The Church of God, spelled with a capital C, and more fully denominated General Eldership of the Churches of God in North America, was founded by John Winebrenner, in 1830. Winebrenner had been baptized and confirmed in the German Reformed Church (now the Reformed Church in the United States), and was given the pastorate at Harrisburg. He was a good man and the work of the ministry became the uppermost desire of his heart. He sought to raise the standard of true piety. His earnest preaching resulted in a revival in which he opposed theaters, dancing, gambling, lotteries, and racing. Revivals of religion were new experiences in the churches of that region, so that his ministry awakened strong opposition, which resulted in official charges against him. He severed his relations with the Reformed Church but continued his ministry, extensive revivals following. Dr. C. H. Forney, in his History of the Churches of God, says, Winebrenner did not entertain the purpose of founding a new denomination. These bodies he stigmatized as sects. Professor Nevin called the United Brethren and like bodies "rolling balls," and accused Winebrenner with "putting in motion a similar ball, which continues rolling to this hour (1842), not without abundance of noise." Winebrenner denounced this as gross misrepresentation. "But, sir, I did not retire for the ignoble purpose, as you have intimated, of putting another sectarian ball in motion. No, not at all. I had seen, through mercy, the great evil of these rolling balls, put in motion and kept in motion by the cunning craftiness of men and devils, and how by their repeated and unhappy collusions they hindered and marred the work of God in the earth; and, therefore, I resolved to fall back upon original grounds--to stand aloof from all these sectarian balls, and to do the work of an evangelist and minister of Christ by building up the church of God (the only true church) according to the plan and pattern as shown us in the New Testament. This is the high and firm ground we take. Our ball, therefore, is not like your ball, nor similar to other human balls. Ours is the Lord's ball. It was not cut out of the Romish Church by the hands of Calvin and others as was yours. But it was 'cut out of the mountain without hands.' The ball commenced rolling upwards of eighteen hundred years ago, and it continues rolling to this hour; yea, and it will never cease rolling till every other man-made ball shall be either crushed or rolled up by it, and until the sound of it shall be 'like the sound of many waters, and as the voice of great thunder.'" On the subject of organization the same writer continues,