Will the Assemblies of God Keep Growing in the Next Century?
The typo on the envelope jumped out at me: The letter was addressed to the “Assemblies of Good.”
“I like that,” I said to myself. “Yes, our goal is to be both the Assemblies of God and the Assemblies of Good.”
That set me to thinking. What are the indispensable traits of our fellowship that have marked us since 1914, when approximately 300 pastors and missionaries gathered to form this movement that has been so wonderfully used by the Lord?
I suppose the list of such characteristics could be lengthy, but the Spirit recently impressed three distinct ones on my own heart, all stemming from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. While these three words—humility, hunger and heart—are not the sum-all descriptors of the Assemblies of God, I do know that if you remove them from our spiritual DNA we would not be witnessing the national and worldwide growth we currently enjoy. In fact, I believe that whenever these three traits are present in any believer or church, there is health and vitality.
