Anoited to Serve Book Report

Title: Anointed to serve

Author: William W. Menzies

Publisher: Gospel Publishing House

Copyright: 1971

General Theme of Manual: The History and Events that shaped and made the Assemblies of God the way it is today.

Summary of Pages read: This book was a very useful and insightful book. Let me break it down chapter by chapter.

Ch. 1 was the back ground chapter predating 1900. This chapter showed the years of social revolution. The people where satisfied and had no desire to seek God in prayer. There was extreme self-satisfaction and churches were “dead”. There were also many false teachings that shook the nation. The worst was Kantian idealism from Germany and the publication of Darwin’s The Origin of the Species in 1859. Not all was bad in America though. Out of this theological toss up came great strides for Christianity such as The Princeton theory and Fundamentalism. Also the Holiness movement was gaining strength. The holiness movement maybe one of the greatest attributers to The Assemblies Of God. Also important was the charismatic movements in the catholic church. And lastly in this chapter it brought forth the important fact that at least 11 people spoke in tongues and many were healed in early tent meetings.

Ch. 2 talks of Topeka revivals (1900-1901). On January 1, 1901 the charismatic revival broke loose. This chapter talks extensively about Charles F. Parham. The most important of which was the establishment of a “Faith Home” and the informational holiness paper “The Apostolic Faith”. The “Faith Home” became Bethel Bible Collage and the frontlines for the speaking in tongues and other gifts of the Holy Spirit. This collage is where Miss Agnes N. Ozman spoke in tongues and sparked the Pentecostal movement. And this was the first time something of this nature survived the first waves of criticism.

Ch. 3 reports of the spreading revival to Los Angeles and elsewhere. In Galena Kansas Parham conducted meetings. “800 were converted and more than 1,000 were truly healed…” and many spoke in the Evidence. The first Pentecostal church ever was erected in Keelville, Kansas. The revival then headed to Texas. Parham went to Houston and a woman who was injured in a streetcar accident and extremely disabled was completely healed. This brought great positive public awareness of the movement. Later Parham erected and established another “faith” bible school in Houston. One of the students W. J. Seymour became very important, he was the link between Houston and Azusa street. W. J. Seymour held meetings in a private home of some Baptist and the spirit of God came upon them as “a bolt of lightning”. Eventually so many people were attending that they had to use a warehouse at 312 Azusa Street, the revival was in action. Masses of people were healed and received the Holy Spirit with the Evidence. The most important ingredient of this revival was the expectancy of the works of God and His Presence. The book lists Evangelical Zeal, Openness to change, Faith, Equality and biblical authority as some other important ingredients to this revival.

Ch. 4 was the reaction to the revivals happening across the nation and the world. The south had some resistance with the holiness groups and some smaller organized groups. The other areas had similar problems but they seemed small compared to the progress they were achieving. More and more people are showing signs of needing more organization and leadership, the movement is strong but the theology is not clear to all.

Ch. 5 was about the call to order and the birth of the Assemblies of God in 1914. Many people at first did not want to become a denomination or a fellowship because of the stigma. So many were rejected by their denomination and persecuted, they wanted to be free and follow only the Holy Spirit. Especially Parham was against the formation of any group. That was to be expected from him, he did not like to be accountable to anyone. Eventually there was a call for a general counsel on December 20, 1913 that was published in Word and Witness. People were not happy about this announcement and reacted negatively. The Word and Witness published the call to a general counsel twice again, they tried to clarify its purpose and outlined what was going to occur at the meeting. Some criticism settled. Eventually the meeting came and over 126 missionaries and registered ministers attended. E. N. Bell was the chairman and many things were accomplished including the Preamble and the resolution Constitution of the Assemblies of God. Also it was established that the AG was to be a voluntary cooperative fellowship.

Ch. 6 is about the second general counsel and other important