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How to make your denomination big instantly

 
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Post How to make your denomination big instantly Link
I was doing a little reading on the Indonesian branch of the COG. It's called Bethel Church of Indonesia.

It turns out, Bethel split off from a denomination that split from GPDI, the Pentecostal Church of Indonesia. That denomination was started by missionaries from a church in Seattle called Bethel Temple. So apparently, the COG in Indonesia is named after that church in Seattle. That church merged with what is now a mega-church in Seattle called The City Church, pastored by Judah Smith. His parents were the pastors.

GBI, Gereja Bethel Indonesia, which is counted as COG, has an estimated 2.5 million members. Is that the largest national denomination affiliated with the COG?

GPDI, Gereja Pentekosta di Indonesia is said to have over a million members.

Just think about that. A couple of missionaries and their families left one congregation in the US in 1921 or 1922 and now there are 3.5 million members and probably a lot more than that in other denominations. There is some kind of lesson there related to what supporting missions and missionaries can turn into. (And domestic preachers of the gospel overseas.)

But it's also interesting that this one church in Seattle sent the missionaries. I don't think they are COG, but the COG can claim to be really big by merging. I hear GPDI joined with Foursquare, so they may have grown by a million members or so a few years back from that.

It's ironic to me, though. GBI has a lot of 'Charismatic' churches that are more Charismatic in style, some prosperity preachers. I didn't meet a lot of Hagin or Copeland fans. Most people there don't know these names and they've got their own leaders. There are also congregations that are probably more Pentecostal than Charismatic in GBI.

But GPDI is probably the closest thing you'd get to a kind of hold fashioned sort of 'holiness' type church among large Pentecostal denominations in Indonesia. I don't think they teach instant post-salvation sanctification, but some of the churches expect people to wear long sleeves (maybe that's just to church), are against movies and other types of entertainment. I've just talked with people. I've never been a part. My wife was baptized in GPDI.

The Foursquares here tend to be seeker sensitive and a bit more 'liberal' in some ways, not really liberal, but more so than my experience with COG, which more old timey Pentecostal. So it's weird that they are matching up with the more old-fashioned conservative Pentecostals.

I hear at GPDI, they actually know what Sunday is Pentecost. People fast and pray, hoping to be filled with the Spirit on the day of Pentecost and speak in tongues. Pentecost is a big deal to them, apparently. I haven't heard of this in GBI. I also hear there are a lot of churches where the pastorate passes from parent to child. That probably happens in GBIs, too.

I think the A/G is relatively small in Indonesia. There is also a small Pentecostal Holiness denomination and a number of domestic Indonesian Charismatic and Pentecostal denominations.
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10/24/15 6:02 am


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Post Nick Park
I think the thread title is misleading.

GBI was much smaller than it is now when they signed an amalgamation agreement with Church of God in 1967. Certainly much less than 500,000 members. So the vast majority of their growth, well over 80%, occurred while they have been part of CoG. This has been with the help of funding from CoG, and many years of labor by CoG missionaries.

The CoG was already big before the amalgamation. The GBI did not "make the Church of God big". CoG was, and still is, the bigger partner in the amalgamation.

By amalgamating with GBI the Church of God instantly became a bit bigger than it had been. But it would very untrue to say the denomination became big instantly.
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10/24/15 7:14 am


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