I have argued against passing agenda item 20 for the following reasons: 1) it overreaches with its ambiguous use of “title”; 2) we should not continue to add doctrinal commitments to the obligations for ministers; 3) the statement sets a precedent of finding “hidden” meanings in our Declaration of Faith that are not explicitly present; 4) we should use the mechanisms already in place to respond to this issue. The best way forward is for the doctrine and polity committee to issue a statement on God. In this post, I offer an example of such a statement. I believe it is biblical and draws clear l ..read more

Dale M. Coulter The motion on titles for God seeks to add another legal criterion to the instructions for ministers. The rationale is that scripture uses specific names for God. I agree with this general assertion. In fact, I would argue that Yahweh is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is the name of God and we are not at liberty to change this name. The problem for me is that the actual motion is really not about the triune name. Instead, it prohibits the use of pronouns and also seemingly all references to mother under the generic term “titles.” This is in violation of Isaiah’s pronouncemen ..read more

Dale M. Coulter While I will address the content of this item on the agenda for the General Assembly in a future post, I want to deal with the nature of facts and the ongoing effect of adding more statements to the instructions for ministers. It seems that at least some ministers really do wish to create a body of laws that function as a second Declaration of Faith or a second set of practical commitments. This may be because it is extremely difficult to add to or subtract from the doctrinal and practical commitments, and for good reason. The way around this obstacle seems to be to continue to ..read more

Dale M. Coulter At this previous General Assembly, a motion that would allow specially designated licensed women ministers to serve on the General Council was defeated. Because this motion changes the bylaws, it required a two-thirds majority vote. The motion failed in a split 50/50 vote. After this vote, many women ministers in the Church of God (hereafter CG) rightly expressed outrage and grief over the speeches made against the motion and the perceptions of women they heard from some of their fellow CG ministers. There are two issues that I wish to address in this article. The first is what ..read more

Dale M. Coulter In previous posts, I have argued that resolutions and adding more conditions to the instructions for ministers are not the best way to address the cultural challenges of the day. Instead, the Church of God Executive Committee should work with the doctrine and polity committee to formulate responses. Today and tomorrow, I will offer a draft of what a statement might look like in response to the issue of transgenderism. Statement on Human Dignity: Part I From the beginning of the movement, the Church of God has sought to uphold the dignity of all persons in concert with the comma ..read more

Dale M. Coulter Today, I join thousands of others in making my way to San Antonio for the General Assembly. As I do, I am reminded of my own journey and God’s goodness. God has graciously adopted me into his family and called me to serve in his mission. It’s God’s mission, not mine. I was adopted into the Church of God when my mother and father formalized their adoption of me in 1970. My father had become Church of God because my mother made it a condition of marriage. For my mother, the Church of God was family. Her grandfather had joined after hearing A. J. Tomlinson preach at the holiness c ..read more

Dale M. Coulter Over the past month, I have written 18 articles for the General Assembly that begins on Tuesday of this week. For convenience, I have organized them according to what agenda item they address. Let me summarize the basic points I have made: We need clear and robust statements defending biblical principles on how we talk about God and how we understand transgenderism (I have given two examples of the kind of statements I have in mind) We need to allow female ordained ministers to serve on the General Council because it’s biblical and it makes our current teaching on women as ..read more

Dale M. Coulter Since the agenda for the General Assembly went public, I have written a number of articles in order to help the General Council discern the best way forward. In this article, I want to offer some reflections at the beginning of this week of the 2022 Church of God General Assembly. First, we are more united on fundamental matters of doctrine and morality than we are divided. I have heard more than one person say that there is an ideological divide in the Church of God. I don’t believe this for a minute. An ideology is a system of beliefs that undergirds how one acts and what one ..read more

Dale M. Coulter In a previous blog post, I argued that resolutions are not the best way to engage contemporary issues. I noted that resolutions use highly-charged rhetoric to make a point. The resolution concerning human identity and sexuality on the agenda follows this format. It uses the language of the culture wars in America to address the issues surrounding human sexuality. As an international denomination with a global membership, the Church of God should always seek to show the universality of biblical principles to guide the leadership of each country on how to apply those principles ..read more

Dale M. Coulter While I have argued that there is no trend to feminize God in the Church of God, there has been controversy over the way scripture uses the language of spirit, especially in reference to the Holy Spirit. There is confusion over how the language for the Spirit functions vs language used for God. One might claim scripture uses masculine pronouns for God, but this claim is false when it comes to references to the Spirit. For this reason, I want to address how scripture employs the various terms for the Spirit and how we should understand the grammar. First, the fact that the Greek ..read more