What Should Denominations Do?

Bill Isaacs, Administrative Bishop for the Churches of God in Northern Ohio, has a blog in which he asks the honest question, "What can/should denominations do?" Considering the mandated reallocation of funds (decision of our general assembly), this is the first question that must be addressed before deciding where to set the knife.

Bill has opened his blog to user comments, and there has been quite a number of responses to his question -- with many various opinions. Below is my response to question as I posted on his blog.

Bill, thanks for opening the dialog on this topic. Let me address the matter from a more historical perspective by asking the question, what were the core values of our denomination in its earliest years. Finding out what contributed to any organization’s early successes will normally be tied to its DNA. So. here’s my take on our core values.

1. Church planting From the onset, A.J. Tomlinson had the desire to evangelize by planting new churches. In 1902, there was the single church in Camp Creek, NC. By 1905, there were churches in NC, TN, and GA. At the first Assembly in 1905, there were five congregations. By 1910, we had 31 churches; by 1911 there were 51. By …, well you get the picture.

2. The Power of Holy Spirit I place this second on purpose due to its historical timing. Although there were charismatic demonstrations with the Christian Union in 1886, there was no teaching about it. And it appears that the charismata didn’t stick with the group. It was in 1908, after the third General Assembly that A.J. Tomlinson was filled with the spirit at a revival in Alabama. Subsequently, he invited G.B. Cashwell to Cleveland and the Pentecostal revival came to stay in the denomination.

3. World Missions By 1909, Edmund Barr and R.M Evans experienced Pentecost. The next year, they went to the Bahamas to plant the COG. Other missionaries and countries would quickly be a part of the denomination’s outreach. Today, the COG is in 170 countries.

4. Social Ministry From 1900-1910, the leaders frequently collected clothes for needy children. There were several attempts to establish an orphanage. 1910, Lillian Thrasher started an orphanage in Egypt. Finally, the first COG home for children was established in 1920 in Cleveland.

5. Youth Ministry 1906, already the need for family ministry, family devotions was expressed. Later initiatives, youth camps and the YPE movement.

6. Ministerial Training/Education Most of us know about Lee University having its roots at the Bible Training Institute. It began in 1919. Since then we can look at all the different educational initiatives and programs, including the MIP and CIMS.

After writing this, I am still of the conviction that the local church is the hope of the world. The denomination exists because of the local church. However, the denomination has the power to be greater than the sums of its local congregations. The purpose of the denomination is simply to help us all achieve things that local churches by themselves cannot accomplish alone.

I think these core values listed above can really be our north star / our true north as we navigate the waters of decentralization (how else are we to interpret the decision of the last General Assembly) and budget reductions.