Talk:Message Church

Number of followers

2 million followers? Sounds like an awful lot. What was the source of your information? Malachi456 09:26, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Pearry Green has cited this number for probably 4 or 5 years now. I can't remember the exact break down. But according to him about 1.2 million are in Africa (500,000 in the Congo). Strawberry Island 03:50, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

2 million does seem like an upper figure to me. According to spoken word website their distribution lists has 300,000 or so recipients, so I have put that a low number. And the number of course depends on who you ask there are several different "sects" of followers who all claim they are the only true followers. It's important to note in this article that the lack of central governance also has led to a variety of interpretations of branham's teachings. Charles Edward 16:01, 19 May 2008 (UTC)

Voice of God Recordings claim there are Upwards of 1.5 million people worldwide who are associated with the Message in some way. Rev107 (talk) 03:13, 27 November 2011 (UTC)

Title of Article

I regard the title of this article as misleading because there is no such thing as "the Message Church". It is rather like saying the Pentecostal Church or the Charismatic Church. It would be more correct to refer to the Message movement. Some churches regard all William Branham's words as infallible, some regard him as a prophet and/or teacher, some regard him as contributing to a more complete understanding of the Bible which is now carried on by other ministers. There is no common statement of faith and no unified organisation. Every church is completely independent and doctrines vary widely. Even the understanding of Jesus Christ is not uniform: Some believe Jesus Christ is Almighty God; others believe that God and Jesus Christ are separate beings. Rev107 (talk) 03:13, 27 November 2011 (UTC)

It's the term used most often by the majority of these people because they have a common vision of a single church unified by one spirit. Divisions or variations between congregations are irrelevant because this is one of the many points where all the individual believers agree; in that each considers himself or herself an inseparable member of the global "Message Church" a.k.a. "The Bride" [of Christ, "The Bridegroom"] and even with doctrinal differences in view most of those people consider members of the other groups to still be somewhere in there, "errors" notwithstanding, and that reconciliation is inevitable when they all get to Heaven.

The bottom line is that "Message Church" is what they call it. "Message movement" is merely a descriptive term which could not stand as the definitive title of what they are when they already have chosen to name it as they did and have done so consistently for sixty years. Aaron Walkhouse (talk) 10:37, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

I have heard and read reference to "a" Message church, but never come across a reference to "Message Church" as a descriptive term for all the churches that follow the teachings of William Branham around the world. Rev107 (talk) 01:14, 24 September 2012 (UTC)

Merge with Believers Church

I have merged this article with Believers church as they are both on the same topic online using different names. I believe message churches to be more prevelantly used than believers church which is why i merged to this article. If you disagree than I am happy to make "believers church" the article title. I simply think they should be one article. Charles Edward 15:57, 19 May 2008 (UTC)

Merged "Believers' Church In India" to relevant article. Made adjustments as needed.

A couple of editors added a section on "Believers' Church in India" because "Believers Church" redirects here. It was so much better than the existing article for the Indian church that I took the text over there and expanded that article with it, moved the article to Assembly of Believers' Church In India (it's proper name) and left a hatnote here so that people looking for that church by the contraction "Believers Church" will find it.

I have also created redirects Believers' Church in India and ABC in India so it will be easy to find.

I had considered changing the "Believers Church" redirect into a disambiguation but decided it was not yet warranted; because while people may sometimes refer to the other church in that way it's full name is sufficiently different and it is unlikely that people would confuse the Indian church and the non-denominational movement described here, so the hatnote should be sufficient.

If the Assembly of Believers' Church In India continues to grow at it's current healthy rate and if "Believers Church" becomes a preferred contraction in common use for it's name it will be easy to convert the existing redirect to a disambiguation page and then convert the redirect hatnote like this: {{redirect|Believers Church|Believers' Church In India|Assembly_of_Believers'_Church_In_India}} ==> {{redirect|Believers Church}} Aaron Walkhouse (talk) 01:24, 29 June 2010 (UTC)

Somebody replaced the whole article with a copy of the "About" section of a coincidentally-named church based in Texas.

I won't complain about a new editor's first [and apparently only] mistake but it would have been better to add a new article and link to it from here or move this one, adjust it's redirects and create a disambiguation page. Obviously these are not easily done by a new editor so perhaps it is best to discuss how to proceed before making major changes.

Also, copying directly from their web site is strongly discouraged because it infringes on their rights and the result reads more like an ad than an encyclopedic article.  ;] Aaron Walkhouse (talk) 10:02, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

Citing Sources

I am in the process of bringing this article into line with Wikipedia policy on citing sources (here). I will continue to do so in the coming days. If any edits are made, please ensure that appropriate sources are cited in the article to confirm the information. Rev107 (talk) 03:52, 27 September 2013 (UTC)