Some Theological Reflections on AG and VBM

Some Theological Reflections on AG and VBM

If you have experienced the leadership of AG like I have for 15 years you are probably in some part confused. How does a pastor and great missionary treat people so horribly? How can he be so full of self while preaching the Gospel of Jesus? How can he have planted so many churches while building an organization that is so idolatrous?

I have recently read Philip Bassham’s resignation letter and I identify with how he feels. How do I go on in ministry if I have been trained in such an unhealthy method of ministry? How can I just hop out of one broken system and join another? How can I sort out all I have learned, carefully picking out the dross and leaving the gold untouched? How does a person make a disciple of Jesus and not of myself? Can I go on? Should I go on? What is the path of healing of past pain and future health for me as a leader of my family let alone as a preacher? How can I maintain a friendship with men and women “on the inside”?

I have spent a lot of time thinking of these things since my relationship with AG was severed 7 years ago. He was for a long time my only pattern for ministry. He was my only mentor. I was inexperienced as a follower of Christ and as a minister of the Gospel unstained by the personality cult of Gardner. Let me share a few thoughts in progress:

1. Understand what is wrong with AG.

Is he an irredeemable monster? Is he a narcissist? Is he the Gaston and I the Belle or at least the Beast?

AG has desired his whole life to be great, to be special, to be remembered, to be well-thought-of. In short, he has desired glory. This desire is human. It is strong in all of us. For him it has become a personality disorder. This disorder traces back to two people: his mother and Jack Hyles.

AG’s mother was a domineering and disapproving woman while his father was emotionally detached and passive. During her later years AG referred to her as crazy and promised that he would shed no tears at her passing. Why is this? I believe his feelings of insecurity and inadequacy which he clearly suffers from were planted and fanned by his mother in his early years. He has always wanted to prove himself since he was a child but could never seem to achieve the illusive goal. I did not know AG as a child but I observed his relationships with those who raised him.

Upon desiring to go into ministry he was exposed to the ministry of Jack Hyles. If you don’t know the Hyles cult very well, then you will be surprised and shocked by the AG cult. However, if you did observe the debacle which was the ministry of Jack Hyles (abuse of all kinds including gross sexual abuse and an unabashed amount of man worship) then you will very much recognize this new form in AG. AG wanted to be the Hyles of Georgia. He studied him and his habits. He worked to achieve it. His early decade in ministry was completely modeled after Hyles. He has not been able to break the chains of that since.

2. Understand the struggle inside of AG

If any of you have had a confrontation with AG you have surely been shocked by his insecurity that displays itself in fits of rage to the point of shaking. You have seen fear in his eyes. Why? You are attacking his god when you criticize him. He feels like you are disapproving of him. If he senses at all that you are personally against him he will hate you immediately and forever.

I have seen him have clarity about what is wrong with him. I have seen him want to confront these deamons and overcome them. But he has not been able to. Why? The situation is similar to the Ring of Mordor. The ring for him is power that supports his desire for greatness: power over other people, power to be obeyed, power to be followed. He wants the preeminence as Diotrephes before him. As long as he won’t let go of it and submit himself UNDER other people’s wise help, he cannot begin to break the idols in his heart desiring greatness for himself.

The bottom line is that he is not an irredeemable monster. He is just irredeemable until he is ready to humble himself under the mighty hand of God.

3. Understand the method behind the heart trouble of AG

You will need to begin to identify the methods that are used by AG to obtain greatness. These methods of manipulation and coercion are well known and observable. However, they are not always obvious if you are not well versed in what these methods are. It will require some investigation and reflection on our part.

These methods need to be separated and contrasted to the methods of Christ. It can help to write these things down, renouncing the hidden works of darkness and embracing the ways of Christ.

The methods of AG are not his sin. They are the indicators of the heart sin that lives deeply inside of him. That is why this fight is so important. It is a gospel fight. When we point out abuse in the church we are doing what Paul did with Peter: withstanding him to the face, calling him to live out the gospel that he preaches and believes in. We are saying that we are not ok with the church being like the world. We are saying that the gospel should inform leadership in the church and that if it does not, we have no message left worth preaching. To publicly expose the sin of elders (I Tim 5:20-21) is a good and gospel fight. Many will tell you that you are just being bitter or that you should just focus on your own ministry or that you are just focusing too much on the negative, that you need to let God sort things out since He is the Judge, that you need to stop embarrassing Christ in front of the world, that this is just infighting, etc etc. However, you are engaged in a battle that has the gospel at the very center. You are attacking cancer in the bride of Christ. Anyone who loves Christ and his bride will learn to fight along side of you.

4. Understand the struggle of those under AG

I was under AG’s authority and influence for 15 years. People tried to tell me that I was being controlled and manipulated by him. People tried to intervene every once in a while but they didn’t know how and I didn’t know how to understand them.

When I was 19 AG had us write down our obituary. What had we accomplished? What would we be remembered for? Now that I look back I realize what he was doing: teaching us to value and seek after the same things that he lived for: greatness, fame, honor...glory for self.

I was and am much like AG. I was born with an inner drive to succeed, to achieve, to make something of myself, to earn respect and honor...to be glorious. This compulsion in me made AG very attractive to me. It took two things for me have that spell finally broken: first, it took distance. I was not able to break that spell while I was under his ministry. I needed to be on the other side of the planet. His influence persisted while I was in Morocco for 7 years but the distance gave me some space to think, and experience, and grow.

Second, it took some other examples and voices in my life. My wife was speaking to me about these cult-like practices of AG since she first met him. But I had bought in. I was so invested. In 2007 I think I saw it but I had not yet built any other good relationships. I didn’t see any men who I could follow as they followed Christ.

I met some pastors and leaders who pulled me out by their example. They are Brent Armstrong (Arizona), Tim Heijermans (Luxembourg), David Hossaflook (Albania), and Tim Keessee (SC) alongside a few others. They showed me what it means to follow Christ, what it means to seek to point people to Christ and not toward themselves, what it means to influence people without demanding control of them, what it means to love their wives, what it means to be a Christian father, what it means to walk humbly, what it means to be a Christian minister.

These two things is what you might need right now: distance from the cult and some influences that you can observe. None of these men sought to influence me. They just sought to bless me. None of them claimed some special relationship with me the way AG did. None of them made demands on my time. They were safe and they were open. God brought these men sovereignly into my life. I didn’t force it. I never talked to them about my need. I just benefited from God’s goodness as he brought these men into my life one at a time.

There are some men in the group who will go through this same path that I have. They will come out and they need our support when they do. Chris Waye is a good example. He was staunchly against me when I spoke out against AG’s methods but a couple years later he was ready to listen and since then he has helped me more than I have helped him.

5. Understand God’s method of opposing this spirit of Satan in the church

There are others in the highest leadership of VBM that are narcissist themselves. They will never denounce AG. They have the same idols that they are not willing to let go of and they may never be. It is too deep into who they are. Paul spoke out against people like this in the church publicly and so should we. We should do it in love but with strong voices. They should not go unopposed.

It is God’s way to expose things with light. It is the way of Satan to hide things. Those who want things hid will oppose you. They will try everything to keep you quite. They will shame you and they will guilt you. They do not want their wicked ways to be public knowledge. They want to keep doing these things in private. It is the soldier of Christ who does not stay quite but defends the church by lifting up the dual truths of the goodness of God and wickedness of man.

Finally, you may need to get counseling. Tyler Masters is a great resources to point you to who could help you. You may need to talk through these things with a trained counselor who can help you to work through what has happened to you and how it has affected your heart and your relationships. Don’t try to work through it alone. Don’t try to push it down under the surface. I tried for a long time and it didn’t make things better. We come out together stronger when we open up all these dark memories and expose them to light.

The end result of all of this will be to stir discussion about the gospel: what is a gospel preacher? How should he disciple? How should he lead and preach? What is the power of the gospel in the church? How is she redeemed when she has lost her way? How can leadership follow Christ when there are men who would steal their loyalty and steal his glory while using his name and his message to do it? We will all benefit from this discussion as resources and good preaching will inform the uninformed. Some will continue in their idolatry possibly for generations to come. But still others will be saved, helped, healed, and commissioned again to a world that needs a pure church living out the gospel they preach.

I love you all and thank God for your boldness.