John Winebrenner
Founder of a Church
Biography
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Biography
John Winebrenner (March 25, 1797 in Glade Valley, Maryland – September 12, 1860 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania), founded the Churches of God General Conference.
Life
He studied at Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and was ordained in the German Reformed Church in 1820. He pastored at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where his revival preaching and his Revival Hymn-Book (1825) brought about a break between his followers and the Reformed Church.
His Christian testimony can be found in the book The Testimony of a Hundred Witnesses (1858) edited by John Frederick Weishampel. In 1830, he and five other ministers founded the Church of God (whose members are sometimes called "Winebrennerians") He served as speaker at the first eldership and subsequently edited and published the Church of God paper, first called The Gospel Publisher (1835-1845 and later The Church Advocate (beginning in 1845).