Church of God (Restoration)

[QuietObserver]

http://www.churchofgod.net

Is anyone familiar with this group? Is there an Anabaptist link or influence of some sort? They wear plain suits, hold to nonresistance, etc. But they have women listed as Apostles and Prophets, which doesn't seem to fit with the rest of their program.

[ragpicker]

They give me the heeby jeebies.

[Dan Z]

Interesting group. I know some folks there - been to a few of their International Campmeeting events in western PA.

Very zealous and folks who come out of a radical holiness/Wesleyan movement. They were started by a self-proclaimed prophet named Brother Danny Lane, a former hippie from the drug culture who found God and founded a religion. Lane considered himself a prophet sent by God to open the seventh seal from the book of Revelation - and to lead the one true church of God, that would gather in the people of God for the end times. Of note, they hold to a teaching that believes sinless perfection is possible (expected) for those who have been filled with the Spirit of Christ.

These folks practice strong holiness - including dress plain (minus head-coverings), have a very expressive worship style, aggressive proselytizing among other churches (e.g. they regularly send delegations to the church-wide meetings of other church groups) and have tended to draw in folks from the Church of God, Amish and Plain Mennonite circles, especially in Ohio, Indiana, and the Alymer Ontario area.

Any group with a self-anointed end-time prophet at its head, and claiming to be the one true church, is cultic to me. Ragpickers heebeegeebies are justified IMO.

[Judas Maccabeus]

Interesting group. I know some folks there - been to a few of their International Campmeeting events in western PA.

Very zealous and folks who come out of a radical holiness/Wesleyan movement. They were started by a self-proclaimed prophet named Brother Danny Lane, a former hippie from the drug culture who found God and founded a religion. Lane considered himself a prophet sent by God to open the seventh seal from the book of Revelation - and to lead the one true church of God, that would gather in to people of God for the end times. Of note, they hold to a teaching that believes sinless perfection is possible (expected) for those who have been filled with the Spirit of Christ.

These folks practice strong holiness - including dress plain (minus head-coverings), have a very expressive worship style, aggressive proselytizing among other churches (e.g. they regularly send delegations to the church-wide meetings of other church groups) and have tended to draw in folks from the Church of God, Amish and Plain Mennonite circles, especially in Ohio, Indiana, and the Alymer Ontario area.

Any group with a self-anointed end-time prophet at its head, and claiming to be the one true church, is cultic to me. Ragpickers heebeegeebies are justified IMO.

Yup. I will second all of that. Ran into them in Dublin, Ireland, right in front of the GPO, where the Easter Rising took place. They have a street meeting, with a 4 part group singing some standard hymns, they were rotating people in and out. Wife and i stopped and watched one of their ministers likely saw my wife's head covering, and asked if we were familiar with the songs they were singing. I suggested that we likely could take the next rotation and no one would notice. We got into a polite conversation, and he gave us some literature. He was a bit taken aback when he asked our names, and did not recognize the last name as "mennonite", and yes we are NMB. Even more taken off guard when we told him that we were longtime members of a "holiness" church.

They are "One True Church" and have living apostles. They also have women preachers. This is actually not unusual for Wesleyan origin groups. They seem really interested in convincing people to come to their meetings.

If you do an exhaustive search, they have run into controversy over refusal of medical care, due to a belief in divine healing. They have since modified that view.

I did not get the heebeegeebies but I could tell they were a bit "off."

J.M.

[Sudsy]

http://www.churchofgod.net

Is anyone familiar with this group? Is there an Anabaptist link or influence of some sort? They wear plain suits, hold to nonresistance, etc. But they have women listed as Apostles and Prophets, which doesn't seem to fit with the rest of their program.

Had to look at their website and was surprised to find one of their churches only 15 minutes from my home. They look like a Pentecostal holiness / Anabaptist mix. Women don't wear headcoverings as they interpret the scripture to mean a woman's long hair is their covering. Like the Pentecostals I was raised in, women are called to any ministry and I was raised with a woman pastor. They appear to have no instrumental music which is more CA than Pentecostal.

Perhaps some Sunday I will drop in now that I know a church is so close. I believe this church building was previously a mainline protestant church and many of these are closing as the older generation passes on. A national charity that works to save old buildings estimates that 9,000 religious spaces in Canada will be lost in the next decade, roughly a third of all faith-owned buildings in the country.

[QuietObserver]

Had to look at their website and was surprised to find one of their churches only 15 minutes from my home. They look like a Pentecostal holiness / Anabaptist mix. Women don't wear headcoverings as they interpret the scripture to mean a woman's long hair is their covering. Like the Pentecostals I was raised in, women are called to any ministry and I was raised with a woman pastor. They appear to have no instrumental music which is more CA than Pentecostal.

Can you explain to me why very conservative Pentacostal/Holiness churches ordained women? I'm not aware of any of Christian groups with strict lifestyle rules that ordain women. Was there something in the culture at the time the Holiness groups began?

I went down a lot of bunny trails and it seems like the group referenced in my OP believes in male headship. I think this would conflict with female ordination. If a woman is an apostle, it seems kind of strange for her to submit to her non-ordained husband.

[Judas Maccabeus]

Had to look at their website and was surprised to find one of their churches only 15 minutes from my home. They look like a Pentecostal holiness / Anabaptist mix. Women don't wear headcoverings as they interpret the scripture to mean a woman's long hair is their covering. Like the Pentecostals I was raised in, women are called to any ministry and I was raised with a woman pastor. They appear to have no instrumental music which is more CA than Pentecostal.

Can you explain to me why very conservative Pentacostal/Holiness churches ordained women? I'm not aware of any of Christian groups with strict lifestyle rules that ordain women. Was there something in the culture at the time the Holiness groups began?

I went down a lot of bunny trails and it seems like the group referenced in my OP believes in male headship. I think this would conflict with female ordination. If a woman is an apostle, it seems kind of strange for her to submit to her non-ordained husband.

Can't really explain, but from Azuza street forward, it seems to be the case. One major holiness denomination, the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel was founded by Aimee Semple McPherson. A group that is more "gifts" oriented than doctrine oriented is more likely to do this. One of my colleges from the mission field, well she is an ordained Assemblies of God minister.

J.M.

[QuietObserver]

Can't really explain, but from Azuza street forward, it seems to be the case. One major holiness denomination, the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel was founded by Aimee Semple McPherson. A group that is more "gifts" oriented than doctrine oriented is more likely to do this. One of my colleges from the mission field, well she is an ordained Assemblies of God minister.

J.M.

Does C&MA allow female pastors? I was under the impression they didn't I recently came across some of David Fitch's writings. Fitch is a C&MA pastor with Anabaptist leanings, and I was surprised to learn he supported female ordination. From what I see on C&MA website they don't allow female ordination. But they have a Holiness background, so I'm confused...can you clarify this for me.

[Judas Maccabeus]

Can't really explain, but from Azuza street forward, it seems to be the case. One major holiness denomination, the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel was founded by Aimee Semple McPherson. A group that is more "gifts" oriented than doctrine oriented is more likely to do this. One of my colleges from the mission field, well she is an ordained Assemblies of God minister.

J.M.

Does C&MA allow female pastors? I was under the impression they didn't I recently came across some of David Fitch's writings. Fitch is a C&MA pastor with Anabaptist leanings, and I was surprised to learn he supported female ordination. From what I see on C&MA website they don't allow female ordination. But they have a Holiness background, so I'm confused...can you clarify this for me.

You WILL be confused. We were confused when we were C&MA. Historically, the C&MA did not ordain women. Typically, women do not pastor churches in the US. It does license them for ministry as "Official Workers" in ministerys they were assigned to, most notably missionaries. Both my wife and I had such licenses for years. In the past decade or so, they began to "consecrate" women, ostensively because some missionaries and chaplains needed such. Soon, there were some effectively pastoring churches, and when we left, some 5 years ago, there was one on our DEXCOM, similar to a bishop in mennonite circles. So yes, the C&MA does not ORDAIN women, but has a backdoor method of accomplishing the same thing. Some in the C&MA may not agree with my take on it, but I served as an elder in what was one of their larger churches for 20+ years. So if someone can clarify the difference between consecration and ordination, have at it.

The C&MA diverged from the AG in the 20s, and really began moving mainstream evangelical in the mid 90s, when the headquarters moved out to Colorado Springs. As of when we left, it did not resemble the Holiness denomination my wife and I joined in the early 80s. My church closed, but likely we would have had problems at some point had we stayed.

J.M.

[Valerie]

I ran into a family belonging to this church at Mennonite Relief Auction in Kidron OH several years ago. Their appearance threw me- they were former Amish, & the woman approached me to I believe proselytize for their church. I never had anyone give me a 5 x 7 professional photograph of their family before as we parted, with their names ,& phone no on back. I came home ,& googled about the denomination & felt they would have been better off remaining Amish, having come from Foursquare myself I had turned away from denominatios with such claims as theirs. Just the misinterpretation regarding women's headcovering, how could one then believe they were started by a true prophet?