The small Church of God that I went to many years ago in Idaho, was part of the whole Church of God association. Since we were a very small church, and most didn’t have much money (certainly not enough to cover the utilities and something for the pastor), the head church helped to pay that each month. On the other hand, everything that we did give in the offerings was sent back to the main church headquarters. When we asked our pastor if there was anyway that we could pay our tithes directly to help support our own church, he said that if something was marked “special offering for pastor”, then it was kept by Pastor Reed and used as he saw fit for his purposes or for the church. He and his wife were probably the most committed people possible to manage our little church. When one of the old schoolhouses became available for sale, he managed to purchase the property, and we all worked to help him turn part of the building into a church sanctuary, and the basement became the living quarters for Pastor Reed and his family. Since the old school had used a wood furnace to heat the whole building, each fall we all helped to bring in wood and get it stored in the basement to keep the church warm in the winter. Later, he actually started a small Christian School in some of the classrooms, and my oldest son finished school and graduated from there. Pastor Reed and his wife were always helping people, whether they belonged to our church or not, and to me, he represented what a real Christian should be like, with a heart full of love for God and all human beings. He was never judgmental , which a lot of pastors (and other Christians) seem to be, but he accepted people as they were and then tried to help them improve their lives. We were going through a really bad time in our life back then, my ex-husband was involved in some bad things from the drinking and drug use, and Pastor Reed was always there to help our family cope with everything, and to pray for us. When the kids and I needed a place to stay, the Reeds opened up their home for us, and took care of us until we could do something to get our lives squared away again. There is so much more that I could write about this wonderful couple who had so much of a positive impact on the lives of myself and my family.
I am reminded of the Polish National Catholic Church. When Polish immigrants arrived in the U.S. they built their own Catholic churches with their own hands and their own funds only to find that the Scranton PA diocese claimed ownership when it was all complete. Instead the parishioners split from Roman Catholicism and founded their own church and it thrives to this day.
And your very good article reminded me of my own little church, the First Pentecostal Church of God at Third and Adams Streets in Wichita Falls, Tx. We had three pastors while I attended that church but the one who remained the longest and who so much reminded me of your own pastor was Brother Woodard as he was known to me as a child and continued to be known until I left for military service. I don't remember his first name because I never used it. Sometimes I wondered how he got along, the offering were so small. He reminded me of what I thought a christain should be.
This was a Pentecostal church, too, @Bill Boggs ; but it was called the Church of God of Cleveland , Tennessee. I think that there are other churches called Church of God that are not Pentecostal, but the headquarters for this church were in Tennessee. I think that the pastors of some of the small churches were more like family to the church-goers , and definitely more connected than the pastors of these big mega-churches that seem to be in style nowadays. One time, my husband was out of work, and we were barely scraping by. Pastor Reed bought a cow at the auction sale, they brought it out to our house (we lived in the country), and he and my husband butchered the cow, and Sister Reed and I cut it up and packaged it, and we shared the meat, and gradually paid them back for our half as we were able to do. We lived in a tiny little house that had electricity (barely), but no heat or water, so we went down to the church and filled up the 55 gallon drums that we kept in the back of the pickup truck, and had an old barrel stove that we used for heating. In the winter, we often took our showers at the church also, using the basement bathrooms.
Yes there are other Church of God's but don't know much about them@Yvonne Smith. The Penecostal Church of God broke out of the Assemblies of God denomination due to beliefs about remarriage. There were other minor differences also but don't recall what they were, or may have never known.
As far as I am aware, there are: Church of God (Anderson, Indiana), Church of God (Holiness), Churches of God, General Conference, Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee), Church of God in Christ, Church of God of Prophecy, Fire Baptized Holiness Church of God, Pentecostal Church of God, Church of God, a Worldwide Association, and then there are the Assemblies of God, of which there are more than one.
Of which there are two commonalities that relate them which are the supernatural workings of the Holy Spirit and the potential loss of salvation as opposed to eternal salvation. My Grandfather was a Assemblies of God preacher and there is no way he could ever have gotten wealthy even if wealth were to be bestowed upon him for some reason. He was a devout Matthew 19:24 believer in the strictest sense. He wasn’t a “school trained” pastor so some translations were pretty foreign to him so in his personal world, every extra buck not given to a needy person or project was a roadmap to finding one’s way south of heaven.
I had an uncle who was ordained into the Assemblies of God. He was a pastor in that denomination for many years.
Our little church is no longer in Wichita Falls. A major highway now comes through the area wiping out my church. The house I lived in at 215 Pine Street is no longer standing. It was declaired flood plain, and it and all houses to the north were bulldozed down and hauled away As well as those to the east where I had my first home on River Road and all the houses in that area are no more, a huge pasture land now.