Church of God schisms and splits

I stumbled across something interesting.

As some of you know (and others don't) the Church of God Reformation has many more offspring than just the "Anderson, Indiana" group of which we are part. Over the past 127 years there have been a number of divisions that have resulted in close cousins who share the same basic name, heritage and doctrinal ideals. But all is not well in the Church of God family, as many of these relatives rarely communicate, and when they do there is much misunderstanding. At least one group, Church of God Restoration, is even considered by many to be a cult.

What I discovered is an interesting chart created by Dale Rude (I have no idea who he is) that depicts schematically all the major schisms and splits (plus major Church of God leaders) that have occurred in the Church of God. It's a fascinating historical study, and itself speaks a strong message concerning our DNA and practice of unity.

LINK

Rude rhetorically asks: "The Church of God ... One Body Is?"

On campmeetings

This week I am at the Family Camp of the Pacific Northwest Association at our Double-K Christian Retreat Center in Easton, Washington.

Note the title: "Family Camp".

In truth, however, this is a version of "campmeeting", a long-standing tradition across the Church of God. These events have been an important part of our identity, especially in our early years. Almost ever region of the continent used to have a campmeeting, and our national one was dubbed "Anderson Campmeeting". But, over the years, campmeetings have faced many challenges, and are generally only a shadow of what they once were. Society changed, as has the social nature of our movement. The name change of Anderson Campmeeting to the North American Convention is a reflection of the transformations that have occurred.

Certainly, some campmeetings are still thriving. Our district neighbors in Oregon continue to have a very successful campmeeting, probably the largest regional one in the Church of God. And there are some very committed campmeeting junkies who attend year after year, some even visiting several across the country.

The reality, however, is that campmeeting participation is shrinking overall across our movement, and has less overall impact than it once did. Our own camp this week will see far less than 10% (probably closer to 5%) of our constituency in attendance even for one day. We have a good event, but its influence is not as significant as campmeetings of the past which drew in large proportions of movement adherents.

Further indications of some of the changes and pressures affecting the Church of God.

NAC in the media

While you are still pondering my "bold proposals" concerning the North American Convention (I appreciate the large amount of feedback I have received, both on the blog and elsewhere!), it may be interesting to take a look at some of the media coverage we received last week.

The Herald Bulletin newspaper in Anderson provides regular coverage during the NAC. This is not surprising since this event has such an important impact on the city. For the most part their coverage is good, providing human interest stories related to the convention. This year two stories caught my attention.

On June 25th they published an article, "Fewer numbers at convention affect nearby businesses". The story highlights the significant drop in attendance that has occurred over the years (something I've been saying) and the effect it has on local businesses.

The Herald Bulletin really scraped the bottom of the news barrel, however, on June 27th with this story: "Speaker uses racial insult at Church of God meeting". They reported James Johnman, director of Hispanic church planting, using the term "wetback" at a conference attended by FIVE people. Reading the entire article, this is truly a non-story and a perfect example of media looking for something sensational in order to sell papers.