Schools of the Spirit
At the same time the Assemblies grew in tandem with the charismatic renewal, small Bible colleges, most founded within the first two decades after 1914, became regionally accredited and added professors who not only were powerful preachers, but also had advanced degrees. This advancement has continued into the present era, during which many of these schools have become universities. The largest of these is Southeastern University in Lakeland, with more than 3,400 students. In Springfield, Central Bible College—the third oldest and, until the 1980s, the leading school in the movement—consolidated with Evangel University, the first Pentecostal liberal arts college in America, and the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary (AGTS) into one institution called Evangel University in 2013.
Seminary—even the word itself hit a nerve for many years in AG circles. Many early Pentecostals didn’t believe in seminary, arguing that a preacher needed the power of the Holy Spirit, not a degree. Besides, they said, seminaries usually hastened a denomination going liberal such as Emory University, the Methodist school in Atlanta that spawned the “God is dead” controversy in the 1960s. (One more paradox, however: The first AG general superintendent, E.N. Bell, had a seminary education.)
These same Pentecostals called seminaries “cemeteries.” And for the first six decades they got by without them. Then in the 1970s AGTS was formed in a wing of the turquoise-colored headquarters building in Springfield—which in itself was questioned, as some speculated this was so the Executive Presbytery could keep a watchful eye. Theory or not, AGTS was launched in part so military chaplains could gain their necessary seminary degree. The feeling within the denomination was that they needed to have these Assemblies chaplains “trained here, rather than ‘there.'”
Fast-forward years later and numerous AG chaplains have risen to positions of prominence. Principal among those is Major General Cecil Richardson, who recently retired as Chief of Chaplains for the entire U.S. Air Force and was a 1973 graduate of Evangel. And recently AGTS alum Delana Ingram Small became not only the first female chaplain in the nation to report to an Army combat arms unit, she was also the first female chaplain assigned to the 101st Airborne Division (aka, “The Screaming Eagles”).
