Full Gospel is based on these words of Paul to the Romans: “For I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ has not accomplished through me, in word and deed, to make the Gentiles obedient—in mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and round about to Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ” (Romans 15:18-19 NKJV).

The title Full Gospel has historically been used to identify those denominations and fellowships, otherwise known primarily as Pentecostals, who hold to the belief that whatever God did through the Church in New Testament times, and principally in the Book of Acts, He still does today.

Since its inception, the Church of God has sought to be led by the Holy Spirit. Predating our August 19, 1886, inaugural meeting, the leaders of the infant group had been searching the Scriptures, seeking to know God more intimately. This sincere search led them to the doctrine and experience of sanctification, and ultimately to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in 1896, when more than 100 people were baptized in the Spirit and spoke in other tongues following the Shearer Schoolhouse revival in North Carolina. This move of God, along with the Cleveland, Tennessee, revival in 1908, reshaped the destiny of the young movement, resulting in its becoming a Pentecostal body.

One of the earliest principles of the Church of God was our belief in the whole Bible, rightly divided, with the New Testament as our only rule for government and discipline. A core value among all Full Gospel believers is an insistence on the centrality of the Word of God.

While the Word of God is foremost in Full Gospel values, it is listed last here because it better explains why we believe what we do about the previous four. Full Gospel believers are convinced that the original manuscripts of the Bible were divinely inspired. Consequently, we avow that the Bible simply means what it says.

This high regard for Scripture is the basis for the Full Gospel Movement’s insistence that New Testament blessings and benefits continue to be valid for today’s church. We expect that today’s ministries will always conform to the inspired Scripture and will be to this generation a living demonstration of the continuing authority of the Word of God.

The mission statement of the Church of God says well what the Full Gospel message is all about. We are commissioned “to communicate the full gospel of Jesus Christ in the Spirit and power of Pentecost.”