Believing every person has the right to experience a clear and adequate presentation of the gospel of Jesus, Assemblies of God on Wednesday launched The Human Right, a movement to encourage students to live the message of Jesus, read and understand the Bible, and have the boldness to share the message.
The Human Right complements the Assemblies of God’s extensive involvement in providing human rights through ministries such as:
- Convoy of Hope, which has served 65 million people, providing disaster relief with global teams working from six international warehouses and feeding 145,000 children in 11 countries;
- Project Rescue, which in 2013 gave freedom to over 35,000 women and children from sex trafficking;
- Cry Africa, which has a network of practitioners throughout sub-Saharan Africa assisting in education and care for those affected by AIDS/HIV;
- Latin America ChildCare, which has had more than 1.5 million students pass through its network of schools in 21 countries throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.
“This generation is very culturally sensitive to human rights,” said Dr. George O. Wood, general superintendent for the Assemblies of God. “We’re actively involved in child advocacy, child sponsorships, water wells, feeding programs and any number of issues that deal with human rights. But there is a right that is even more basic and that is the right of every single person to have a clear and adequate presentation of the gospel of Jesus. We want to ensure this human right is being met worldwide.”
The Human Right movement seeks to unite students in rising from apathy to action, entitlement to responsibility, and silence to advocacy.
“There are 2 billion people that don’t have this basic human right, and in fact many of them are not only living across the ocean but in our own backyard,” said Dr. Wood.
Speed the Light (STL), the student-led, church-facilitated initiative of the Assemblies of God that provides students the opportunity to engage in missions, is the global expression of The Human Right movement, and Youth Alive, which works cross-denominationally to connect youth ministry to the schools, is the local expression.
The Human Right website, TheHumanRight.org, launched Wednesday, allowing individuals to join the movement. Assemblies of God churches will be encouraged to partner with the movement during the closing of the Assemblies of God Centennial Celebration in Springfield, Missouri, on Aug. 10.
In October, The Human Right Tour, a multi-day experience created to help students press pause on the busyness of life and seek to know Jesus more and make Him known, will begin. The themes woven throughout the experience center on the three core values of The Human Right: Abide, Abandon and Advocate.
Each core value is connected to a key experience of the tour, with each one offering practical application: a prayer room with teaching and prayer times; a main service experience; and a community outreach. Churches may sign up now to host an experience on TheHumanRight.org.
