There was as yet no common bonds, no general organization or
directing authority. In order to effect this and adopt a regular
system of cooperation, a meeting was held at Harrisburg in October,
1830, attended by six of the licensed ministers. Of this meeting
Winebrenner writes, "Thus originated the Church of God, properly so
called, in the United States of America, and thus also originated
the first Eldership." This organized body assumed no other name
than Eldership, though later the term General Eldership was used to
distinguish this body from the eldership of the local church. The
term General Eldership was, however, applied at first only to the
presbyteries or Elderships of sections or States, which held their
sessions annually. In October, 1844, Winebrenner proposed a General
Eldership for the transaction of all business of a general nature
affecting the various annual Elderships. It was provided that this
General Eldership should hold its meetings triennially for the first
twenty years and after that every five years. Thus we see that by
this time Winebrenner's views of church government were still further
modified.
The work continued to grow and spread to adjoining counties and to
Maryland, western Pennsylvania, and Ohio, where Elderships were
organized.
Each local church elects its own elders and deacons, who with the
pastor constitute the church council and are the governing power,
having charge of the admission of members and the general care of
the church work. The churches within a given district are associated
together for cooperation in general work. The pastors and other
ordained ministers within a district, together with an equal number
of lay members, constitute the Annual Eldership, which appoints the
ministers of the various charges. Each local church votes for a
pastor, but the Annual Eldership makes the appointments within its
own boundaries. These Annual Elderships elect an equal number of
ministerial and lay delegates, who constitute the General Eldership.
The Churches of God, as already stated, have no written creed but
assume to accept the Word of God as their only rule of faith and
practise. They hold the doctrine of the Trinity, believe in human
depravity, the atonement of Christ, justification by faith, the
resurrection, future punishment, and are, in general, orthodox.
Through these articles of their faith, and the fact that they took
the Scriptural name, Church of God, the followers of Winebrenner made
their appeal to D. S. Warner. But they were lacking in some very
important particulars, without which they could not possibly be, as
was claimed, identical with the New Testament church. Winebrenner
started out well, but on the subject of Holy Spirit organization and
government he was not sufficiently illumined to avoid more or less
of the human ecclesiastical authority which crept into the body of
his followers and constituted them a sect. When holiness came they
repudiated it, thereby revealing their position as outside the Holy
Spirit control of believers. However, their teaching on the church
question was correct as far as it went, and it took years of actual
practise of obeying the lead of the Spirit to discover to Brother
Warner and others the clash between the Holy Spirit rule and the rule
of human authority.
[Illustration: D. S. Warner and wife (Tamzen Kerr)]
V