Hello my awesome support system!!
I have recently run into some opposition with some of you concerning the practices of AIM, what they do, and whether or not they are a cult. So I would like to set the record straight. I know that all who are concerned about this issue have my best interest at heart and so I wish to calm your fears.
To begin, I would like to give you AIMs statement of faith. Here is what they believe:
- the Bible is the inspired Word of God and is authoritative and infallible in the original writings.
- in one God, eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
- in the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, in His virgin birth, in His sinless life, in His miracles, in His vicarious and atoning death through His shed blood, in His bodily resurrection, in His ascension to the right hand of God the Father, and in His personal return in power and glory.
- that faith in our Lord Jesus Christ is essential for the salvation of lost and sinful man.
- in the present ministry of the Holy Spirit, by whose indwelling the Christian is enabled to live a godly life.
- in the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and eternal life.
- in the spiritual unity of believers in Jesus Christ.
As you can see none of their core beliefs, from what I believe, are found to be unbiblical. The discrepancy seems to be found in the organizations Ministry Distinctives which are as follows:
- We emphasize interdenominationalism.
The main thing is to make the main thing the main thing. We are tolerant of a variety of beliefs and practices within the mainstream of Christian practice. Where there is excess, we seek to be a force for moderation. - We emphasize the unity of the body of Christ.
We are ministers of reconciliation. We seek to bring pastors and churches together in ministry. We do not exalt certain gifts, but we understand that the body of Christ needs them all to be balanced. - We emphasize partnership through the local church.
The local church is God’s vehicle for discipleship. We seek to work through it. We link sending churches and host churches in the short-term missions process. - We emphasize listening prayer.
We believe God wants to communicate with us daily in a personal way. We ask, listen, and obey: asking God for guidance, listening for His response, and obeying Him to the best of our ability. - We emphasize discipleship over evangelism.
We understand that Jesus did not call us to get people to say a prayer but to enter into a lifestyle. We balance boldness with love. We look for opportunities to be witnesses, but we seek to ensure followup. - We emphasize the church without walls.
We go to those needing ministry rather than expecting them to come to us. The Church is not a building or a denomination. - We emphasize ministry to the poor, the oppressed, and the hopeless.
Our ministry focus is on the lost sheep that society shuns. In a given city, we will go to that darkest and most hopeless place first. - We listen to God and respond.
We believe God speaks. And when he does, we need to respond accordingly. When he says go, we go. When he says stay, we stay. We believe intimacy with the Father enhances the ability to recognize his voice: “my sheep know my voice” (John 10:27). And because we know God is the one speaking, we trust and obey. - We innovate and fail fast.
At Adventures we keep a fast-paced environment that stays in sync with the changes going on in our world. We are constantly innovating to improve our programs and organization. When we fail, we fail fast, fix our mistakes, and move on. - We mobilize and make disciples.
At our core, we are a discipleship organization. Our desire is that God would use us to raise up a generation of radically committed disciples of Christ and send them out to the nations. We believe this is our part in fulfilling the Great Commission. - We empower people to go and grow something.
Our programs intentionally empower participants to be part of something that matters. We want to cultivate long-term, global change in people and projects that will continue long after our work is done. We have a kingdom-of-God paradigm that is bigger than just the reach of our ministry, and we encourage participants to adopt the same mindset. - We put people before projects.
As a discipleship organization, we highly value people. Although projects are necessary and exciting, we make decisions with people as our primary concern. All projects should empower the people working on them as well as benefit those included in them.
The three major concerns some of you have will be addressed in this blog.
1) The largest discrepancy seems to be with the belief in listening prayer and the fact that according to some teachings is unbiblical. What I find when reading articles against listening prayer is that the writers of said articles state that Christians who believe in listening prayer are putting listening to God directly above reading his scripture.
Nowhere does AIM state that listening prayer is more important than reading the bible and teaching what is written in it. Contrary to that fact, they find scripture which backs up the practice of listening prayer as biblical. I will most likely need to do a different blog explaining where specifically the bible states this and stating my beliefs on that particular practice. However, AIM states, and I quote “We are tolerant of a variety of beliefs and practices within the mainstream of Christian practice.” In other words if a person was to not believe specifically in listening prayer, the practice would not be forced upon them, simply encouraged.
The same goes for the fact that Seth Barnes, CEO of AIM, encourages other debatably unbiblical teachings. None of which are strictly enforced only encouraged. I could write an entire series of blogs stating my views on each of these topics but it would not change the fact that none of those practices are strictly enforced.
The key characteristic of a cult is that they believe their teachings are “THE WAY” and that there are no other options to believe. All cults believe that if you do not practice the way that they do that you are wrong. As stated above, this is not the case with AIM, they do not discriminate based on demonination as many missions organizations do, but instead belief that the core of christianity, Jesus’s death burial and resurrection and his atonement for our sins, are what’s important.
Another key characteristic of a cult is that of non-verifiable beliefs:
For example:
- A space ship behind Hale-Bop comet
- Or, that God, an alien, or angel appeared to the leader and gave him a revelation.
- The members are seeded angels from another world, etc.
AIM possesses none of this type of characteristics. Even in the debatably unbiblical beliefs, the bible (and not some strange book or doctrine), are used to debate said beliefs. They are simply a discrepancy within the text that different churches have interpreted differently. This happens quite often, otherwise we would all be under the same denomination.
Historically speaking every church has beliefs that other churches believe to be unbiblical. But I’ll be dammed… literally, if I let a difference in teaching on one or two specific topics keep me from following a calling God has placed on my heart.
And if you are still concerned with these specific teachings know that I know several people of different denominations, with different teachings, whose family members have been on The World Race and have not come back brainwashed or believing that the teachings of Seth Barnes and AIM are the only teachings. In fact, they have stated that there were certain practices that they were uncomfortable participating in (which were different for both individuals as their home churches had different beliefs on the same topics) and so they simply chose not to participate.
Again AIM states, and I quote “The main thing is to make the main thing the main thing.” in other words, teaching the gospel as a whole and spreading the love of Christ has always been and always will be more important than specific practices that differ between churches.
2) Another concern several of you have expressed, has to do with the separation Aim encourages between racers and their families and home churches while on the race. This was a no brainer to me simply because I am not reading into it as deeply as some of you. AIM is not saying they want me to change my belief systems and forget who I am. They are simply stating that traveling and living as I will on the race will both physically and emotionally separate me from what I have grown up knowing, because I will experience the world from a new perspective. This is called experiencing a new “world view”… something I learned about in college. Every person establishes a perspective of the world based on factors surrounding them such their geographical location, their belief systems, their parents, and so on. I am bound to gain new perspectives of the world while on this trip and honestly, thats kind of the point; To see how others less fortunate live and strive to make their lives better in some small way.
AIM isn’t asking racers to distance themselves because they want us to forget who we are and where we came from. They simply want us to open our eyes to the fact that the world is different in other places, and to learn that the way we grew up back home is not the only way there is to live.
It is my opinion, based on fact, that not all people live as we do and if we go on living our lives in such a way that is ignorant to the fact that the basic needs of others in many places are not being met on a daily basis, then we are doing no good as human being and especially as Christians.
3) The last major concern is the finances of the race. Where specifically are they going? That is a question that I have do not currently have an answer to. I have posed it to my mobilizer and should have an answer soon. At which time I will update all of you, but I encourage you to have faith that God is using your donations to make an impact around the world. However, you are always welcome to send your donations directly to me if you ar e more comfortable doing so.
For you Christians who still think I am crazy for going on a trip even though it is led by an organization with questionable practices I have only one question for you.
If God truly called you to do something and you knew it with every fiber of your being that he was telling you to do it, would you? Even if it put you in danger, or even if it logically didn’t make sense, would you still go?
For me the answer is YES, I am going on this trip come hell or high water and nothing short of death or Satan himself is going to stop me because I AM CALLED TO GO, therefore I will go.
I love you all and thank you again for your support and your concerns, write a comment or message me if you have any more questions! Also my mobilizer provided me an info page that may answer more of your questions and I will attach it below.
-Devon
