Churches Of God (anderson, Indiana)

Worship in the Church of God draws on both the holiness and ecumenical traditions. There is a strong emphasis on the "altar call" for conversion and the use of the "public altar" during congregational prayer for healing of relationships and emotions. Currently worship is being influenced by both the praise-and-worship movement and liturgical renewal. The Church of God (Anderson, Indiana) conceives of itself not as a holiness denomination, but as a movement with a double concern for holiness of life and Christian unity. This dual concern is manifested in a broad spectrum of worship modes that include both the meditative and the overtly expressive, both the use of the hymn book alone and the use of words on a screen alone, both camp-meeting style services with a strong "altar call" and more polished services typical of mainline Protestantism. A Singing People From its beginning in the early 1880s, the people of the Church of God "Reformation Movement" (an in-house self-reference) ha…