Author Description

This study examines the development of ecclesiastical polity in the Church of God Mountain Assembly during its first 100 years. When it organized as a Holiness association of ten churches in 1907, the CGMA retained the congregational governance of its Baptist roots. Within a few years, it joined the modern Pentecostal movement and attracted the attention of the Church of God (Cleveland) whose own transformation from Baptist to Holiness to Pentecostal occurred almost simultaneously. Though nearly identical in doctrine, the Church of God (Cleveland) adopted an episcopal polity. The first generation of CGMA leaders attempted to replicate and incorporate aspects of the Church of God's government while it concurrently contended with inclinations toward its inherent congregationalism. The tension between those two ecclesiologies provides the context for this narrative history. This work represents the first scholarly treatment of the CGMA and, therefore, analyzes numerous primary sources previously unmined. Denominational publications frame the story while local church records and personal writings supplement it. The author unearthed many sources from family and descendants of key individuals. The combination of genealogy websites and social media platforms assisted in the discovery of crucial primary sources to create a one-of-a-kind history.