The Church of God in Christ

The largest African American Pentecostal church in the United States: a Holiness church founded in Mississippi in 1897 that took up the tongues teaching in 1907, led from Memphis by a Presiding Bishop and a General Board of bishops.

Church of God in Christ, What We Believe

Church of God in Christ, Statement of Faith

Church of God in Christ, Our History

Church of God in Christ, Our Founder

Church of God in Christ, About C. H. Mason (Founders Week)

Church of God in Christ, The Presiding Bishop

Church of God in Christ, The General Board

Church of God in Christ, 118th Holy Convocation (registration site)

Church of God in Christ, Program of the Service of Episcopal Consecration (January 2023), PDF on cogic.org

Church of God in Christ, National Adjutancy, 2015 Training Manual (PDF on cogic.org)

Official Manual with the Doctrines and Discipline of the Church of God in Christ (1973 edition, 1991 printing), read in a retyped copy at cogicjustice.net, an independent members' site, not the church's; its text matches the Manual as quoted in the church's own Department of Evangelism handbook (cogic.org, 2013)

Official Manual of the Church of God in Christ, Seventh Edition (revised 1957), read in a retyped copy at cogicjustice.net, an independent members' site, not the church's; not independently confirmed

Church of God in Christ, Official Handbook for the Department of Women (third revised edition, approved by the General Board, 2002), read in an electronic copy at cogicjustice.net, an independent members' site, not the church's

Church of God in Christ, International Department of Women, Our History

Church of God in Christ, International Department of Women, Mother Lizzie Woods Robinson

Association of Religion Data Archives, 2020 US Religion Census: Congregational Membership Reports

The Church of God in Christ began as a Holiness revival among Black Baptists in Mississippi and Arkansas. Charles Harrison Mason and Charles Price Jones preached sanctification in the 1890s, were shut out of the Baptist pulpits, and formed a church in 1897. In 1907 Mason went to the Azusa Street revival in Los Angeles and came back convinced that tongues were the sign of the baptism in the Holy Ghost. The church divided over it, and Mason kept the name and the charter and made the body Pentecostal. After Mason died in 1961 the church fought over who held his authority, and a court-ordered convention in 1968 gave it the constitution it has today.

Mason is licensed as a Baptist preacher

Mason was born near Memphis in 1864 to parents who had been enslaved, was converted and baptized in 1878, and in 1893 took a license to preach from the Mt. Gale Missionary Baptist Church in Preston, Arkansas. He then "experienced sanctification through the word of God" and preached his first sermon on holiness.

The Jackson revival closes the Baptist doors

In 1895 Mason met C. P. Jones, J. E. Jeter and W. S. Pleasant. In 1896 they held a revival in Jackson, Mississippi, whose "dogmatic teachings of Bishop Mason on the doctrine of sanctification caused church doors within the Baptist association to become closed to him and to all those that believed and supported his teachings." The church's pages date the closing to the revival, not to 1893.

A church of sixty, and its name

Mason, Jones and Pleasant called a meeting at Lexington, Mississippi, "and sixty stood as charter members," to found "a church which would emphasize the doctrine of entire sanctification through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit." Later in 1897, in the church's account, the name "Church of God in Christ" was "revealed to Bishop mason while walking along a certain street in Little Rock, Arkansas," and rests on 1 Thessalonians 2:14. The history page calls the charter members "a Pentecostal body known as the 'Church of God.'" It places Mason's own baptism in the Holy Ghost and the teaching of tongues in 1907, and it calls that "This new Pentecostal experience."

Mason at Azusa Street

In March 1907 Mason went to Los Angeles with D. J. Young and J. A. Jeter to a Pentecostal revival where William J. Seymour was preaching. The church publishes his own account, in which "a flame touched my tongue which ran down me. My language changed and no word could I speak in my own tongue." The church's pages give no length for his stay.

The church divides, and Mason's side becomes Pentecostal

When Mason taught tongues as a New Testament doctrine at home, "Elder J. A. Jeter, the General Overseer, Elder C. P. Jones, and others regarded the new Holy Ghost experience of speaking in tongues as a delusion." The General Assembly withdrew "the 'right hand' of fellowship" from Mason. He called a conference in Memphis of ministers who accepted the baptism of the Holy Ghost, and they organized "the first Pentecostal General Assembly of the 'Church of God in Christ.'" Mason was chosen General Overseer and Chief Apostle and "was given complete authority to establish doctrine, organize auxiliaries and appoint overseers." The church's Our Founder page adds that "Mason won the legal rights to the Church of God in Christ name and charter, and established his work in Memphis."

The Department of Women

Mason created the office of General Supervisor of Women and appointed Lizzie Woods Robinson, who held it from 1911 to 1945. The department's history tells of her tours across the country, a foreign mission band begun in 1926, and the state mothers who carried the work on. The department's page for her spells her name Robinson, and its history page spells it Roberson.

From a tabernacle to Mason Temple

The first National Tabernacle, at 958 South Fifth Street in Memphis, was finished in 1925 and burned in 1936. Until 1945 the national meeting was held in Mason's own church. In 1945 Mason dedicated Mason Temple, "built for less than $400,000 during World War II."

Mason dies

Mason died on November 17, 1961. The church's Our Founder page says it then had "a membership of more than 400,000 and more than 4,000 churches in United States as well as congregations in Europe, South America, Africa, and Asia." Under the 1926 constitution his authority passed to the Board of Bishops. The General Assembly kept the seven-bishop commission Mason had set up and added five, and honored Bishop O. T. Jones with the title of Senior Bishop.

A dispute over the Senior Bishop's power

In 1964 a dispute arose at the November convocation "as to the authority and power of the 'Senior Bishop,' and the authority and power of the Executive Board." On October 10, 1967, in a Consent Decree entered in the Chancery Court in Memphis, the parties agreed that the General Assembly, meeting in a constitutional convention, should settle it. The Manual calls the years 1961 to 1968 the "Dark Period" in the church's history.

A constitution, and a first Presiding Bishop

The Constitutional Convention met in Memphis from January 30 to February 2, 1968. It abolished the office of Senior Bishop and the Executive Board of Bishops and formed a General Board of twelve bishops with a Presiding Bishop and two assistants. At the sixty-first convocation, November 5–15, 1968, the first General Election made J. O. Patterson Sr. the first Presiding Bishop. The church lists his years as 1968 to 1989.

Five Presiding Bishops

The church's list of former leaders gives Louis H. Ford (1989–1995), Chandler D. Owens (1995–2000), Gilbert E. Patterson (2000–2007) and Charles E. Blake Sr. (2007–2021) after J. O. Patterson Sr. The church's history page says its membership grew from three million in 1973 to an estimated 5.2 million in 1997.

J. Drew Sheard becomes Presiding Bishop

The delegates of the General Assembly elected Bishop J. Drew Sheard of Detroit to the Office of the Presiding Bishop as Chief Apostle. The church's page says that in 2024 and in 2021 the General Assembly re-elected him to the Presidium, and that he was subsequently elected to the Office of the Presiding Bishop. His page and the General Board page on cogic.org, read on October 28, 2026, still name him.

Charles Harrison Mason

Founder, born near Memphis to parents who had been enslaved. A Baptist preacher who taught sanctification, he led the church from 1897. He was chosen General Overseer and Chief Apostle in 1907 and Senior Bishop, and held "complete authority to establish doctrine, organize auxiliaries and appoint overseers." He dedicated Mason Temple in 1945.

Charles Price Jones

A Baptist preacher whom Mason met in 1895 and with whom he preached sanctification. The church's history says he was chosen General Overseer in the first reorganization. He and others rejected the tongues teaching in 1907, and the two men "split their group in 1907."

Lizzie Woods Robinson

Appointed by Mason in 1911 to organize the church's work among women, and the first to hold the office of General Supervisor, which she kept until 1945.

James Oglethorpe Patterson Sr.

The first Presiding Bishop, elected at the first General Election in November 1968 and in office until 1989.

John Drew Sheard

Pastor of Greater Emmanuel Institutional Church of God in Christ in Detroit since 1988. A jurisdictional bishop since 2010, he was elected to the General Board in 2012 and as Presiding Bishop and Chief Apostle in 2021.

Who leads the church today. Bishop J. Drew Sheard is Presiding Bishop and Chief Apostle, according to the church's own Presiding Bishop page, its General Board page and its 2026 materials, all read on October 28, 2026. The page for the 2024 quadrennial election also lists him among the candidates. Some web search snippets say that Gilbert E. Patterson was elected in 2025. That cannot be right. The church's own list of former leaders shows Bishop Gilbert Earl Patterson as the fourth Presiding Bishop, from 2000 to 2007, and he died in 2007. This chart does not use those snippets.

The two dates the church uses for its beginning. The church's own pages give 1897 for its founding at Lexington. The lineage chart draws the church's line from 1907, because that was the year the 1897 body divided over the tongues teaching, and the side that took the teaching kept the name. Both dates are true of different things: the Holiness church began in 1897 and the Pentecostal body Mason led began in 1907.

The 1968 dates. Some web sources give February 1968 for the constitutional convention. The church's Official Manual gives January 30 to February 2, 1968, for the convention and November 5–15, 1968, for the first election of the General Board and the Presiding Bishop, and this chart follows the Manual.

Why this body has its own chart. The Pentecostal chart on this site speaks for a family, the Assemblies of God, the Church of God in Christ, the Church of God of Cleveland and the Foursquare Church. It sets its verdicts by the Assemblies of God, the largest body, and gives the Church of God in Christ a place in its history and a few lines in its positions, on its tongues teaching, its footwashing and its Presiding Bishop. The Holiness chart speaks for the Nazarene, Wesleyan and Anderson churches, who teach the second work of grace and do not make tongues its proof. The Church of God in Christ is both at once, and neither chart tells its own story. It teaches sanctification after conversion as "essential to the salvation of mankind," and then a baptism in the Holy Ghost with tongues that it calls "mandatory." It is governed from the top, by a Presiding Bishop and a General Board of bishops, where the Assemblies of God are governed by a congregation under a council. It has had a national Department of Women since 1911, led by women who license missionaries and evangelists while the pastorate stays with men. It keeps footwashing as one of three ordinances "instituted by Christ himself," and it keeps an altar, vestments and a church year of its own. And it lived through a fight over its government in the 1960s that ended in a court-ordered constitution. Those facts need their own chart.

The Word of God is the only authority, and the church says no doctrine can be true that is not found in it. The General Assembly makes the church's doctrine and law, and an Official Manual sets out its doctrine and discipline.

The church's first article says: "We hold the Word of God to be the only authority in all matters and assert that no doctrine can be true or essential, if it does not find a place in this Word." Its short Statement of Faith opens the same way, calling the Bible "the inspired and only infallible written Word of God." The church also says the Bible "contains one harmonious and sufficiently complete system of doctrine."

Beside the Bible stands a body of church law. The Official Manual sets out the doctrines and discipline of the church, and the 1968 convention left the General Assembly as "the only doctrine-expressing and law-making authority of the church." The church's account of its own beginnings also includes a revelation: its name "was revealed to Bishop mason while walking along a certain street in Little Rock, Arkansas," and Scripture was found to support it.

We hold the Word of God to be the only authority in all matters and assert that no doctrine can be true or essential, if it does not find a place in this Word.

We believe the Bible to be the inspired and only infallible written Word of God.

The General Assembly would continue to be the only doctrine-expressing and law-making authority of the church.

The Manual's section on the last things asks a minister to take its teaching on the end of the age from the Bible alone: "the Bible alone supplies us with the only authentic revelation of the future of Saint and Sinner alike." The 1973 edition lets an editorial commission revise its wording "without changing its original meaning." In the 1957 edition the Manual says "This Discipline is subject to being revised annually by the General Assembly."

A sinner is cleansed through repentance and faith in the blood of Christ, then regenerated, sanctified and baptized in the Holy Ghost. Water baptism, by immersion, follows conversion as an outward sign, and sanctification is called essential to salvation.

The church says that "the only means of being cleansed from sin is through repentance and faith in the precious Blood of Jesus Christ," and that "regeneration by the Holy Ghost is absolutely essential for personal salvation." Its fuller statement describes a path in stages: the work of the Holy Ghost, "brought about by repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ," "brings conversion, faith, justification regeneration, sanctification, and the baptism of the Holy Ghost." Sanctification is "that gracious and continuous operation of the Holy Ghost," and the church's history calls it "essential to the salvation of mankind."

Baptism is "necessary as instructed by Christ in St. John 3:5," yet the church does "not believe that water baptism alone is a means of salvation." It is "an outward demonstration that one has already had a conversion experience." It is by immersion, in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, and it is for believers only: the Manual says "infants are excluded from the ordinance" and that a child is to be baptized when he or she reaches an age of accountability and accepts the faith.

We believe that the only means of being cleansed from sin is through repentance and faith in the precious Blood of Jesus Christ.

However, we do not believe that water baptism alone is a means of salvation, but is an outward demonstration that one has already had a conversion experience and has accepted Christ as his personal Savior.

the doctrine of sanctification or holiness is emphasized, as being essential to the salvation of mankind.

The church's statement on baptism is not a statement that the water does nothing. It says baptism is "necessary" and cites John 3:5 for it, and it adds that "immersion corresponds more closely to the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord (Colossians 2:12)." What it refuses to say is that baptism is for the forgiveness of sins.

The Lord's Supper is an ordinance instituted by Christ, taken as a memorial of his death. The church follows the memorial view. Footwashing, kept as its own ordinance, follows it.

The church names three ordinances "instituted by Christ himself and therefore, binding upon the church practice": the Lord's Supper, footwashing and water baptism. It says the Supper "symbolizes the Lord's death and suffering for the benefit and in the place of His people" and that it also symbolizes the believer's share in the crucified Christ and the union of believers with one another. The Official Manual says the church "supports what is known as the Zwinglian or Memorial view," in which "the ordinance is only symbolic."

Only an ordained elder may administer the ordinances, and the Manual provides an order of service for it. Neither the church's website nor its Official Manual says on which day of the week the Supper is kept or how often. The Manual says the footwashing service is "usually held subsequent to the Holy Communion Service," and that its regularity "is left to the discretion of the Pastor in charge." The training manual of the church's National Adjutancy, which "now serves in any setting where the Presiding Bishop is serving," describes an altar, a chalice, an "Unleavened wafer" and "consecrated wine." It says "The two sacraments are Holy Baptism and Holy Communion," and it defines a sacrament as a rite that "uses an earthy element as a sign of God's grace." The Adjutancy's manual is written for those services, and it does not say how far local congregations follow it.

The Lord’s Supper symbolizes the Lord’s death and suffering for the benefit and in the place of His people.

The Church Of God In Christ supports what is known as the Zwinglian or Memorial view, which has historical roots.

Only an ordained Elder may administer the Ordinances of the Church.

The church is governed from Memphis by a Presiding Bishop and a General Board of bishops, with jurisdictional bishops who appoint pastors. The Official Manual keeps the eldership, the episcopate and the pastorate for men.

The church is made of local churches, jurisdictions led by bishops, and a General Assembly. A General Board of twelve bishops, "chosen from the Board of Bishops" and elected by the General Assembly for four years, is led by the Presiding Bishop and two assistants. The church's own page says: "Executive decisions made by the General Board are final unless revoked or modified by the General Assembly." The Presiding Bishop is Chief Executive Officer and carries the title Chief Apostle.

Below the General Board are the jurisdictions. A jurisdictional bishop is "appointed and removed by the Presiding Bishop with the approval of the General Board," and he has "the right to appoint and ordain Elders." The pastor of a local church "shall be appointed by the Jurisdictional Bishop," and a church "shall not have the legal right or privilege to withdraw" from the general church without the General Assembly's permission. The Manual itself says that "elders" and bishops "were in the apostolic and sub-apostolic times the same," and that the elders "appear to act conjointly and not separately."

The Manual says "nowhere can we find a mandate to ordain women to be an Elder, Bishop or Pastor." Women hold their own offices in the Department of Women, as supervisors, missionaries and deaconesses.

Jurisdictional Bishops, formerly known and referred to as Overseers or State Bishops, shall be appointed and removed by the Presiding Bishop with the approval of the General Board.

The Pastor of a local church shall be appointed by the Jurisdictional Bishop of the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction of the Church.

nowhere can we find a mandate to ordain women to be an Elder, Bishop or Pastor.

The Manual on elders and bishops. In its section on pastors, elders and bishops the Manual says: "That "elders" (presbuteroi) that is, the older ones, and bishops (episkopoi) "overseers" were in the apostolic and sub-apostolic times the same." It goes on to say: "The pastor was always an elder," and that the churches "generally had elders appointed over them."

What women do. The Manual says women "may teach the gospel to others" and may "have charge of a church in absence of its Pastor, if the Pastor so wishes," without taking the title of elder, reverend, bishop or pastor. The Department of Women licenses missionaries. The Department's handbook describes a State or Jurisdictional Evangelist Missionary as "a female, who is saved, sanctified and filled with the Holy Ghost" and who feels God "has called her to expound the gospel of Jesus Christ." A national women's evangelist is expected to be able to "travel abroad conducting revivals."

What the church's officers are called. In the program for the 2023 consecration of bishops, bishops on the General Board are styled "The Right Reverend," and the Presiding Bishop is styled "His Grace, The Most Reverend." The Presiding Bishop is also called Chief Apostle, and when he serves the General Board at the Supper the program says, "The Apostles having been served."

Worship follows orders the church has written down, with hymns and a choir, Scripture and a sermon, and a fuller ceremony at national services. The church holds that holiness shapes the whole life, including dress.

The church's Official Manual prints orders of worship for morning and evening services, for Good Friday, Palm Sunday, Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Watch Night and New Year's Day, with calls to worship, prayers and benedictions. It calls them "Practical Suggestions for Worship Services." Services include hymns, a choir, the reading of Scripture and a sermon. The National Adjutancy's training manual sets out a church year, with Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Pentecost and Ordinary Time, each with its color.

The church's pages also describe a worship of the Spirit. Mason's own account of his Azusa Street experience, which the church publishes, speaks of a song, of the Spirit coming "upon the saints," and of "a wave of Glory." The 1897 revival at Lexington is told as one in which people were "shouting and praying." The Holy Ghost, says the church, is "to be believed in, obeyed, and worshipped." The church asks its women to dress "as becometh holiness" and gives them a dress code for the purpose.

I. Orders of Worship -- Practical Suggestions for Worship Services.

The Choir may sing an appropriate closing selection.

We petition our members to make or purchase clothing they wear for going to church a sign of their reverence and their love for God

The 2023 program for the consecration of bishops gives the order of a national service: an organ prelude, an apostolic procession, a hymn by the C. H. Mason Memorial Choir, the consecration of the bishops by the Presiding Bishop as chief celebrant, and a part of the service headed "The Consecration and Distribution of the Hosts." The sources used here do not describe the music or instruments in the weekly services of local congregations, and so this chart does not.

The baptism of the Holy Ghost comes after conversion and sanctification, and tongues are its result. The church says a Holy Ghost experience is mandatory for all men today, and that healing and miracles continue.

The church teaches that "the Baptism of the Holy Ghost is an experience subsequent to conversion and sanctification and that tongue-speaking is the consequence of the baptism in the Holy Ghost." It is not given to save a person: "we are not baptized with the Holy Ghost in order to be saved." But it is not optional. "Since the charismatic demonstrations were necessary to help the early church to be successful in implementing the command of Christ," the church says, "a Holy Ghost experience is mandatory for all men today."

The Manuals speak with more care than the website. The 1957 Manual says: "We do not presume to teach that no one has the Spirit that does not speak with tongues, yet we believe that a full baptism of Holy Ghost as was poured out on the day of Pentecost is accompanied by speaking with other tongues." The 1973 Manual separates the baptism from "the gift of tongues," saying "We do not believe that all Christians should possess the gift of tongues, for it is given only to some." The church believes in miracles and in healing: "Healing is still practiced widely and frequently in the Church of God in Christ."

We believe that the Baptism of the Holy Ghost is an experience subsequent to conversion and sanctification and that tongue-speaking is the consequence of the baptism in the Holy Ghost with the manifestations of the fruit of the spirit (Galatians 5:22-23; Acts 10:46, 19:1-6).

Since the charismatic demonstrations were necessary to help the early church to be successful in implementing the command of Christ, we therefore, believe that a Holy Ghost experience is mandatory for all men today.

We do not believe that all Christians should possess the gift of tongues, for it is given only to some

The Statement of Faith says the baptism of the Holy Spirit "is given to believers who ask for it." The church also teaches that the Spirit's gift is to equip and empower the believer, "making him a more effective witness for service in the world."

Christ will return personally, bodily and visibly. The church will be caught up to meet him in the air before the tribulation and the thousand-year reign, and the wicked will be judged and cast into the lake of fire.

The church's Statement of Faith holds "the blessed Hope, which is the rapture of the Church of God, which is in Christ, at His return." The fuller statement says that Christ "shall come from heaven to earth, personally, bodily, visibly" and that "the Church, the bride, will be caught up to meet Him in the air (I Thessalonians, 4:16-17)." The Official Manual's section on the last things puts the order in detail: the rapture, a tribulation of judgment on "Jews and Gentiles alike," the battle of Armageddon, and then the Millennium, "the thousand-year reign of Christ with his saints."

On the timing the Manual says: "We believe that Christ will return for his Church before the Millennium." It also asks members "not to debate this doctrine," because "the most important truth of this doctrine is that Christ is to return to this earth for his Church." It teaches several judgments, at the Judgment Seat of Christ for believers and at the Great White Throne for the wicked dead, who are cast into the lake of fire "to spend eternity." The church calls on those who hope for his coming to "purify themselves as He is pure."

We believe in the blessed Hope, which is the rapture of the Church of God, which is in Christ, at His return.

We believe in the second coming of Christ; that He shall come from heaven to earth, personally, bodily, visibly

We believe that Christ will return for his Church before the Millennium.

Holiness and a separated life

The church teaches that sanctification is a work of the Spirit after conversion, essential to salvation, and that it shows in how a believer dresses and lives.

The church calls itself "Holiness or Pentecostal in nature." Its Statement of Faith holds to "the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit, by whose indwelling the Christian is enabled to live a holy and separated life in the present world." The Manual joins a call to holy living to a dress code for women, set "in the light of the Word of God as recorded in I Timothy 2:9-10 and 1 Peter 3:3," which "is not designed to take away your desire to dress comely, but rather to suggest that you dress 'as becometh holiness.'" The code goes on to describe the dress of the national supervisor, state supervisors, missionaries and laywomen.

We believe in the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit, by whose indwelling the Christian is enabled to live a holy and separated life in the present world.

This code is presented in the light of the Word of God as recorded in I Timothy 2:9-10 and 1 Peter 3:3, and is not designed to take away your desire to dress comely, but rather to suggest that you dress "as becometh holiness."

but like as he who called you is holy, be ye yourselves also holy in all manner of living; because it is written, Ye shall be holy; for I am holy.

Follow after peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no man shall see the Lord:

And the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you, who will also do it.

In like manner, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefastness and sobriety; not with braided hair, and gold or pearls or costly raiment; but (which becometh women professing godliness) through good works.

The church is right that the Lord calls his people to holy living, and that the call is for every Christian: "like as he who called you is holy, be ye yourselves also holy in all manner of living" (1 Peter 1:15). It is right also to ask for modest dress, for Paul and Peter both ask it (1 Timothy 2:9-10). The New Testament does not make a second, separate work called sanctification a step after conversion that a person must reach to be saved, for Paul says the Corinthians were already "sanctified in Christ Jesus" (1 Corinthians 1:2), and he prays that God would sanctify them wholly and keep them (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24). Where the church binds on its licensed women a uniform, a black habit with a set cut, collar and bonnet, and keeps a purple habit that no other woman may wear, it binds what the apostles did not.

The Manual's dress code says: "The full dress habit for the women of the Church (licensed) will be the black habit, henceforth known as 'THE SAINT.'" It has a full skirt of twelve pleats, a white collar and a bonnet, and says the General Supervisor may wear "the Roman Purple Habit" and "No other Woman of the Church Of God In Christ may wear this Habit under any circumstances." Paul's words on dress ask for modesty, "not with braided hair, and gold or pearls or costly raiment" (1 Timothy 2:9), and no more.

Footwashing as an ordinance

Footwashing is kept as one of three ordinances instituted by Christ, usually after the Supper, with the men and the women apart.

The church says that "Feet Washing is practiced and recognized as an ordinance in our Church because Christ, by His example, showed that humility characterized greatness in the Kingdom of God." The Manual cites Luke 7:36-50, John 13:1-17 and 1 Timothy 5:10, and it says the service follows the Supper, with the minister quoting John 13:4-5 and showing the act. Men and women wash "in separate facilities or areas," and the Manual says the basin of water "should be passed from one to another without any great effort to clean one's feet, but to only ceremonially wash."

Feet Washing is practiced and recognized as an ordinance in our Church because Christ, by His example, showed that humility characterized greatness in the Kingdom of God, and that service, rendered to others gave evidence that humility, motivated by love, exists.

The Church Of God In Christ recognizes three ordinances as having been instituted by Christ himself and therefore, binding upon the church practice.

If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that ye also should do as I have done to you.

If ye know these things, blessed are ye if ye do them.

Let none be enrolled as a widow under threescore years old, having been the wife of one man, well reported of for good works; if she hath brought up children, if she hath used hospitality to strangers, if she hath washed the saints’ feet, if she hath relieved the afflicted, if she hath diligently followed every good work.

And turning to the woman, he said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thy house, thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she hath wetted my feet with her tears, and wiped them with her hair.

The church takes the Lord's own words at their face, and few churches do. Jesus said "ye also ought to wash one another’s feet" (John 13:14), and he promised a blessing on those who do what he showed (John 13:17). The church stands nearer the text than those who pass over the act. But it goes a step past the apostles when it makes footwashing one of three ordinances "binding upon the church practice": the New Testament names washing "the saints’ feet" only among a widow's good works (1 Timothy 5:10), never in the assembly's order and never at the Supper. And a rite in which the basin is passed on "without any great effort to clean one's feet" keeps the sign and loses the service the Lord showed.

The apostles' own example in the Supper is stated by Luke: "upon the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread" (Acts 20:7). No text ties footwashing to that meeting, and the church itself says its regularity is "left to the discretion of the Pastor in charge."

Divine healing and miracles

The church believes that healing by faith is commanded by Jesus, is still practiced widely and frequently, and that the works of the early church still happen today.

The church "believes in and practices Divine Healing," and cites Mark 16:18 and James 5, where elders are told to "pray for the sick, lay hands upon them and to anoint them with oil." Its Statement of Faith holds that "the redemptive work of Christ on the Cross provides healing for the human body in answer to believing prayer." It also teaches that "the works of God, which were performed during the beginnings of Christianity, do and will occur even today".

Healing is still practiced widely and frequently in the Church of God in Christ, and testimonies of healing in our Church testify to this fact.

We believe that the redemptive work of Christ on the Cross provides healing for the human body in answer to believing prayer.

We believe that the works of God, which were performed during the beginnings of Christianity, do and will occur even today where God is preached, Faith in Christ is exercised, The Holy Ghost is active, and the Gospel is promulgated in the truth

Is any among you sick? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: and the prayer of faith shall save him that is sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, it shall be forgiven him.

So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken unto them, was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word by the signs that followed. Amen.

Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, by signs and wonders and mighty works.

how shall we escape, if we neglect so great a salvation? which having at the first been spoken through the Lord, was confirmed unto us by them that heard; God also bearing witness with them, both by signs and wonders, and by manifold powers, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to his own will.

The church is right that God hears the prayer of his people for the sick, and James is plain that the elders of a church are to pray over a sick member and anoint him, and that "the prayer of faith shall save him that is sick" (James 5:15). The church stands on the line in praying for the sick. It stands short when it holds that Christ's work on the cross "provides healing for the human body in answer to believing prayer" and that the works of the first century "do and will occur even today". The signs of the apostles belonged to the apostles: they went forth and the Lord worked with them, "confirming the word by the signs that followed" (Mark 16:20), and Paul calls them "the signs of an apostle" (2 Corinthians 12:12). When the word was confirmed, the signs had done their work (Hebrews 2:3-4).

Titles, vestments and the church year

The church's national services use an altar, vessels and wafers, robes and tippets, bishops' rings and crosses, formal titles, and a church year of seasons and colors.

The church's own papers describe a ceremonial life. The program for the 2023 consecration of bishops names the Presiding Bishop "His Grace, The Most Reverend," has him serve the General Board "at the High Altar," and has the new bishops receive a cross, a chain and a tippet. The Official Manual describes a bishop's cassock, tippets, a bishop's episcopal ring and cross, an academic robe and a stole worn "in accordance with the Liturgical Calendar Year." The National Adjutancy's training manual teaches the seasons, from Advent to Ordinary Time, with their colors, and the handling of the chalice, the "Unleavened wafer" and the "consecrated wine." The Adjutancy exists, in the manual's words, to standardize "our ceremonial, liturgical and protocol traditions."

Historically, the Presiding Bishop has charged the National Adjutancy Corp with the sacred task of standardizing the fundamentals of our ceremonial, liturgical and protocol traditions.

The liturgical Stole may be worn with this garment, in accordance with the Liturgical Calendar Year.

Unused consecrated wine should be poured into the piscine (basin equipped with a drain running directly to the ground) or carried outside and poured on the ground.

But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your teacher, and all ye are brethren. And call no man your father on the earth: for one is your Father, even he who is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters: for one is your master, even the Christ.

but now that ye have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how turn ye back again to the weak and beggarly rudiments, whereunto ye desire to be in bondage over again? Ye observe days, and months, and seasons, and years. I am afraid of you, lest by any means I have bestowed labor upon you in vain.

Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a feast day or a new moon or a sabbath day: which are a shadow of the things to come; but the body is Christ’s.

Tend the flock of God which is among you, exercising the oversight, not of constraint, but willingly, according to the will of God; nor yet for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as lording it over the charge allotted to you, but making yourselves ensamples to the flock.

The apostles set no altar, no vestments and no church year over the churches. Jesus told his disciples not to be called Rabbi, father or master, for "one is your teacher, and all ye are brethren" (Matthew 23:8), and the church's own Manual turns that passage on Rome: the priest's title "Father," it says, "is contrary to Matthew 23:9." The same words stand against "His Grace" and "The Most Reverend," and against garments that the 2023 consecration program explains as "a symbol of the Priesthood," for Peter told the elders not to be "lording it over the charge allotted to you" (1 Peter 5:3). Paul rebukes the Galatians: "Ye observe days, and months, and seasons, and years" (Galatians 4:10), and no one is to judge a believer "in respect of a feast day or a new moon or a sabbath day" (Colossians 2:16).

The Supper at the national services. The Manual says the church holds the Memorial view and that "the ordinance is only symbolic." The Adjutancy's manual does not deny it in words, for it defines a sacrament as a rite that "uses an earthy element as a sign of God's grace." But it calls the wafer the "Host" and the chalice "the most sacred instrument of the Church's Worship," and it has consecrated wine that is left over poured into a basin that drains into the ground. That handling treats the elements as holy things, which a Supper that is "only symbolic" does not need. The Adjutancy serves wherever the Presiding Bishop serves, and its jurisdictional adjutants serve the bishops; its manual speaks of the vessels used "at the altar in our churches," but it does not say how far ordinary congregations follow its protocol.

Women in the ministry

Women serve in a national Department of Women, as supervisors, missionaries, evangelists and deaconesses, and may not be ordained as elders, bishops or pastors.

The Department of Women began in 1911 under Lizzie Woods Robinson and now has a General Supervisor, state supervisors and licensed missionaries. The Manual says the church "recognizes the scriptural importance of women in the Christian Ministry," citing the women at the tomb, but "nowhere can we find a mandate to ordain women to be an Elder, Bishop or Pastor." It says the church "cannot accept the following scriptures as a mandate to ordain women preachers": Joel 2:28, Galatians 3:28-29 and Matthew 28:9-11. The qualifications for an elder, bishop or pastor are, it says, in 1 Timothy 3:2-7 and Titus 1:7-9. Women may "teach the gospel to others" and may run a church in the pastor's absence, if he wishes it, without taking the title.

Women may teach the gospel to others (Phil. 4:3; Titus 2:3-5; Joel 2:28), have charge of a church in absence of its Pastor, if the Pastor so wishes, (Romans 16:1-5) without adopting the title of Elder, Reverend, Bishop or Pastor.

State/Jurisdictional Evangelist Missionary is a female, who is saved, sanctified and filled with the Holy Ghost.

Let a woman learn in quietness with all subjection. But I permit not a woman to teach, nor to have dominion over a man, but to be in quietness.

The bishop therefore must be without reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, orderly, given to hospitality, apt to teach;

that aged women likewise be reverent in demeanor, not slanderers nor enslaved to much wine, teachers of that which is good; that they may train the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sober-minded, chaste, workers at home, kind, being in subjection to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed:

and he began to speak boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more accurately.

On the question that divides many churches the Church of God in Christ stands nearer the New Testament than those that ordain women to the pastorate. Paul writes, "I permit not a woman to teach, nor to have dominion over a man" (1 Timothy 2:12), and the overseer is to be "the husband of one wife" (1 Timothy 3:2). The church does not set women aside: Priscilla and her husband took Apollos and "expounded unto him the way of God more accurately" (Acts 18:26), and the older women are to be "teachers of that which is good" (Titus 2:3). The church's own answer points rightly to the qualifications in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1, but it leans first on the lack of "a mandate to ordain," the weaker argument, where 1 Timothy 2:12 speaks to the question directly. Where the Manual lets a woman "have charge of a church" in the pastor's absence, it allows what 1 Timothy 2:12 withholds, "dominion over a man," and leaving off the title does not change the work. The line is held at the title more than at the work.

The Manual's list of texts the church cannot accept as a mandate, Joel 2:28, Galatians 3:28-29 and Matthew 28:9-11, answers real arguments, and on those the church reads soundly: Galatians 3:28 speaks of standing in Christ, not of offices in the church. The Department's own history says that before 1911 "The work among the women had been started but lacked organization." The Manual in 1957 gave the General Supervisor power to "authorize and license missionaries" and said such missionaries "must be recommended by their pastor."

The plumb line is the New Testament: what the apostles commanded, and what the churches practiced with their approval. Each position above is set against it, and the wall below shows how far each one stands from it. Choose a course to read the Scripture and the reason. The Church of God in Christ began with men who were put out of their churches for preaching holiness, and it has kept a high regard for the written Word and for holy living. Where it stands nearer the New Testament than most, that is said plainly; where it stands further, that is said too.

Every scripture inspired of God is also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness: that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work.

Now these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and Apollos for your sakes; that in us ye might learn not to go beyond the things which are written; that no one of you be puffed up for the one against the other.

Beloved, while I was giving all diligence to write unto you of our common salvation, I was constrained to write unto you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered unto the saints.

Now these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of the mind, examining the Scriptures daily, whether these things were so.

The church's first article is the right one: the Word of God is "the only authority in all matters," and "no doctrine can be true or essential, if it does not find a place in this Word." That is the Bereans' rule, who were "examining the Scriptures daily, whether these things were so" (Acts 17:11), and the church stands on the line in writing it first. It stands short in what it binds beside it. Its General Assembly is "the only doctrine-expressing and law-making authority of the church," which is a synod's office of stating doctrine from Scripture, not a claim to new revelation; but through it the church has bound two things the written Word does not: a second work of sanctification and a baptism in the Holy Ghost shown by tongues, which it calls "mandatory." By the church's own test, a doctrine that the written Word does not contain cannot be "essential." The church is to "learn not to go beyond the things which are written" (1 Corinthians 4:6), for the faith was "once for all delivered unto the saints" (Jude 1:3).

The church's account of its own name adds a further point. It says the name was "revealed to Bishop mason" in a street in Little Rock and that the Scripture was found afterward to support it. A name needs no revelation, and a church that rests on the written Word should be able to take its name from it without one. The name itself, "Church of God in Christ," is taken from Paul's phrase and is a good one: "the churches of God which are in Judæa in Christ Jesus" (1 Thessalonians 2:14).

And Peter said unto them, Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on his name.

Or are ye ignorant that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.

which also after a true likeness doth now save you, even baptism, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the interrogation of a good conscience toward God, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ;

The church stands on the line in baptizing believers only and by immersion, "buried with him in baptism" (Colossians 2:12), and in teaching that no infant is baptized. It puts repentance and faith first, as Peter does. It stands short on what the water is for. It calls baptism "an outward demonstration that one has already had a conversion experience," yet Peter commanded baptism "unto the remission of your sins" (Acts 2:38), and Saul, who had believed and prayed three days, was told "arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins" (Acts 22:16). The church also adds to the new birth a further work, sanctification, that its own history calls "essential to the salvation of mankind," and a baptism in the Holy Ghost besides. The apostles name no such steps. That second work is weighed under authority and the Holy Spirit; this course is set by who is baptized, how and for what.

The church says baptism is "necessary" and cites John 3:5, which is nearer the text than a church that calls it optional. The missing words are Peter's own, "unto the remission of your sins," and Jesus' "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved" (Mark 16:16). The church's own Manual cites Acts 2:38 and 2:41 among the passages for baptism. It leaves the purpose that Acts 2:38 states out of its account.

And upon the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul discoursed with them, intending to depart on the morrow; and prolonged his speech until midnight.

And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and the prayers.

and when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, This is my body, which is for you: this do in remembrance of me. In like manner also the cup, after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood: this do, as often as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink the cup, ye proclaim the Lord’s death till he come.

But let a man prove himself, and so let him eat of the bread, and drink of the cup.

The church keeps the Supper as the Lord gave it: bread and the fruit of the vine, taken "in remembrance of me" (1 Corinthians 11:24), with no sacrifice and no change in the elements, as the Manual's memorial view says. It reads Paul's words to the Corinthians in its order of service, and they include "let a man prove himself" (1 Corinthians 11:28). It stands short on when. The church at Troas met "upon the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread" (Acts 20:7), and that first-day Supper is the apostolic example, binding on the church; neither the church's statement nor its Manual names the day or how often. At its national services the Supper has also moved toward a sacrament, with a host, an altar and consecrated wine in the Adjutancy's manual and "Holy Sacrament" in the 2023 consecration program, in a church whose Manual calls the Supper "only symbolic."

The Manual restricts the ordinances to the ordained elder: "Only an ordained Elder may administer the Ordinances of the Church." The New Testament names no officer who alone may give the bread. Ananias, a disciple, baptized Saul (Acts 22:12-16), and the whole church "gathered together to break bread" (Acts 20:7). A church that calls the Supper "only symbolic" has still set a clerical gate before the table in its rules.

And when they had appointed for them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they had believed.

And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and called to him the elders of the church.

Take heed unto yourselves, and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit hath made you bishops, to feed the church of the Lord which he purchased with his own blood.

The elders therefore among you I exhort, who am a fellow-elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, who am also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: Tend the flock of God which is among you, exercising the oversight, not of constraint, but willingly, according to the will of God; nor yet for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as lording it over the charge allotted to you, but making yourselves ensamples to the flock.

The church's own Manual states the New Testament pattern and then sets it aside. It says that elders and bishops "were in the apostolic and sub-apostolic times the same," that "The pastor was always an elder," and that the churches "generally had elders appointed over them." The apostles "appointed for them elders in every church" (Acts 14:23), and Paul called the elders of Ephesus to him and told them to feed "the church of the Lord" (Acts 20:28). But in the Church of God in Christ the bishop is a separate office above the elders, appointed by the Presiding Bishop and the General Board. He names the pastor of each church, and a church may not leave the general body without the General Assembly's leave. A Presiding Bishop who is called Chief Apostle and a General Board whose decisions stand unless the General Assembly reverses them rule over the whole. Nothing in the New Testament sets an office over many congregations, and no apostle has a successor. The church stands on the line in one thing: the pastorate and eldership are for men, as 1 Timothy 3:2 and Titus 1:6 set them.

The church's rule that the lineage chart weighs most is the hierarchy: a presiding bishop over jurisdictional bishops over the congregations. The title Chief Apostle is the heaviest claim. Peter says an elder is to be an example to the flock, not "lording it over the charge allotted to you" (1 Peter 5:3), and the Lord told the twelve that the rulers of the Gentiles "lord it over them," and "Not so shall it be among you" (Matthew 20:25-26).

speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts unto God.

God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship in spirit and truth.

What is it then, brethren? When ye come together, each one hath a psalm, hath a teaching, hath a revelation, hath a tongue, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying.

The church's worship, as its Manual prints it, has the parts of the New Testament assembly: calls to worship from the Psalms, hymns, a reading of Scripture, a sermon, prayers and the Supper. It asks for reverence and for order, and it stands near the line in that. It stands short in what it adds. The New Testament commands the church to sing, "speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord" (Ephesians 5:19), and it appoints no instrument. The church's own program for a national service opens with an organ prelude and has a choir sing for the assembly, and its national ceremony of procession, altar, vestments and titles carries the worship further from the simple gathering of believers than the apostles' churches knew. The 1897 revival and Mason's own account describe a worship of the Spirit that reached the heart of a believer, and that is a strength. Paul's rule for a worship in which "each one hath a psalm" is that "all things be done unto edifying" (1 Corinthians 14:26).

The sources read for this chart show a choir and an organ at a national service, and say nothing of the music or instruments in a local congregation's weekly worship. The placement follows the lineage values for the body, and this chart does not claim more than the sources show.

Now when the apostles that were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John: who, when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Spirit: for as yet it was fallen upon none of them: only they had been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. Now when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money,

Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers? are all workers of miracles? have all gifts of healings? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret?

Love never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall be done away; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall be done away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part; but when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away.

The church is right that the Spirit is given to every believer, that he comes after repentance and faith, and that no person is "baptized with the Holy Ghost in order to be saved." But in Acts the miraculous gift came by the apostles' hands, not by seeking. The Samaritans had been baptized and the Spirit "was fallen upon none of them" until Peter and John laid their hands on them (Acts 8:14-18), and Paul's hands did it at Ephesus. The signs belonged to the first century, and the New Testament speaks of them as past: the word "was confirmed unto us by them that heard; God also bearing witness with them, both by signs and wonders" (Hebrews 2:3-4). The church binds on every man what the apostles never bound. It says a Holy Ghost experience "is mandatory for all men today," yet Paul asks, "do all speak with tongues?" (1 Corinthians 12:30). The Manual answers that the tongue of the baptism is not "the gift of tongues," which is "given only to some," but Paul draws no such line. The church adds a required second step before it, sanctification, and tells obedient believers that they lack what God has promised.

Their case. The church builds on Pentecost, Caesarea and Ephesus, where tongues followed the Spirit's coming (Acts 2:4; 10:46; 19:6). On this the church says the early church's "charismatic demonstrations were necessary," so that the experience is needed today. To meet 1 Corinthians 12:30 it separates the tongue that comes with the baptism from "the gift of tongues," which is "given only to some." The text does not bear that distinction. Paul's "divers kinds of tongues" (1 Corinthians 12:10) include the languages spoken at Pentecost, and the Manual itself says the tongue of the baptism "may be foreign or unknown," as on the day of Pentecost. If not all speak with tongues, the tongue cannot be the sign required of all.

The apostles' hands. Philip worked signs in Samaria, yet the Spirit had fallen on no one until the apostles came (Acts 8:14-18). At Ephesus it was Paul's hands (Acts 19:6), and the gift in Timothy came "through the laying on of my hands" (2 Timothy 1:6). Caesarea was the one outpouring that came straight from heaven, and Peter had to reach back to Pentecost to prove it (Acts 11:15). Tongues there served as a sign to the Jews that God had received the Gentiles.

What the church holds rightly. It holds that the Spirit dwells in the believer, that he is "to be believed in, obeyed, and worshipped," and that the fruit of the Spirit is the test of a Spirit-filled life (Galatians 5:22-23).

For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

Marvel not at this: for the hour cometh, in which all that are in the tombs shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment.

and to you that are afflicted rest with us, at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with the angels of his power in flaming fire, rendering vengeance to them that know not God, and to them that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus:

But of that day and hour knoweth no one, not even the angels of heaven, neither the Son, but the Father only.

The church teaches what the Scriptures teach about the end: Christ will come again "personally, bodily, visibly," the dead will rise, and the wicked will be judged and will suffer eternal punishment. It stands short in how it divides the Lord's coming. The Manual teaches a rapture before a tribulation and a return before a thousand-year reign, with several judgments in separate places. The apostles speak of one day: "the hour cometh, in which all that are in the tombs shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment" (John 5:28-29), the good and the evil together. When the Lord is revealed "from heaven with the angels of his power" (2 Thessalonians 1:7), he gives the afflicted "rest with us" and renders "vengeance to them that know not God" (2 Thessalonians 1:8) in the same hour. The church does well to ask its members not to quarrel over the order of events, and to say the chief matter is to be ready.

The two stages, a rapture before the tribulation and a visible return after it, depend on separating 1 Thessalonians 4 from 2 Thessalonians 1, which speak of the same coming. The Manual says "The wicked or ungodly will not be judged to see whether they are entitled to Eternal Life but to ascertain the degree of their punishment." The call to be ready is right: "Watch therefore: for ye know not on what day your Lord cometh" (Matthew 24:42).

The Church of God in Christ holds much that Scripture also teaches, and it should be said plainly. It confesses one God in three persons, the deity of Jesus Christ, his virgin birth, his suffering and death for sinners, and his intercession. It holds the Bible to be the Word of God and the only authority, and it writes that first. It teaches repentance and faith, immersion of believers, and a Supper that is a memorial with no priest and no sacrifice. It keeps footwashing among its ordinances, which is the Lord's own example taken at its word. It holds that eldership and the pastorate are for men, as Paul sets them. It prays for the sick and anoints them as James commands. It teaches holy living and modest dress, and it was born when Black Baptists in Mississippi were put out of their churches for preaching holiness. It has grown from one congregation in Mississippi into churches on every continent, and it looks for the return of the Lord and tells its members to be ready.

Measured by the New Testament alone, the Church of God in Christ stands on the line in much of what it says about God and Christ, in the baptism of believers by immersion, in the memorial Supper and in its male eldership. It stands short in six places: the doctrines beyond Scripture that its Assembly has stated and its Manual binds, the purpose of baptism, the day of the Supper, a government of bishops over congregations with a Chief Apostle at its head, a ceremony of titles and vestments, and the miraculous gifts, which it teaches every believer should seek and which the New Testament shows came through the apostles' hands and ceased with them. The baptism of the Holy Ghost with tongues, called "mandatory," stands furthest from the line.

These are not the failings of a church that despises the Bible. Its founders asked for the church they read in the New Testament, were put out for it, and began again. What remains is to ask of the second work, the sign, the bishop's seat and the altar what they would ask of any rule not found in the book.

More illuminations · Harbinger's Lamp