Our History
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The Plainfield First Church of God traces its roots to the revival preaching of John Winebrenner (1797-1860) and the Churches of God. Believers gathered as early as 1836 in the schoolhouse at Smoketown (now Plainfield), but did not officially organize until 1854.
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In 1870, the congregation erected a neat brick meeting house on Plainfield’s main street. There the church worshipped for over a century.
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In 1969, the church left the Plainfield Circuit and became a station. That year the church purchased a building lot from Roy and Ada Cline and erected a new parsonage. The Clines donated the adjoining lot for the bethel and later sold additional ground behind the front lots for future expansion.
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In 1979, the congregation erected a new brick bethel at a cost of over $300,000. In the next decade the congregation doubled in size and paid off its debt.
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The Plainfield First Church of God is a member congregation in the Eastern Regional Conference, Churches of God, General Conference. As such, the church is committed to the doctrine, polity, and work of the Churches of God which affirms the Bible is “...our only ad all-sufficient rule of faith and practice;…”
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The Plainfield congregation is a “believer’s church” in the tradition of Winebrenner whose life verse was John 3:7 (“You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’”) As such, the Plainfield First Church of God believes that people need the Lord and are lost without Him (John 3:16-18, Romans 6:23) and that it is the task of the Church of God to win them to Christ. He alone offers hope, and each individual must personally receive Him as Savior and Lord to be saved (John 14:6, Acts 4:12, John1:12, Romans 10:9, 10, 13).
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To this end, the church proposes to provide people everywhere with opportunities for redemption, spiritual growth, and Christian service. This is the mandate of the church as given by the Lord Jesus Christ (Matthew 28:19, 20; Acts 1:8).
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