(RNS) — Grinning before a congregation on the outskirts of Indianapolis, a woman named Rhonda was baptized in a horse trough in 2014 as her girlfriend and kids looked on.
A decade later, the pastor who baptized her that day at the Southeast Project, a Church of God (Anderson, Indiana) congregation, presided over her funeral. “As I think about a word that described my friend Rhonda, I think of the word ‘all,’” the pastor, Ryan Carrell, said at the April 2024 service after she died by heart attack. “I looked back at the messages she and I had shared, and we talked about how church should be a place for all people. It should be a place where everyone can belong.”
Rhonda was part of what Carrell described as a “motley crew” of congregants, in a church he told RNS he founded “for my friends who gave up on church.”
Now, as he mourns the death of his friend, Carrell is also grieving his church’s pending departure from the Church of God (Anderson). In recent weeks, Carrell was told to leave and take his church with him, or face an investigation due to his LGBTQ-affirming theology and disbelief in a literal hell — beliefs he says led him to welcome Rhonda. On March 4, Southeast’s board voted to formally exit.
It’s the latest in a string clashes within Church of God (Anderson), which considers itself an anti-hierarchical movement, not a denomination, and is often mentioned in relation to the city where it’s headquartered to distinguish it from other groups. The home church of Christian musicians Bill and Gloria Gaither and Sandi Patty, CHOG has a history of championing anti-racism and women leaders and is known for being “anti-credal,” relying on the Bible alone as its belief statement. But as the historically decentralized movement formalizes its requirements for ministers — changes that have resulted in at least 14 LGBTQ-affirming Indiana ministers losing their credentials, and counting — some worry the movement is beginning to favor uniform theology over unity.
Although CHOG’s General Assembly, in 2014, defined marriage as between a man and a woman and characterized homosexuality as a sin, many viewed the actions of General Assembly as nonbinding for clergy, particularly when it came to theology. Still, when same-sex marriage was legalized in June 2015, Carrell and Southeast’s other pastors didn’t officiate Rhonda’s wedding; it was unclear whether there could be repercussions, and they were fearful of losing their ability to be voices of change within CHOG, concerns they say Rhonda shared.
Pastor Ryan Carrell speaks during a Southeast Project service in Indianapolis. (Photo by Amanda Duncan Photography)
Then, in 2017, the movement adopted a credentials manual for clergy that subjects ministers to counsel or discipline for “promulgating or espousing a teaching or practice contrary to the Word of God as commonly understood by the Church of God.” These changes, some CHOG members claim, signal a shift toward creedalism by allowing the General Assembly’s theological decisions, including its defining of homosexuality as a sin, to be enforced for clergy. Others, including general director the Rev. Jim Lyon, say the manual represents necessary guardrails for ensuring ministers are aligned with the governing body.
“No one should retreat from unpacking the Scripture to discern, by the Spirit’s light and in the company of other believers, its guardrails for human sexual conduct and righteous expression,” said Lyon in an email. “But as with gender equity in ministry — a long-held bedrock of Church of God biblical understanding — those seeking the shepherding and teaching office of the church are asked to defer to the larger Body’s understanding of biblical boundaries defining faith and practice.”
As CHOG’s nearly 50 jurisdictions in the U.S. and Canada decide how to enforce these guardrails, its biggest one — Indiana Ministries — has investigated at least 17 ministers for signing a statement affirming LGTBQ inclusion. Of those, 10 ministers have had their credentials revoked, and another four relinquished their credentials before their investigations concluded. While Indiana Ministries has hundreds of credentialed ministers, the loss of clergy is making waves in the close-knit movement that claims just a million believers worldwide.
When CHOGAffirm, a group not endorsed by CHOG, released an LGBTQ-affirming statement in May 2023, it became a test case for how CHOG jurisdictions would interpret the credentials manual. Signed by over 850 people, including over 50 active and retired clergy, the statement says there’s a “strong biblical, theological, and ethical case for affirming same-sex partnerships, transgender identity and existence, and gender non-conformity.”
Jeff Matas, state pastor of Indiana Ministries, responded via a June 2023 statement saying Scripture consistently condemns “same-sex relations.”
“Moving from the orthodox biblical definition of sexual identity and marriage is a line we will never cross. Never,” he wrote. Last year, he told RNS that because the signers committed to “positive action” toward the statement’s fruition, “The issue goes beyond personal belief into the issue of advocacy.” Matas declined to speak to RNS for this story.
The Rev. Carma Wood, center, during a service at Park Place Church of God in Anderson, Indiana, prior to her retirement. (Courtesy photo)
One of the first investigated by Indiana Ministries was the Rev. Carma Wood, a retired CHOG minister and CHOGAffirm co-founder. In April 2024, she was told that her stance on homosexuality conflicted with the credentials manual and that her credentials had been rescinded.
The Rev. Jennie Prior, a hospital chaplain who completed the first step of an investigation after signing the CHOGAffirm statement, is transferring her credentials to a different denomination. She and Wood said it’s been heart-wrenching to watch the investigations unfold.
“I think they have lost a lot of really remarkable ministers, and people who were willing to do the work, lean into discomfort to hopefully build a better future,” said Prior.
More recently, the Rev. Sam Collins, a third-generation Church of God minister ordained in 1979 and retired in 2014, had his credentials revoked in January.
“I really did hope that it would be a step in the direction of our being able to talk about an issue that I think we’ve been really reluctant to talk about very honestly and openly,” said Collins about his decision to sign the statement. “The Church of God, for years, at our best, has allowed people to take stances according to freedom of conscience.”
CHOG ministers have historically been investigated for moral failings, not theological incongruity, according to CHOGAffirm co-founder Nicholas Stanton-Roark. But members of CHOGAffirm believe that’s changing. In recent months, Indiana Ministries updated its code of ethics, now requiring clergy to “affirm the Church of God’s theological position that God’s intent for marriage is a faithful, exclusive, lifelong commitment between a man and a woman, reflecting God’s design that recognizes the intrinsic difference between male and female.” This, some CHOGAffirm members argue, makes theological expectations for Indiana Ministers even more explicit, and seems equivalent to a belief statement.
Though Carrell declined to sign the CHOGAffirm statement — he didn’t want to see CHOG create additional, enforceable guidelines on the issue, he told RNS — he vocally opposed the investigations, highlighting them as evidence that Indiana Ministries was straying from CHOG values.
Carrell told RNS it’s CHOG that’s changed, not Southeast.
“Our church has always had the same posture in ministry — we have always affirmed LGBTQ+ individuals through our actions and my teaching has always been clear that biblical texts are taken out of context and misused in rejecting LGBTQ+ people,” said Carrell, a fourth-generation Church of God pastor who is related to Matas.
The Southeast Project hosts an outdoor movie night in Indianapolis. (Courtesy photo)
In 2011, Indiana Ministries helped Carrell plant Southeast. Rhonda was baptized, Carrell said, with the support of the then-state pastor and of Matas, who was associate state pastor at the time.
In February 2024, it was Matas who delivered an ultimatum, according to Carrell, citing Carrell’s theological views and their expression at Southeast.
“He said, basically, you have a choice. You can either leave the Church of God and surrender your credentials, leave the Church of God and take your church with you, or face an investigation with the DMS (Department of Ministry Services). Either way, the results will be the same,” Carrell recalled.
Hoping to spare its members, Southeast’s board voted to formally separate from CHOG, though the resolution had not yet been formally submitted as of publication. It’s not yet clear whether Indiana Ministries will investigate Carrell.
Lyon, CHOG’s general director, said “It’s always sad when there is controversy within the body of Christ.” He clarified that the credentials manual is only binding for clergy, not laypeople, and that ministers who are no longer credentialed can still be part of the CHOG movement. Indiana Ministries, he said, is “trying to be faithful to their calling.”
But to some CHOG ministers, Indiana Ministries’ reaction to LGBTQ-affirming pastors is part of the broader political moment. Wood, the CHOGAffirm co-founder, said she believes some CHOG leaders have been emboldened by conservative evangelical culture to stand against what they perceive as a departure from traditional values.
“Evangelicalism has become a language that is very familiar to many Church of God pastors, so much so that it’s indistinguishable from what I think is more true and pure about our movement: That every blood-washed one is welcome at the table,” said Wood.
