Of Pyramid Schemes

Yes, I do remember hearing about Mr. Zimmerman's pyramid scheme, a plan to elevate the Assemblies of God of the United States into a sort of Vatican of global Pentecostalism. Plenty of people were against Mr. Zimmerman's plan, enough to vote it down at the denomination's general assembly. Opponents of the plan included many missionaries and among them my parents. (I should clarify that Mr. Zimmerman the superintendent should not be confused with Mr. Zimmerman who was the local pastor of the Carlsbad church back in the 1950s that was attended by my grandparents who is mentioned in great-grandmother's diary. I think that Mr. Zimmerman the superintendent never lived in California and was from Indiana so obviously there is no reference to him in great-grandmother's diary only to another Mr. Zimmerman.) Nevertheless, we are not unaware that there are still many supporters of vaticanization floating around the pastoral ranks. Wasn't that the whole point of missions, to prepare the national church of each country to be a self-sustaining, self-governing, self-determining organization? We can help if they ask but if they do not need our help then we do not need to go there. No need to hammer the point so vociferously. Our mission was accomplished and they do not need us for anything and might not welcome our interference. They have plenty of people to carry out the work there. And who is carrying out the work at home? They do not need us at home either. They have plenty of local yokels to carry out the work at home. So would my life be any better if the pyramid scheme had succeeded? Would not the glory of the United States be better served by vaticanization? Probably the result would be the same or similar to how things are now. The world is a different place now than it was forty years ago when that controversy took place and as I see it there is now even less compelling evidence of the need now that we have succeeded. Sure, there might be some doctrinal drift in some places but there are enough checks and balances in place, such as educational programs, to keep everyone on the same page. National glory was not something that we thought very much about at the time. It is just a matter of who we are. We can't help being who we are.