Liar Liar? James River Church Says Decision To Leave AOG Was ‘Unanimous’ Board Decision. It WASN’T
Pastor John Lindell of James River Church in Springfield, Missouri, recently announced his church’s shocking departure from the Assemblies of God denomination, explicitly claiming that it was a unanimous decision by the James River Board of Trustees.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Last week during the church’s Wednesday evening service, Lindell told congregants they were formally cutting ties with the Assemblies of God after 34 years, leaving officials reeling at their departure. Lindell was explicit in his revelation, saying:
Very recently, the James River Church Board of Trustees decided to discontinue our formal denominational affiliation with the Assemblies of God. The vote was unanimous, reflecting the unity of our church’s leadership.
This statement is true only in the most technical of senses and is a deceptive misrepresentation of events.
According to sources with knowledge of the situation, what actually happened was that Lindell took his desire to leave to the trustees for a vote, insisting they discontinue their denominational affiliation.
The 19,000-member church has no formal membership and no elders, so leadership decisions rests with the James River Board of Trustees, who are handpicked and appointed by Lindell.
Lindell is the President and Chairman, and there are three others: Jacob McLauchlin, Brad Garner, and Don Headlee.
Rather than receive unanimous agreement and acquiesce to Lindell’s insistence to depart, more than a third of the Church’s directors did not agree with the decision to leave the Assemblies of God.
James River Church Trustee Don Headlee made his ire and trepidations known, saying he would not and could not support the move.
In fact, he opposed it to such an extent that right before the vote, he RESIGNED from the board of trustees in protest. This departure will soon be publicly confirmed on the Missouri Secretary of State’s website
Immediately after Headlee resigned, the remaining trustees (Lindell and two others) held a vote to leave, which passed. Under these auspices, in the most technical of senses, the “vote was unanimous” and “reflected the unity of our church’s leadership.”
According to Grant Olson, who has been covering Lindell and James River for years, there’s even more to the story, particularly in their statement about their departure, where they write:
We are thankful for the Assemblies of God, and we intend to continue partnering with the Assemblies of God in a variety of ways – including our continued support of missionaries and missions efforts to take the Gospel around the world.
Olson says that the language of “we intend” is markedly different than “we will” and alleges that Lindell and the church threatened the AOG behind closed doors, telling them that if they made the departure difficult and gave them a hard time about it, they could say goodbye to millions of missions money they pledge to continue to give.
Put another way, James River intends to continue supporting missions, but it might not be under certain circumstances, such as crying foul about their exit.
Given Lindell’s history of duplicity, (see below) no one should be surprised by this.
James River has been the center of several national controversies, including Lindell lying about a woman’s toes being regrown at a healing event at their church, being rebuked onstage by Mark Driscoll over some shirtless sword swallowers they brought in for conference entertainment, and their infamous Stronger Men’s Conferences, which have featured monster truck rallies, bull-riding, a strongman show, motocross, dunk contests, and cage fighting,
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