDS churches in that area did very little. It was mostly the Calvary Chapels and the AOG along with the Catholics, and there was no ‘joining’ or cooperation with the LDS at all officially or unofficially.
Teen Challenge was started by David Wilkerson, as a inner city outreach (Cross and the Switchblade movie) and he may have been AOG pastor. You are correct that the AOG church does keep a lot of involvement in Teen Challenge but so do other churches and it wasn’t started a ministry of the AOG specifically.
BTW, Johnny and June Carter Cash were both AOG.
This is encouraging to hear.
At a time when society has gone through such bad changes in recent years, and at a time when many mainstream religions have watered down their message to try to attract adherents, it’s nice to see that a traditional faith is growing, as it keeps its focus on what’s important.
In spite of the general decline in religious faith affiliation and attendance in recent years, this one is doing well. That’s an encouraging piece of good news.
Yes, he was an AofG pastor until his death earlier this year.
My siblings and I were raised ag, my grandad was an ag pastor for almost 60 yrs. My grandma, 96, still attends when she can.
I go to a large AofG church, and we have been growing steadily. We also have a very diverse church - we are probably 40-50% white, 25% hispanic, 15% black, 5% Asian, and the rest a mix of others (Pacific islander, etc). But race and ethnicity is never an issue -we don’t have “black” or Hispanic” bible study groups -we all worship together, study together, pray together and fellowship together. We/re all going ot be in heaven together - may as well get along down here as well!
Ok, I wasn’t sure if he was or not. I was saddened to hear of his death. The testimony of Nicky Cruz had a profound impact on me when I saw the movie.
My MIL was AG. Thank God she’s with God now because I’d hate for her to see THIS world.
He will eventually switch to ‘c’.
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