James River Church, a multisite megachurch headquartered in Springfield, Missouri, has announced its departure from the Assemblies of God denomination.
Pastor John Lindell and his wife Debbie founded the church in 1991, and the church reports a weekly attendance in the tens of thousands.
“Recently, the James River Church Board of Trustees reached the decision to discontinue our formal denominational affiliation with the Assemblies of God,” the church said in a statement given to KY3 this week. “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.”
“James River Church is not changing its doctrine, and the church remains committed to preaching the Bible and impacting the local community and the world for the cause of Christ,” the statement added.
Over the past three decades, James River Church has grown to become an influential church within the evangelical movement. In recent years, it has also been the subject of several controversial headlines.
In 2023, John Lindell drew the ire of skeptics when he claimed that a woman miraculously began to regrow previously amputated toes after receiving prayer. The claim led to calls for visual proof. In a play on Missouri’s “Show Me State” nickname, someone launched a website called ShowMeTheToes.com.
In response to these calls for proof, Lindell said that he’s “less interested in proving to people what I know God did than I am in protecting sheep who are vulnerable,” citing that he wanted to protect the privacy of the woman whose toes purportedly grew back, as she is a survivor of domestic abuse.
In 2024, controversy erupted during the church’s Strong Men’s Conference, which featured a monster truck, a boxing match, and an acrobat who became the center of a public feud between Lindell and controversial Pastor Mark Driscoll.
Driscoll is the pastor of Trinity Church in Scottsdale, Arizona, a church he founded after resigning as pastor of the now defunct Mars Hills Church in Seattle amid accusations of being an abusive leader.
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During the conference, Driscoll directly criticized the performance of Alex Magala, a sword-swallowing acrobat who scaled a large pole with a sword in his mouth. Driscoll went as far as to suggest that the performance was sexual in nature.
