Episode 258| Unity Rejuvenation - Bro. Cranston

Church division leaves receipts: smaller congregations, locked doors, discouraged young people, and outsiders who cannot square our songs about victory with the conflict they see up close. We sit down with Pastor Steve Cranston to talk plainly about church unity, forgiveness, and reconciliation across the conservative Church of God world, and why healing starts with a decision to actually talk to each other.

Steve shares his story of growing up in the Church of God holiness movement, walking away, and finding his way back to the Lord. That return sparks a question that many believers quietly carry: if there are sincere congregations scattered across the country, why do we live like strangers? His response is surprisingly practical. He builds detailed charts and a nationwide map of conservative Church of God congregations so we can visualize where God’s people are, how fellowships formed, and why connection has become so hard. The goal is not to shame anyone or declare winners, but to create clarity and open doors for fellowship.

We also dig into what division does to the next generation and why discouragement is one of the enemy’s strongest tools. Steve offers a hopeful challenge: we may inherit the mess, but we do not have to repeat it. If you care about Christian unity, church restoration, and real spiritual healing, this conversation will give you language, perspective, and a next step. Subscribe, share this with a friend who feels discouraged, and leave a review with your biggest question about unity so we can keep the conversation going.

Visit us online: https://woundedheartswoundedchurches.com

Transcript

Welcome And Purpose For Healing

Dr. Jamie Mitchell 0:03

Hello friends, this is Dr. Jamie Mitchell. I'm the director of church culture and show engagement for the American Pastors Network and one of the hosts for standing the gap today radio program with a listing audience of about 6.2 million people in all my crapples. I don't know what the coolest I want to be clear.

Prince Moon 1:07

And our main focus, our genre, is just three things to submit and encourage reconciliation, healing, and forgiveness in God's church. That's why we're here. That's our only focus, no other apparat of modus, no other genre. That's why we're here to enhance these things in Church of God. So thank you for being here tonight to help us in these areas. And we have some folks that who support us and pray for us regularly. The first person is Pastor Brown from Wynne, Arkansas. He has a burden, Unity of God's people. Also, our engineer, Taniil McLeod, in the Atlanta area. She runs the technical part of the program. Pastor Mickey Mullen, Silicaga, Alabama, Joanne Wingate, Mississippi, and Sister Stella Cavant in Ohio. And my name is Moon, Licensed Counselor, Founder NFU Center. And we're good to be here tonight. Glad you all came out to be with us. So again, we're glad you're here with us tonight. And uh we have a special guest for us here, Pastor Steve Cranston. And he's a busy guy, friends. He has a new ministry, new pastorate, new city, new baby girl, I think it is, new congregation, and new, I mean, a lot going on in this guy's life, but yet he found time to share with us, and we're glad he's here tonight. He resides in Moorhead, Kentucky, a beautiful farm area, and I'm glad he's here tonight. He's had some chart work done about churches of God, which is very extensive. He put a lot of work into that. We're going to see that tonight, and we're just glad he's here. He loves Church

Meeting Pastor Steve Cranston

Prince Moon 2:55

of God. Grew up in Church of God, and we're glad to be here tonight. Skip man for being here. Good to have you tonight.

Steven Cranston 3:00

Good to be here. Appreciate you all.

Prince Moon 3:02

Now, Brother Steve, I flew into you are you grew up there in Oregon. I flew in there years ago going to Alaska. And of course, Alaska only allows Alaska coming there on airline, ask airline to come in there. But I flew past that big river. It is the what is that? The big river that runs through.

Steven Cranston 3:26

That's Columbia, Columbia. You're thinking Columbia.

Prince Moon 3:29

Okay. And I didn't I didn't know it was a thousand miles long going through 40 cities. Wow. It's a beautiful place to be. I really enjoyed that. Did you live near the Columbia?

Steven Cranston 3:40

Yeah, so first I'll just say this: the Church of God, we believe in holiness, and you just committed a cardinal sin for the Oregonians. People from the east, they always say Oregon. We say we didn't go anywhere. We're Oregon, not Oregon. Uh yeah. So I grew up in a town called Cambi, Oregon. It is about 45 minutes south of Portland. Portland is where the Columbia River flows and then passed out into the Pacific Ocean.

Prince Moon 4:06

So yeah, I grew up beautiful. It was beautiful, man. I am telling you, it was a beautiful place to be. Yes. So again, glad you're here tonight. All

New Pastorate And Local Church Details

Prince Moon 4:17

right. Uh tell us about the church, the new church. What's going on? What's the address, phone number, et cetera?

Steven Cranston 4:23

Yeah, so uh about two uh well, about two months ago, we moved up here. For the last year and a half, we were driving every other weekend uh from Alabama and preaching. Uh it's in Moorhead, Kentucky. It was established probably 1975, um, but it had dwindled down, and uh, we feel God called us there, and um, he's been helping us. And uh so it's at 1477 East Main Street, Moorhead, Kentucky, three let's see, four zero three five one. And uh we have a website, www.rodburnchurch of God.com, and you can find us on Facebook or YouTube at Rodburn Church of God. Um, so that's a little bit about the congregation. God has really been helping us, it's nothing that we're doing, uh, but he has been sending souls and people are getting saved, and we want to see the work of God be successful no matter where it is, and including including where our neck of the woods is.

Prince Moon 5:21

All right. Now you have two children, am I correct?

Steven Cranston 5:24

Yeah, I have a three-year-old girl and a one-year-old son.

Prince Moon 5:27

Wow. So it's pretty quiet around the house these days.

Steven Cranston 5:30

Yeah, uh, you can you can hear a pin drop. No, not quite. Yeah, there's a reason why I'm outside, and that's because my wife is giving the kids a bath, and I did I felt for the viewer, uh, it would be better if they didn't hear a bunch of crying and screaming and and all that. So interested.

Why Unity Requires Honest Conversation

Prince Moon 5:50

And again, we want to talk about some kind of unity. Brother Carrance, you have a burden for unity. I know you do. We've talked about this before. What are your thoughts on unity?

Steven Cranston 5:59

Yeah. Well, I'll just give a very brief introduction that I believe kind of leads into the subject. So I was I was born and raised in the church of God. In fact, my mother had me by cesarean section um and on Friday, and at the beginning of next week, camp meeting had started there in Oregon, and I was there at camp meeting.

Prince Moon 6:18

Wow.

Steven Cranston 6:18

So I was brought from the hospital to camp meeting. And so I guess you could say that Church of God is very integral part of my life, of course. Um, my family was there until about my eighth grade year of middle school, and then for various reasons, my family had left the church. Um, I had no desire to serve God. Uh, I wouldn't say I was a hardcore sinner per se, but definitely the church God was far from any concern of mine. Uh, but long story short, going into my senior year of high school, uh, God started speaking to me. I got saved, uh, did well for a little bit, backslid, and then really started getting established uh going into my sophomore year of college. And so that was 2017. I've been doing my best to endeavor to live for the Lord ever since.

Prince Moon 7:09

Amen. Amen.

Steven Cranston 7:11

That being said, uh I went to college in northern Indiana, a little school called Goshen College, and there was a revival that had uh been going on in Muncie, Indiana. And so I went down to Brother Ryan O'Neill's and there was a minister preaching there that I had never heard of. And uh growing up, you know, in Oregon is pretty isolated. We'll see that on the map later from just Church of Gods in general, geographically. And uh there was a brother preaching from the West Coast. I said, I didn't know there were any other churches on the West Coast. And so I kind of went down the rabbit hole. And I remember uh for probably six or eight weeks, I did everything I could to find out all these different congregations. I had a map on my wall, and I would uh do little color-coordinated things to see where congregations were, and and uh it kind of evolved from there.

Prince Moon 8:03

So I find the map quite interesting. We'll discuss this at this time. Before we go, what motivated you to do that? Were you just concerned about the churches, where they are, how many there were, or et cetera, et cetera?

Steven Cranston 8:19

Well, the first question that came to my mind when I was at that revival is this brother seems like a good brother. It was a great message. Why haven't we been in fellowship with them? And um, so questions naturally arose. And um, I would say it was then that I had a burden for unity. I wanted to see God's people work together. I wasn't satisfied with some of the answers that had been given, not necessarily by my pastor, but just some of the reasons why there had been divisions. And I thought, you know what, there needs to be some change, and and uh if I can do anything to to help uh facilitate that, not through myself, but just by uh kind of calling light to the condition of the conservative church of God, uh, I want to try to do my part and uh more than anything, connect people. You can't have any healing if you're not willing to talk.

Prince Moon 9:14

Right, right. Brother Kansas, I believe that this program we do deal with some sensitive things, sometimes very sensitive and emotional, but we've got to talk about it. My background is in counseling, and that's what we do. In counseling, we bring families in, we talk about the issues, and just find out what's going on. Because if you don't talk, you're not gonna solve it. That's right. To talk about things, will we always agree? No, we won't, but at least we can talk about an endeavor to see what's going on to support Unity. Okay, my friend, your charts.

The Church Map Project Explained

Prince Moon 9:48

We are ready. All right, okay.

Steven Cranston 9:53

So we'll just kind of go through uh when Sister Tennille gets this up. I'll kind of explain what each one is. Honestly, it's probably gonna take more time than we have for tonight, and that's okay. Uh brother Prince uh Vaughn told me that I'm gonna be coming on and explaining later. Uh so anyway, uh we'll do our best to kind of explain some things, and I'll just say as a disclaimer, none of this is meant to hurt anyone. Sure, yeah. These these charts that have been made are not necessarily it, I guess I'll say they're fluid. Um, so some of my information could be wrong because I don't know everything and I don't know everyone, but we we did our best to have a pretty strenuous uh vetting of this information.

Prince Moon 10:38

We appreciate that.

Tennille McLeod 10:39

Yes, yeah. Okay. Guide us to where you want us to go. All right.

Steven Cranston 10:45

Yeah, so uh first and foremost, these names uh are not any sort of official name for most of these places. Um and so if you happen to see something and say, I've never heard that, uh, they're just used to distinguish. There are names that I've heard people say. Um, and some of them I just made up just for the purpose of distinguishing. Um so I color coordinated. Um, just because you're green doesn't mean you're good, and you're red doesn't mean you're bad or anything. I just chose random colors. So anyway. Um sounds good. So uh quickly, we'll just say blue is uh church god universe. Well, okay, let's go to the next slide and we can kind of explain it from there. So this is a map that I made of pretty much all of the conservative church god congregations that are within the United States. I know at this point there are some you can see in Panama or Honduras. Uh I kind of stopped because I didn't have a lot of information on Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and other places. But this kind of gives you an idea of how many congregations there really are out there that are conservative. And I know I'm missing quite a few as well. Um, these are color coordinated. This particular map is a little out of date. I probably uh made this one probably two years ago, and since then there's been some new congregations. Some congregations, I guess you could say, have switched colors if that makes sense. But uh that gives a general overview and uh it makes you realize uh there's a lot of people out there that want to live for the Lord. Um but we can we can go ahead and go to the next uh map.

Tennille McLeod 12:37

Can you see that?

Steven Cranston 12:39

Yeah, okay. So this this first map, uh I guess you could say would be the Church of God Universal. They're based out of Haggertstown, Maryland. They have the Way of Truth magazine. Right. And this is this is some of their congregations within the United States. Um you may not be able to see very clearly because, for example, in Louisiana, they have two congregations that are close together. But this just kind of gives a view of some of the congregations that they have uh been in fellowship with. Um, it's not entirely extensive because with the universal, uh with the Church God Universal, they are also willing to reach out um across the aisle. And so you you could go to, I've never been, but you could go to Hagerstown for camp meeting and see people that are part of a different congregation than just these. The other thing about uh Church God Universal, they do a lot of foreign mission work, particularly in Jamaica, the Philippines, Honduras, um, and elsewhere. Cayman Islands.

Prince Moon 13:38

Yeah, so anyway. Well, the Cranston, we've got to take a break here. We'll be right back talking about Church of God charts and where they are around the country. We'll be right back. This is yet to come. Wow, we have a new uh program. I haven't seen it before. Congratulations, did a good job. But

Touring Fellowships And What Division Costs

Prince Moon 15:04

we're here tonight, Pastor Cranston talking about churches of God around the country and a map that lets us know where we are. Continue, please, if you would, my friend.

Steven Cranston 15:15

Yeah, so we can continue on to the next map. Um, and like I said, the purpose of this is just to visualize where we are at. And I believe that people have a desire to work together, but if we don't know where we're at, how can we reach our hand out? So um anyway, we'll see if we can get the next map up.

Prince Moon 15:40

And then that's why we're here. We're here to reach out. Uh, there's been a lot of division, we all know that, and we want to do what we can to uh, if possible, endeavor to unify. We could do so much together, man. I mean, churches working together is is a is a blessing. We can take this country, even the world. The devil does not like unity, he hates that. He tore up the first family, he struck uh uh David and Saul, and just he tears things up. In fact, half of the marriages in America in a divorce, the devil hates unity, but God loves unity. We talk about that, the unity of God's people. So let's see what we can do to enhance that. Okay, my friend.

Steven Cranston 16:24

So let's see, I'm not seeing the map.

Tennille McLeod 16:27

Um can you see it? Um now.

Steven Cranston 16:31

Okay, now I see it. Okay. So this would be what people would call commonly call Faith and Victory or evening light. Um, they have Faith Publishing House out of Guthrie, Oklahoma. Um, they have a pretty extensive network. Um, and uh so like I said, uh we'll just kind of cruise through these, give an idea of where people are at, and then we can kind of talk a little bit more about the effects of division, especially on the younger generation.

Prince Moon 16:56

Wow. Wow. In fact, Brother Cranston, that was our focus and still is the young people who have uh you know had to stumble over some of these things. Even back when I was a young man, our church was about 600, and we had some horrible splits back in 65, 66 in a certain place, and they're down to about 40 people now. Yeah, and and it was a horrible situation. Had to call the police in and lock the doors of the church, and yeah, it was it was it was traumatic. It was definitely traumatic. Some folks lost their minds, some went into babbling. Yeah, just horrible situations. So we're trying to do what we can to enhance forgiveness in God's church.

Steven Cranston 17:36

That's right. Yes.

Tennille McLeod 17:37

Do you want me to go to the next slide, Brother Crans?

Steven Cranston 17:40

Or we're actually yes. We'll just go slide by slide. Okay. Uh, this group, uh, if you want to call it a group, I know people will probably get mad by the group label. Um, but this uh particular fellowship, uh, they have a camp meeting in Vichy, Missouri, and um they're strong on the doctrine of divorce and remarriage. I have a lot of confidence in people uh in this particular fellowship. Um, but like I said, it's important for us to understand that there are um, I guess you could say, things that have happened that have separated. It may not be uh one person's fault in particular, but it's important for us to understand where we're at. Um, and also again, these maps may not be entirely accurate, but I did my best to make sure uh we'll go to the next one if that's all right, sisters. No. The next one, uh, I guess some people are saying this group, if you want to call it that, would be the eighth beast. Um, they have uh just recently kind of been dissatisfied with uh the condition of the church. And so you have a lot of congregations that have uh come about as a result of people leaving other places, but again, you can kind of get a mindset. And um some of these congregations are also hard to classify. Um, and so I did my best. So if you disagree, please forgive me. Um, but I just did my best to visualize things. If we'll go to the next uh this particular uh fellowship, if you want to say, is is much more uh loose and not centralized. Um all of these groups that I've shown so far would believe in two works of grace. Um this particular fellowship has several large congregations that I would say are influential, including uh 46th Street in Chicago, Tampa, Joliet, Carmichael, various other places. Um other people have called these people, particularly in Joliet, the Northern Brethren. Um and so anyway, we'll continue on. This would be the Southern Brethren. And so this this particular fellowship, uh, one of their prominent congregations would be in Morgan City, Alabama, uh camp meeting, I believe, in Lakeland, Florida. And um some people may say Southern Brethren or the Eight Commandment uh group or whatever. But again, I'm not saying any of these things to criticize, to say anyone's right or wrong, just to visualize. Um if we'll go on, we'll kind of just run through these. So um while we're getting the next map up, I'll just say if you are a person that's coming in from out of the world and you are seeing people bickering and arguing and fighting, but then all singing the hymn, Thank God for a church triumphant, and this is what you saw as the reality, it would be pretty discouraging. Um and the reason why my burden is to put this out is to say there's a problem that needs to be fixed. And by the grace of God and humility, if we work together, this is not a doom and gloom uh thing. This is just kind of a snapshot of how things are. There is progress happening, and by the grace of God, we want we want to see restoration, we want to see uh reconciliation. Yes. Um anyway, that's our burden.

Tennille McLeod 21:07

Can you see that, Brother Cranston?

Steven Cranston 21:10

I cannot.

Tennille McLeod 21:12

What I have here is the let me see.

Steven Cranston 21:15

Okay, okay now I can. Okay. This would be commonly referred to as church god restoration. Um now I will say one thing, I don't know if this information is up to date anymore. A lot of these particular fellowships, they'll say, Well, our headquarters are in heaven. And many people accuse them of having earthly headquarters where their main camp meeting is or whatever. But uh, this one particular fellowship has gone further and said our headquarters are in Greenville, Ohio. And somebody may say, Well, at least they're honest about the situation that's going on within the church. Um, but this other people may say the Danny Lane group or whatever. Um, but this gives you an idea of kind of their spread. They have more uh works um that they would not consider to be congregations at this time. Um but this is kind of a snapshot of how things were when I made this, and definitely don't know if this is up to date anymore on this particular map. Um, but we can go on to the next. This would be uh I guess people could say out of Jackson, Michigan would be probably the most prominent congregation, but this particular fellowship holds pretty strong to divine healing uh in particular, and so you can see they have uh various different places. Um we can go on to the next, if that's all right. All right, Brother Prince loved it when I brought this up.

Prince Moon 22:43

So there's there a church in Georgia?

Steven Cranston 22:46

Yeah, there I I think there is a church in Georgia on the church.

Prince Moon 22:49

Now what color are they? Are they blue, green, or uh aqua? Black.

Steven Cranston 22:53

Black.

Prince Moon 22:53

Well now what does that mean? Are they are they uh independent or are they or are they uh they've been black they've been blackballed.

Steven Cranston 23:03

No. No, I'm just kidding. Um, so there are a lot of congregations that are independent. Um, some of them not necessarily their choice. They've been pushed to the fringes. Other people have said, you know what? I see the situation that's going on. I see that there are boxes, and I'm not gonna be a part of the box anymore. And so there are quite a few congregations within here um that have said, we're gonna reach out. And as a result of reaching out, some of them have been uh, I don't know if you want to say excommunicated or pushed out of their fellowships. Um, some people have made that conscious decision that listen, we're gonna reach our hands in fellowship to every bloodwash one, just like we sing in the hymn.

Prince Moon 23:43

Um and so But the question, our time is gone. We'll have you back next week. Yes. But talk to talk

Hope For Hurt Young People

Prince Moon 23:50

to you're a young guy, talk to a young person, maybe who's been damaged or who has damaged others. Maybe they're sitting home from service. Is there any hope that they can be restored and forgiven?

Steven Cranston 24:02

I believe so. Um a lot of times the devil just wants to do his best to discourage. Wow. And you know, discouragement is one of the most powerful tools by the enemy. And if you focus on all of the bad things, it's easy to look at something like this and we'll go on in the future and say, wow, look at what a mess. But I choose to try to look optimistically and say, listen, my generation is the one that's coming up. We've inherited this, but it doesn't mean that we have to continue to perpetuate this. So let's let's be a part of the solution by the grace of God as he leads. Um that's that's kind of our burden.

Prince Moon 24:41

Give me your information. How can we contact you?

Steven Cranston 24:43

So you can uh reach out to if you go on to our Facebook or on our

How To Reach Steve And Closing

Steven Cranston 24:48

website, my phone number is listed there. Um, we also have an email that's listed. Uh, if you care to reach out via email Steven, S-T-E-V-E-N-H, and then Cranston, C-R-A-N-S-T-O-N at gmail.com. I'd be happy to take any emails. And if you want to go onto the website, you can get our phone number. I'd be happy to take any calls and discuss this uh because we want to see uh we want to see healing by the grace of God and we don't want to see this continue to exist because if we continue on this way, it's gonna just result in fellowships of one congregation.

Prince Moon 25:28

Brother Steve, thank you tonight for sharing with us our engineer. Thank you also too for those that are listening. We'll see you next week. May the Lord bless you. Have a good day.