Talk:Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee)

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The paragraph about cooperation between the COG (Cleveland) and COGOP was added 22:54, 17 June 2004 by User:170.148.92.52. Part of it may contain opinion, but I believe that based on the links listed below, the cooperation between them is not an unsubstantiated rumor. People's opinions about it could be. I am going to add back part of the statement. - Rlvaughn 4 July 2005 15:11 (UTC)

http://www.faithnews.cc/articles.cfm?sid=5203 http://www.faithnews.cc/articles.cfm?sid=4833 http://www.faithnews.cc/articles.cfm?sid=5503 http://www.faithnews.cc/articles.cfm?sid=5313 http://www.faithnews.cc/articles.cfm?sid=4324 http://www.faithnews.cc/articles.cfm?sid=5193

Very nicely researched. I also followed up on this. It appears that it is, in fact, not unsubstantiated. It is much better to state this as yo uhave and to remove the opinion sections in the article. Thank you for doing this research and improving the article. --Mrainwater 5 July 2005 03:00 (UTC)

Thanks. This could probably still use some work, but the first part does seem to fairly accurately state what is going on: "Presently, there is an on-going effort to work closely with the Church of God of Prophecy (created by the division in 1923). Both churches hold very similar doctrine, and there has been much more cooperation between the churches and leadership." The last sentence - "Some members believe that eventually there may be a reconciliation that would restore the church to a level of energy and spiritual authority that it has not seen since 1923" - which I left out, states the opinion of some members. It may be true that it is the opinion of some members, but I don't think that necessarily belongs in an encylopedia article. Also this part I kept probably should go somewhere else instead of the "Basic Beliefs" section. Maybe there should be a section on "current status", "current activity" or something like that. Thanks for your work on the article, too. The subdivisions are helpful. - Rlvaughn 5 July 2005 03:18 (UTC)

I agree that the statement doesn't fit well in the "Basic Beliefs" section. I just didn't take the time to think through a better solution. By the way, I am a member of the Church of God (Cleveland) and I have been most of my life. While there are certainly many things I could add, I was trying to contribute the type of useful content that would be appropriate in this encyclopedia. But, if someone is doing research you may also want to contact a member of this organization for first-hand information. --Mrainwater 5 July 2005 16:08 (UTC)

Contents 1 External links 2 church planting 3 References 4 "Oldest Church" reference request 5 Image Fair Use

[edit] External links

I've just added a clean up tag to the external links section because several links appear not actually lead to information but are instead links to connected organizations, which isn't really in keeping with the spirit of our guidelines (Wikipedia is not a directory. We also seem to be sending people to external sites instead of emphasizing Wikipedia articles. I propose:

• Declaration of Faith of the Church of God (Cleveland) Keep.
• Lee University official Website Delete. Lee University is Wikilinked in the first paragraph, we should be sending people to that article for information on Lee.
• International Bible College official Website Delete. The link doesn't seem to provide information on the Church of God itself. This would make a reasonable related bodies or see also link if it got its own Wikipedia article.
• Church of God Theological Seminary Delete. CoG Theological Seminary is Wikilinked in the first paragraph, we should be sending people to that article for information on it, not straight off of Wikipedia.
• Church of God Publishing House Delete. The link provides no information on the Church of God. Would be a reasonable related bodies.
• Pathway Press BookstoreDelete. Having this link here is a promotion of the store. There's no encyclopedic value to such a link.
• [1]Dixon Pentecostal Research Center Keep

It might be worth putting the Lee University and the Theological Seminary wikilinks into a section of the related bodies section even though they're already linked in the body of the text. Not sure about this - lists can overwhelm articles.

Any comments? --Siobhan Hansa 12:12, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] church planting

A section on "Church Planting" keeps getting removed and added back in. As it stands it explains nothing to a naive reader and seems to be mainly about providing external links to the Planting Office and the Covenant Community Church. What is "church planting" and why are these two bodies important to mention in the article? Are there better (i.e. independent, 3rd party) references we can use? Thanks -- SiobhanHansa 20:18, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Shouldn't the "Church Planting" section be a subsection under "Missions" section? I concur that it adds nothing notable as a section on it's own. looks like an external link to me.

Also shouldn't the "Basic Beliefs" section be moved under the "Theology" section?
Absolon S. Kent 15:24, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] References

If the membership number is 7 million can someone quote that because this church is listed on the pentacostal article as a MAJOR pentacostal church, it really needs some verification on that number and how the church arrives at that figure (eg does it include "church of God" prophecy/signs - which?). Maybe the references might need to be organised and placed at the bottom under {references}.Darrenss 03:37, 4 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] "Oldest Church" reference request

The lead paragraph states "The Church of God (Cleveland) is the oldest known (Protestant)/Pentecostal Christian denomination,..." This may be disputable since the Church of God (Anderson) lists it's establishment at 1881. Additionally, since the Methodist churches are technically listed as Protestant, the AME church would be much older since it was established in 1816. Could someone please provide a reference on where this statement was derived from or remove that portion of the lead?
Absolon S. Kent 15:13, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

The category was Protestant/Pentecostal, not Protestant. The Church of God (Anderson) does not claim to be a Pentecostal Church, therefore it would not fall into the category of Protestant/Pentecostal, neither would the AME church. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 50%quick (talk • contribs) 15:29, 18 September 2007 (UTC)

I did a review of the official site and was unable to find the following statements: "...worldwide membership of around 7,000,000" and "...making it the oldest Pentecostal Christian denomination in the United States." I tagged both with "Fact" tag. If you have a specific page on the official site, please add the reference. Thanks.
Absolon S. Kent 14:10, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

Again, Church of God (Anderson, IN) is not pentecostal. They are very much not pentecostal and would not want the title. I do not think they will dispute it.98.222.223.139 (talk) 01:03, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Image Fair Use

I noticed that the logo recently added does not have a fair use. Recommend someone update soon before the image bots delete. Absolon S. Kent (talk) 15:43, 11 March 2008 (UTC)