Resolution 4

I have read on a number of blogs the disappointment that resolution 4 didn't pass at General Council last week. This resolution would have added additional General Presbyters. They would have to be women or under 40. In some ways this would be a good thing. But I really felt that an advisory board may be a better idea. We have recently approved this change in Illinois to help the executives keep in touch with what is going on in the churches.

My biggest problem with the debate was the attitude that came across from some people who supported resolution 4. The implication that if young pastors don't get a voice and don't get it now doesn't not seem to me to be in keeping with Scripture. I heard young pastors and older ones stand up and say that if this doesn't pass many young pastors will leave the fellowship. I don't know about you but I don't like to be threatened. These kind of threats seem childish. In some ways it seems like one my kids stomping there feet and demanding they get what they want.

As a young pastor I want to be a part of the solution. I want to work to bring growth to the Fellowship. But I have the attitude that even if my ideas aren't implemented or if I feel I haven't been heard I am not going anywhere. If my attitude was if things go well I will stay if they don't I will leave, then when things didn't go as I wanted them to I could say I told you so and leave. This seems to be a part of the spirit of the age.

1 Timothy 5:1 Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as brothers,

I urge us to take this approach to the conversation that needs to happen in the Assemblies of God. Even if the older pastors fail to treat us as younger pastors with respect it does not eliminate the burden on us to speak with gentleness and love.