Churches of God, Holiness
Churches of God, Holiness belongs to the Wesleyan-Holiness family of churches.
Governance: episcopal.
The historically Black holiness body founded by Bishop King Hezekiah Burruss in Atlanta in 1914, episcopal in structure.
Congregation count not yet source-verified against RCMS 2020; NULL rather than estimated.
A historically Black holiness church founded in Atlanta in 1914 by Bishop King Hezekiah Burruss — episcopal in order, sanctification in message.
Heritage
King Hezekiah Burruss, who had ministered in C. P. Jones's Church of Christ (Holiness) U.S.A., organized the body known as Churches of God, Holiness in Atlanta in 1914, and it spread through Georgia and beyond under his leadership and that of his successors, including his son. It stands in the non-Pentecostal wing of the Black holiness movement: entire sanctification preached as a second work of grace, without the requirement of tongues.
Theological family
Wesleyan-holiness in the African American holiness stream: conversion, sanctification, and holy living, with the Bible as final authority.
Who decides what
Episcopal: bishops oversee the churches, on a pattern its founder shaped, with local pastors under their care.
What a first-time visitor would find
A visitor finds Black church worship in the holiness key — fervent song, prayer, testimony, and preaching that expects the congregation to answer back.
What it has always cared about
Sanctified living; the dignity and order of the bishopric; and perseverance as a body that built and kept its own institutions through the Jim Crow decades.
Its gift to the wider church
Part of the Black holiness witness that shaped American worship far beyond its own rolls — the sanctified church's seriousness about holy living and its exuberant worship both traveled widely.
Commonly confused with
With the Church of God in Christ (Pentecostal, much larger), with the Church of Christ (Holiness) U.S.A. (its founder's former body), and with the Church of God (Holiness), a separate, historically white Kansas City body — four names, four distinct churches.
Range of views inside it
Modest public record of internal variety; congregations are concentrated in the Southeast.
A note from the mapmakers: Nothing here may be asserted of a specific congregation. This record is deliberately brief: the body publishes little, and we write only as far as the record allows. No congregation count is stored; none has been verified against RCMS 2020. Sentences drawn from it hedge as "Churches of God, Holiness congregations typically…".
Sources: Handbook of Denominations in the United States (Abingdon Press) · The Holiness-Pentecostal Tradition (Vinson Synan, Eerdmans)
More of the Wesleyan-Holiness story · Find these churches on the map