Talk:Church of God (Anderson, Indiana)

New Section Needs To Be Added
We all realize that teachings have changed. We need a heading as to explain why teachings have changed. Although the core basic beliefs of Warner and the other Reformers are still taught, we all realize that changes have taken place. I suggest a new heading as to explain why. Perhaps we can request someone from Anderson to write it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.184.10.144 (talk) 12:31, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

true or not true, i don't know. i just wanted to add that I agree DS Warner would be rolling in his grave over what has become known as COG-Anderson. the idea that everyone that believes IS the church is a great one, but COG folks are kidding themselves if they still think they are not a real denomination —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.18.102.134 (talk) 05:13, 3 November 2007 (UTC)

Re:New Section Needs To Be Added
I would like to remind everyone that the discussion pages are provided for article improvements.

Now that that's out of the way...I'm not really sure that a section on how the core beliefs have changed would add any quality to an average reader seeking information on the current Church of God (Anderson). In fact we may want to seek suggestions on a reformat/revision of the current information. Absolon S. Kent 16:13, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

Re:
The average reader may want to know the history, pure history of the Church of God(Anderson) to also see the changes that have taken place. They may want to know everything, the good, the bad and the ugly. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.184.10.144 (talk) 07:05, 23 November 2007 (UTC)

Re:

 * Okay, if looking simply at the pure history, then I can see including it, but I don't think it shouldn't be such a major focus. Perhaps we should look at reformatting/rewriting the article to include the development, but shifting focus onto what they believe today. I'd like to suggest the following:


 * Opening paragraph (who, what, when, where)
 * Structure and administration
 * National organization
 * Colleges and universities
 * Membership
 * Membership figures
 * Prominent members
 * History
 * Establishment
 * Development (growth)
 * Reformation
 * Affiliations and associations
 * Suggested reading (additional information)
 * References
 * External links


 * I would recommend removal of the doctrine and beliefs portion because I don't know how much encyclopedic value is added by including them.


 * Just my thoughts...feel free to disagree. Absolon S. Kent (talk) 18:22, 26 November 2007 (UTC)


 * I would seriously suggest you to move head and rewrite this article to put it into acceptable encyclopedic standards. Mikeatnip (talk) 15:43, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

Removing notable member entry
I removed musician Bill Gaither from the notable members listing because no reference was provided. Although he was a graduate of Anderson College, there is no documentation that he was a member of the Church of God or currently is. If an appropriate reference can be provided please readd. Absolon S. Kent (talk) 19:18, 25 February 2008 (UTC)

Bill Gaither grew up in the Church of the Nazarene, and Gloria Gaither in the Church of God (Anderson) -- very similar church groups. After marriage, it is my understanding that they are now Church of God (Anderson), and that they attend Park Place Church of God in Anderson Indiana. That's hearsay, but here is a fact from one of the writings on their website (reference): Gloria writes that in 1969 "This is the man who began to slip into the back pew of South Meridian Church in Anderson, where Bill was serving as minister of music."  South Meridian is a Church of God (Anderson) congregation. So, here is documentation that Bill Gaither at least "was" a minister in the Church of God (Anderson) in 1969. Rdougellis (talk) 14:12, 20 July 2009 (UTC)

In 2006 Park Place Church of God published a book about its history written by Barry Callen - Seeking Higher Ground “The Centennial History of Park Place Church of God”. I don’t believe this book was ever available for sale (but you may be able to find a used copy online) and copies were given to the members of Park Place. On page 156 it talks about how Gloria and Bill attended their while they were at Anderson University and after they married. Park Place is located just across the street from the University so many college students and AU staff attend there. Since the church of God avoids any thing they believe causes divisions in the body of Christ there is no formal membership. I know some of them have directories that include phone numbers and addresses so the members can contact each other but you’re not going to find a definitive membership roll. According to the book i referenced Bill & Gloria definitely spent much of their early years there and I have seen them in the pews there several years ago. I have also seen them at North Anderson Church of God (Madison Park Church of God now) as well and Madison Park was where I last heard they were going. Anderson isn’t a huge town but there are several influential church of god congregations here with generational families that have been a part of their moved since it located here. I’m sure the Gaithers have friends in every local congregation and probably visit different worship service from time to time when they are not out touring. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:800:8301:B910:558:C47F:5314:EDA (talk) 18:39, 20 January 2023 (UTC)

The Divine Healing Section
From reading the section on Biblical support for divine healing, I fell like I'm reading a publication from the church itself. I think that this section should be deleted or rewritten to have a more neutral pov if that is possible as the current tone is inappropriate for an encyclopedia. Ltwin (talk) 23:08, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

"Non-denominational"
This label is sometimes applied to Christian organisations that include people from a variety of different churches, and avoid promoting the distinctives of any of the constituent groups. In this sense it is nearly equivalent to "interdenominational".

Other than that, in my experience, it is used only by members of the many movements it is applied to, and it has two widely divergent meanings. It may mean Groups that follow the first interpretation are likely to except themselves from classification as a denomination on the grounds that they are a special move of God, Who wants people to leave the other churches and become part of this new movement of His Spirit. They may be mainstream Christians who see themselves as spearheading a move to unity of all Christians, or they may be schismatics who see their movement as the One True Church, and themselves as the only real Christians.
 * Rejecting the divisions represented by the denominations as offending against the unity of Christ's body (the Church)
 * Rejecting the alliances represented by the denominations as offending against the autonomy of congregations in interpreting the Bible, and seeking the guidance of the Holy Spirit

Those that follow the second interpretation may also regard themselves as the One True Church, and expect that God has other like-minded congregations of true believers elsewhere.

What does "non-denominational" mean here? Koro Neil 203.109.164.2 (talk) 04:49, 4 October 2008 (UTC)


 * The Church of God (Anderson) definitely falls into the first of your two categories, Koro Neil. The initial thrust of this movement included a call for people to "come out" of denominations, known as "Babylon" ("confusion"), into the one true church. David aukerman talk 17:47, 1 May 2009 (UTC)


 * So do they considert themselves to be the "one true church"? Ltwin (talk) 19:17, 1 May 2009 (UTC)


 * In some ways, yes, but in other ways, no. At the beginning of the movement, people in the movement considered the movement to be the one true church.  Presently, many still refer to the Church of God (Anderson) as "the church," but most understand that the entirety of God's church extends well beyond the boundaries of this movement. David aukerman talk 00:54, 4 July 2009 (UTC)

Ok. There is the matter of the infobox though. For classification, it currently has non-denominational which while Wikipedia should respect that they consider themselves a non-denomination this doesn't help the reader at all. Looking at this group from an NPOV it is clear that they are within Protestantism. I'll change the infobox to reflect that. Ltwin (talk) 19:16, 3 December 2009 (UTC)

Recent move
My mistake. I meant to move it to Church of God (Anderson, Indiana). clariosophic (talk) 04:02, 9 June 2009 (UTC)


 * No problem, as long as you fix it :) also you need to move the archives to the correct name space. The archive page can be found here: Talk:Church of God (Anderson)/Archive 1. Ltwin (talk) 04:19, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

Notable member images
Why are there images of two members of Congress who happen to members of this church? Are the images of notable members necessary? No where in the article are these two people mentioned as having any part in the history of this church. As such, there is no need for these images. Ltwin (talk) 19:28, 3 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Agreed. These two Congresspeople are not of encyclopedic importance to the article; their images are not necessary here.  David aukerman talk 02:51, 18 April 2010 (UTC)
 * Not necessary, sure, but they do enhance the article and make it a little more interesting. --Bermicourt (talk) 20:03, 13 October 2010 (UTC)

External links modified
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"Beliefs" section not about beliefs
The "Beliefs" section describes (barely) 3 practices. Are there in fact any beliefs that are necessary for church members? --Richardson mcphillips (talk) 11:19, 16 January 2017 (UTC)