7.5 The influence of the local Church

be done. Thus an examination ought to be made as to the information given or possibly withheld on those occasions concerning the common enterprises and other questions referring to common concerns. What is information and what is agitation? How free and all round can the discussion be on these occasions? An official point of view is made clear, that these conferences do not have any mandates to make decisions, never the less the examined documents reveal that such decisions have been made but there are no minutes to prove it. Sometimes these decisions are called ‛sanctions‛ , ‛expressions‛ , ‛utterances of opinion‛ but to all practical purposes they express the same function as publicly documented decisions. These decisions however cannot be made juridically binding for the local Churches. But they certainly result in moral obligation which, in consideration of the Christian confession and character of the work are at least as obligatory.

7.5 The influence of the local Church

Concerning the rules written for the different organizations, they are called alternately, ‛the main reasons,‛ ‛general aims‛ and ‛regulations.‛ The discussion about them seems to reveal certain hesitation within the acceptance of regulations, but at the same time they cannot do without them in certain capacities – e.g. before the authorities-and they are therefore indispensable. The appointment of trustees in the different foundations show the comparative degree of influence the different Pentecostal Churches exert in the country in these administrative organs. At the constitution of the Kaggeholm Foundation, the provisional board selected 52 Churches to make proposals after having consulted other Churches. The coverage of this advice is not clear. At the constitution of the LP Foundation at first four Churches were to cooperate at the election of the board, later this was changed in such a way that the founder was to ask three Churches to appoint eight trustees each, who in their turn had to appoint the board.

At the appearance of foundation of the aid to developing countries, it was said in the preachers’ week, that the Churches were to choose about seventy trustees. I have not been able to find any documents as to if and when this happened. But 59 trustees function and they belong to 53 different Churches. As regards the PIL, the documents make it clear that the preachers’ week appointed a working group