In a conversation this morning I was talking with my church’s men’s group about the three styles of church government: presbyterian, congregational, episcopal.  A retired minister in the group told us that the Assemblies of God, while clearly not Reformed or Calvinistic in theology and doctrine, are presbyterian in church order.  It turns out that they have presbyteries which are composed of both clergy and lay members.  Their candidates for ministry are monitored and certified by the regional bodies.  And there is accountability of lower governing bodies to higher ones.

Their web page on church structure has a basic outline of how they order themselves, and not surprisingly the word “presbyterian” is not to be found.  I don’t blame them since only a GA Junkie would be aware of the specific usage of the word for church governance as opposed to a reformed theology or a denomination.  (However, the Wikipedia entry for Assemblies of God does refer to them as “mostly presbyterian” in their church order.)  On their church structure I was struck by the fact that their opening statement is that Jesus Christ is the head of the church, just as the current PC(USA) Book of Order begins.  (I say current because the current draft of the rewrite would move that a section or two later.)

Well, I don’t plan on following the politics and polity of the Assemblies of God, but I thought that it was interesting that a non-reformed branch had a presbyterian government structure.