I wanted to post this again so I have a fresh look as I begin to formulate a book.

I grew up in the Assemblies of God. I would have grown up in another Pentecostal denomination if there had been a church from that denomination in the town where I grew up. What was there was an Assemblies of God church. 

My parents were deeply involved in the church. There were still revival services when I was growing up. They were still week-long services. Sunday morning, Sunday night, then every night through Friday or Saturday. Even in that time period there was a bemoaning of what it “used to be.” Before, in early Pentecost, revival services were weeks long. There were tents set up sometimes. In the era of Billy Graham (before the big stadium crusades), Jack Cole, A.A. Allen, Jimmy Swaggart (again, before the big arena crusades), these folks would spend weeks in an area or in a church holding services night after night. 

For me growing up, there were week-long revivals. When there weren’t week-long revivals, there was Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night. My dad started Royal Rangers and my mom started Missionettes in our church to give me and my younger sister something to do on Wednesdays. Both of those outreaches to kids flourished. My dad would take 30 plus boys camping a lot. 

All this to say, I spent a lot of time in church.  

But it was more than that. I haven’t grown up resenting church. Far from it. It was in church and on a missions trip the Lord called me into ministry. It was at Bible college the Lord refined that call to expand my heart for Muslims long before 9/11. 

I have spent 30 plus years in ministry with the Assemblies of God. For the past nearly 20 years I was privileged to pastor one church. 

Over the course of 2017 I knew change was coming. I didn’t know exactly what, but I knew the Lord was stirring me. That led to me resigning the church I pastored and a huge move from one  part of the country to another part. From the North to the deep South. 

In that move I anticipated a few things and then have been blown away by other things the Spirit opened to me as I have been in transition. 

The biggest thing is this: I am moving away from my place as a minister in the Assemblies of God and am completely not sure of what is next. 

When we made the move I sensed a few things:

1. I needed to get more involved in the issue of racism. 
2. I wanted to help churches and preferably a smaller black church.
3. We were probably going to worship in a church that wasn’t Assemblies of God.

Even those things have been adjusted, but the short version is this:

I am moving away from my time as a minister in the Assemblies of God and we are moving toward joining the Anglican Church. I have no idea what that means for me in ministry. 

The Anglican Church in North America is the place where we have landed. The worship on Sunday is completely different from Assemblies of God churches. 

This is not something that is “against” the Assemblies of God. I love my heritage. I love my upbringing. I am still Pentecostal! I pray in the Spirit, in other tongues. I pray for healing and miracles. I believe in missions. The Word is still my base of authority. 

So… this Anglican thing. WHY?

Over the years I have had a deeper longing for the historical understanding of the Church. While I tried to understand that within my context in the Assemblies of God, it is in the liturgy of a place like the Anglican Church I understand it more fully. 

There is a rootedness within historically “liturgical” churches that helps me understand the expanse of the Church I haven’t known in other arenas of worship and ministry. 

The irony of that stood out to me several years ago when I was in Ethiopia. The leader of the Assemblies of God was talking to some Ethiopian Assemblies of God pastors about the history of the Assemblies of God worldwide. That was the year the Assemblies of God was celebrating its 100 year anniversary. 

The irony was this: The national leader was in awe of the “history” of the Assemblies of God because it was 100 years old and the Ethiopian A/G was about 20 years old at the time. He thought 100 years was a long time… as he stood in a nation where the Orthodox Church had been rooted for 2000 years. 

Being in a place like the Anglican Church gives me a sense of the authority of the Church alongside the authority of Scripture. 

The liturgical service is ordered differently that the “liturgy” of Assemblies of God and other evangelical churches. It intentionally drives us to the Table of the Lord every week. It is here that the particular Anglican Church we are joining (Church of the Apostles in Daphne, AL) is something Terri and I find deeply comforting: they also emphasize the preaching of the Word. They don’t have 10 minute homilies. Every Sunday they are engaging the Scripture for that day in a meaningful way. 

The ordering of the service is obviously jarring for those not in that tradition. Yet, we have found it a “grounding” experience for us. I have yet to get through a worship service without getting deeply emotional in some way as we worship. I have been emotional during the singing, during some of the prayers, during the altar time as I received the Table of the Lord… at some point in every service I have had a sense of the Spirit speaking to me in a significant way. 

The worship service is not the end of it. I am part of a men’s Bible study that meets every Tuesday at 6 a.m. and these guys dig deep into the text we are studying. Terri is also part of a women’s group that meets for study and prayer. 

The sense of the Spirit leading me into issues of racism and racial reconciliation have also been confirmed. The church is deeply involved in a movement in their county to reach across racial lines and join in conversation with historically black churches. This has opened doors for me to become friends with several black pastors and get acquainted with their churches and the issues they face in Alabama. 

In this shift to the Anglican Church we have found a place that is deeply rooted in the worship of Christ. They take on issues seriously, like racism, immigration, daily life, and they keep life rooted in weekly liturgy as they come to the Table of the Lord. It all flows out of the worship of Christ. We have found a place where worship is meaningful and the preaching and teaching of the Word is vital. 

Ministry may take on a different role in my life. While I hope to have conversations with the Church about ordination, I have no idea where those conversations will lead. While I miss church ministry, I am settled in where God has me right now. 

I am deeply thankful for all that has gone into my life and would in no way want to come across as rejecting Pentecostal theology or practice. Nor do I want to seem to reject the Assemblies of God. I am so deeply grateful for every meaningful experience that has led me to this point. I also wait in eager anticipation for what is to come. 

My hope is we can all understand the immense breadth of the Body of Christ and celebrate it together.