Does this week’s quote describe the Apostolic movement today? Why/Why not?

survey sez!

Reader's responses to The Big Question.

August 18, 2008

The Question: Does this week’s quote describe the Apostolic movement today? Why/Why not?

Quote: “Nothing corrupts revolutionary movements more—and more radically—than success. For the first generation, the pioneering one, is followed by that of opportunists. The third continues the fight out of habit; the fourth, out of inertia. Eventually the movement turns its battle inward, splitting into factions, groups, sects, one against the other, one against all. Substance gives way to superficiality. Nothing is harder to maintain then the dream after it has molded reality. Nothing is as dangerous for victory, be it spiritual, then victory itself.” -Elie Wiesel

The Answer: “Yep! Sounds just like the superficiality that is happening.”

The Answer: “All I really know anymore is that I’m tired of being labeled. I’m not sure which ‘generation’ I’m supposed to fall into, but I know that I’m not continuing any fight ‘out of habit.’ I’m walking with God because He changed my life and because I love Him. I don’t speak for the A/P movement as a whole, because every individual is different.”

The Answer: “It really does . . . after years of striving to have a movement that is heard, that is recognized, that is making a difference in the world. Now we spend our time being selfish, bashing the church down the street, and sheep stealing. Wow, what a powerful quote. We are too destination minded and forget about the journey—the work isn’t done until we meet Jesus.”

The Answer: “I believe our church is seeing corruption from those who think they are successful when they are really not too well financially, education wise, or spiritually.”

The Answer: “No. The Apostolic movement has many wonderful people in younger generations ready and able to take the movement forward. Unfortunately, a good number of Baby Boomer-age Apostolics want to fight and divide the group and not allow younger people to take places of leadership.

I know of far too many young men who accept a pastorate only to have the former pastor re-seize control of the church and leave the new pastor and his family in a bad situation. The fact is that many of our older ministers have not prepared well for retirement and pastoral transitions. Our churches need to be more like the Green Bay Packers and tell yesterday’s MVP’s to move on when they have retired.”

The Answer: “No. We haven’t fallen that far yet. It’s true that the latter generations tend to move away from the original creeds a bit, but that’s not all that bad. At its inception, the Apostolic movement was so focused on ‘standards’ that we cut ourselves off from those lost souls that needed us. I’ve found that I win a lot more souls with salvation doctrine than I do with traditional ‘standards’ speeches. I say ‘Let’s get them into the church and let God deal with them about standards.’”

The Answer: “Once a particular victory is won, the easiest thing to do is to turn on others in the movement only slightly different than yourself. More difficult is recognizing that while you were busy winning the victory, the rest of the world was busy changing and there are now different battles to fight.

Fighting against one another is a sure way to keep our victories limited to the past. Instead, we should celebrate where we have come from, and move forward as fellow warriors fighting for the victories of tomorrow. This is the only way to maintain the life of our movement. Viva Revolucion!”

The Answer: “What is this week’s quote?”

The Answer: “Yes, this is the challenge of the American Pentecostal movement. We’ve been successful; we’re no longer on the wrong side of the tracks. Our churches are now filled with college-educated people, as well as the blue-collar workers that often began this movement in the 20th century. We must celebrate this, while going on to greater things. We can’t afford to lose our passion.”

The Answer: “Before last fall I would have said, “No way.” But with the mess over such a small thing as marketing, I’m afraid yes. We often speak on the latter half of Romans 14, but have we forgotten the first half of that chapter?”

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