SPRINGFIELD, MO — You can’t fight city hall.
Or the Assemblies of God.
A spokesman seeking audience with General Superintendent Don Miller of the Assemblies of God Fellowship was promptly thrown under the bus during an informal hearing.
Geoffrey Hafelekarspitze, a church legal activist, (whose last name is as long as the grievances racked up by John Lindell, lead pastor at James River Church), addressed the General Assembly head honchos in the inner sanctum of the holy of holies Wednesday, June 10, 2024, to voice a plethora of concerns about James River Church and, specifically, its long-term leader, John Lindell. Click here for more.
Push back from Big Dogs
Superintendent Don Miller and his cronies in suits and ties were reticent to grant audience with Mr. Hafelecliperscgmitz, um, Hefeleppeeklinkenspitz, no, um, Heleferger….oh, heck, Mr. H!
Long name Mr. H tried for a long time to appear before the General Council of A/G Godfathers. Indeed, he’d tried to set this powow up since late April, following a big, fat, ugly scandal surrounding the Stronger Men’s Conference and its aftermath. The Conference, hosted by JRC, blew up social media after Lindell booted guest speaker Pastor Mark Driscoll off the stage because Driscoll called out a sensual, non-relevant opening act at the conference.
Click here for CCT article about James River Church.
Here are his words released in a public video on Facebook:
My name is Geoffrey. On June 5, I appeared before 3 members of the Southern Missouri District office of the Assemblies of God. Officiating this conference was General Superintendent Don Miller, also Assistant Superintendent George Westlake, and then, Pastor Stan Welch, secretary.
At our 45-minute conference we discussed circumstances surrounding James River Church since the fallout after the Stronger Men’s Conference of April 12 and 13 this year. I had reached out for two months to the office and was unsuccessful in having anyone attend to my letters and emails. I know other people have written the office and had no reply. So, I was very grateful that the council members were willing to meet with me in this conference.
We discussed first the role of the District Office in jurisdictional disciplinary matters involving the church. We discussed a number of things notable in the social media news, and that would be the firing of several James River Church staff members after they publicly expressed their disagreement with Pastor Lindell and his manner of handling the fallout after the [Stronger Men’s] Conference.
There were questions of people, local and abroad, whether the church had overstepped their biblical authority, overstepped their boundaries, and perhaps committed extortion by offering severance pay in exchange for signing a nondisclosure agreement.
What we do know is that people that have signed the nondisclosure agreement have been left feeling orphaned and without any recourse in this matter.
Gerneral Superintendent Miller stated that the District Office has a very clear function and role as set forth in the constitution and the bylaws of the Assemblies of God. Very simply, they do not get involved in personnel matters within any church. They cannot have any say-so in their firing. They do not do that.
I would learn in our conversation that they don’t have a lot of input or influence in any particular role. Pastor Miller identified James River as an “independent, autonomous, sovereign church” with its own general council. He referred to them as their own entity.
My comment to that was that many people believe that, James River, being part of the Assemblies of God, should be subject to an investigation and/or disciplinary action by the District Office.
To this date, Pastor Miller indicated that he has found “no cause for concern” or anything that would necessitate disciplinary action.
I did inform Pastor Miller that there have been a number of law firms, attorneys, and even ministers that have been involved in investigations in other church matters, such as the most heated event that involved Chi Alpha in Texas. I indicated that if the District Council would simply open up their office for a public hearing for members of the media, for Assemblies of God members, for Assemblies of God ministers, as well as the Lindell family, to gather together, we could establish some peaceful communication and avoid any other recourse.
Pastor Miller did state that he is not afraid of James River Church.
I never suggested that he would be or should be.
Pastor Miller also addressed one of my concerns by turning the tables on me. I simply stated that legal action and even protentional criminal investigation could be underway against the church, and that all this could be avoided if cooler heads could prevail.
As I suggested that, Pastor Miller shifted the subject, and he opened up a post that I made on May the 8th, which was simply sharing a post form a young man that was terminated from James River after he publicly expressed his disagreement with Pastor Lindell’s handling of the Mark Driscoll matter and the matters following the [Stronger Men’s] Conference. He was terminated. I posted that for attention. The question was posed in my post, “Is this following rule of Biblical authority, or is this potentially an extortion case?”
It was a question, not an indictment or an insinuation of wrongdoing.
What we now know is that in the case of one young man there was no act of extortion that could be identified, and that’s a good thing.
Pastor Miller indicated that I was involved in a matter than didn’t involve me. He began asking me about myself, my work, my career. He asked me what involvement I had. I stated very simply that a lot of people have sent letters, emails, phone calls, and they’ve not made any headway. I said further, there are employees of the Assemblies of God at Headquarters, at Evangel University, that have contacted me and asked me to step in and communicate in their stead. Some people find it very uncomfortable to approach their Superintendent Miller or any others for fear of jeopardizing a friendship or creating further division within the church.
People are just uncomfortable in general with this situation. I came in as an independent third party. I have no dog in the fight, no vested interest.
When Pastor Miller insinuated that I was “lending fuel to the fire” I stated that the “fire was already burning” and citations of grievances of other people, citations of possible wrongdoing need to be addressed.
Had anyone intervened or taken authoritative posture in this matter we would not be where we are today.
From the end of my conference with them, I learned two things: Pastor Miller did state that he wished for this matter between myself and the District Office to be closed. He wasn’t interested in hearing more about it. He has not found anything at all worthy of investigation into James River.
For those who have been following the latest news of James River Church’s involvement with the controversial Bethel Church in Reading, California, I did bring that up to Pastor Miller. He did listen to that. He had no response to those claims or those allegations.
He (Miller) did state that he and also Doug Clay, superintendent at headquarters, had conversed with John Lindell. My question was “what did you discuss?” and, of course, that was not open for discussion.
All in all, I think this conference was very one-sided. I presented information to the office so they could understand how serious this has become. I made it very clear that it’s not the people from the church, or former staff members reaching out to attorneys, its attorneys reaching out to the former staff members and people of the church. There are a lot of messages that I’ve received, a lot of formal statements from people alleging all sorts of misconduct. These are very concerning.
Where we are today is that my voice has been silenced in the matter with regards to that office. I would encourage anyone that has a vested interest, a member or attendee of an Assemblies of God church, or if you’re a member of the Christian church at large., and you find these matters concerning, I would urge you to send an email to General Superintendent Don Miller. His inbox needs to be flooded with legitimate concerns. Please be professional and polite. Be fair. Be kind. Avoid behavior or mindset that would can further fracture between church going family and friends.
Please reconsider if you want to continue being part of the Assemblies of God if you are.
Don Miller email: DonMiller@somoag.org
He will receive the emails. I informed him we would be.
I have texted and emailed John Lindell several times prior to all of this. He ignored me. I warned him that nothing good will come of it if it’s not settled.
The men I talked to in person June 5 know what I said, they understood my intentions. We ran out of time to continue. I will respond further. The situation is grievous indeed, it will not get better. I can get better if action is taken.
Pray for the leaders to soften their hearts and listen to the people.