Category: Of Random Interest

The Assemblies of God in Nor Cal and Nev

After musing about collegians in the AG, I got curious about our district’s demographics and so I emailed Rich Hopping (our secretrary/treasurer) and asked him how many people are in our district and how many we’re reaching.

He said:

It is our estimation there are 16 million people who live in the geographical boundaries of the NCN District. There are 130 thousand people who call an Assemblies of God church their church home. On any Sunday morning there are 80 to 90 thousand folks in attendance.

For the record, our geographical boundaries are the entire state of Nevada and California north of Fresno (but not including Fresno).

That translates to roughly 0.8% of our district. By comparison, we’re reaching less than 0.5% of the collegians in our district. So college ministry lags behind in the Assemblies (although not nearly as badly as I feared).

By the way, I find Assemblies of God triumphalism pretty funny given that we’re reaching less than 1% of our audience (in our district, at least). Worldwide we rock, but in America things are a different story. update: in 2003 America had a population of 290,809,777 and the Assemblies of God reported a constituency of 2,729,562, which works out to 0.9%. So our district is just a tad below the average in terms of constituency as a percentage of the population. My curiousity piqued, I checked our worldwide constituency as a percentage of global population–50,000,000 versus 6,000,000,000 also comes out to 0.8%. We’re nothing if not consistent…

Some other details that interested me in my research:

  • Our district had more involved collegians than any other: 2,147 (5.1% of the AG total). At least, we had more as a raw number. We probably trail several other districts when you evaluate involved collegians as a percentage of the population (the Northwest District, for example, has 2,040 students involved but many fewer collegians and colleges in their district than we do, so they’re doing better than us).
  • Our pastors estimate that about 41% of the collegians in our churches are involved in campus ministry. 24% in Chi Alpha and 18% in other ministries (like InterVarsity).

Anyway, all that was of tremendous interest to me. I hope it is of at least moderate interest to some of you. 🙂

On an unrelated note–is there anyone else blogging about the Assemblies of God? It is the world’s fourth largest Christian body (with an interesting mix of adherents), but I haven’t stumbled across anyone else commenting on us from the inside. I’ve hit a few other AGers online (such as John Abela, Tim Bednar, and Randy Jumper), but I haven’t really found any dialog about the movement.

Maybe I’m just looking in the wrong places. Or maybe we’re all so scared of our leadership that AG bloggers keep as quiet as we can.

Or maybe we’re simply lazy…

Academic iPods

Every Duke frosh gets an iPod. Sarah Ball must be pretty happy right about now…

And The Moral of the Story Is

THE eminent Russian physicist Andrei Linde once found himself on a long flight seated beside a businessman nose-deep in A Brief History of Time.

Without having been introduced and before the usual small talk, they struck up a conversation about it.

What do you think of it? Linde asked.

Fascinating, said the businessman. I cant put it down.

Oh, thats interesting, the scientist replied. I found it quite heavy going in places and didnt fully understand some parts.

At which point the businessman closed the book on his lap, leaned across with a compassionate smile, and said, Let me explain.…

Stories like this keep me from saying everything I think…

source (the above excerpt is actually a conflation of two sources, the first was from Sunday On Scotland, but I can’t find a link that works. Anyway, their opening sentence was much better than the second source I found so I kept it)

Baccalaureate

I should have linked to Jim Wallis’ baccalaureate speech at Stanford much earlier…

Cool Clothing

Prophetik makes some pretty cool shirts.

College Folk and The Assemblies of God

This from the head of Chi Alpha: According to the 2003 ACMR Report AG churches report there are 245,912 adherents that are 18–24 years old that attend our church. This represents 9% of all AG adherents.

By way of comparison, 18–24 year olds comprise 14% of the California state population (I was unable to quickly find the equivalent national statistic).

You Know You’re From Louisiana

I got one of those forwards from a friend (Brandt Noel) this morning. He never forwards me stuff, so I decided to take a look at it. I liked it!

In abridged version, here’s a Louisiana primer:

  1. There are 5,000 types of snakes, and 4,998 live in Louisiana. 
  2. Squirrels will eat anything. And folks in Louisiana will eat squirrel. 
  3. If it grows, it sticks; if it crawls, it bites. 
  4. It is not a shopping cart, it is a buggy. 
  5. “Fixinto” is one word. 
  6. There ain’t no such thing as “lunch.” There’s “dinner” and then
    there’s “supper.”!
  7. Sweet tea is appropriate for all meals, and you start drinking it when you’re two. 
  8. “Jeet?” is actually a phrase meaning “Did you eat?” 

And you know you’re from LA (Louisiana, that is) if:

  1. You measure distance in minutes. 
  2. You use “fix” as a verb. Example: I am fixing to go to the store. 
  3. You “axe” people questions. Example: I got somethin’ to axe you ’bout.
  4. You only own four spices: salt, Tony’s, Tabasco and ketchup. 
  5. The local papers cover national and international news on one page
    and six pages for local gossip and sports. 
  6. You think that the first day deer season is a national holiday. 
  7. You find 100 degrees Fahrenheit “a little warm.” 
  8. You know all four seasons: almost summer, summer, still summer,
    and Christmas. 
  9. You describe the first cool snap (below 70 degrees) as good gumbo weather. 
  10. A carbonated soft drink isn’t a soda, cola, or pop…it’s a Coke, regardless of brand or flavor. Example: “What kinna coke you want?”
  11. Fried Catfish is the other white meat. 
  12. You laugh out loud when you visit friends from other states and they complain about the humidity.

He Wrote What?

Anthony Scoma just told me about a book/author collision so improbable that I had to check it out for myself: Pentecostal Gifts and Ministries in a Postmodern Era by James K. Bridges.

Anthony assures me that contributors include Maurice Lednicky and Opal Reddin.
Continue reading “He Wrote What?”

Lust After William and Mary’s Commencement Speaker

William and Mary had an off-the charts commencement speaker. Not to dump on a Supreme Court Justice, but I have to say Stanford lost out by comparison.

Need Help Procrastinating?

Finals are nearly upon us. On the other hand, it’s a holiday weekend. Go ahead, take the geek test and kill some time…