South Texas Bible Ministry

Training Center

THE.142 — Assemblies of God History, Missions, and Governance

Ricky Joseph, Ph.D.

Objectives

• Discuss the reasons and resolutions for disagreements among the early Pentecostal Saints

• Discuss the purpose for the zeal common to the Faith Life Missionaries

• Discuss the Holy Spirits work to bring about unity among the early Pentecostal Saints

• Discuss the Holy Spirit’s work in the Pentecostal efforts to draw an American Harvest and the prominent Vessels He used

Galatians 4:4-7

4But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made

under the law, 5To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the

adoption of sons. 6And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into

your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. 7Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a

son, then an heir of God through Christ.

DISAGREEMENTS AMONG THE SAINTS

Chapter Outline• Introduction• Minnie F. Abrams• Alfred G. Garr• George F. Taylor• William H. Durham• Introduction• As Pentecost spread throughout the United States in 1906 and 1907, believers came from more diverse backgrounds.• Disputes arose over the initial evidence of Spirit baptism and the nature of sanctification.

Minnie F. Abrams

Minnie F. Abrams went to India as a missionary under the appointment of the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Church.

• She felt directed of the Lord to offer her services at the Mukti (“salvation”) Mission,founded and directed by PanditaRamabai.

• The mission housed hundreds of widows and orphans and provided relief to famine victims.

Alfred G. Garr

• “A. G.” Garr, one of the best-known Pentecostals in the early twentieth century, served as a pastor, a missionary, and an evangelist.

• On June 16, 1906, Garr became the first white pastor of any denomination in the Los Angeles area to be baptized in the Spirit.

• He resigned from the Metropolitan Holiness Church in Los Angeles after the elders refused to accept the new teaching.

• Garr’s confidence that he had received the language of Bengali and should venture to India was the best-known attempt to apply Parham’s teaching on tongues.

George F. Taylor

• Taylor served the Pentecostal Holiness Church in many positions: –Author –Founder, educator, and administrator of three Bible schools –General superintendent

• Taylor was one of the first baptized in the Spirit at the revival in Dunn, North Carolina, on January 15, 1907.

• He published a book-length exposition on Pentecostal beliefs entitled The Spirit and the Bride.

Taylor’s 6 points of advice to those seeking Spirit baptism

1. You must be straight in the Scriptures.

2. You must be right with God.

3. There is a death subsequent to the death of the “old man.”

4. You must carefully count the cost.

5. You must look to Jesus alone.

6. You must praise Him.

William H. Durham

• The controversy over the nature of sanctification reached a peak in 1910.

• Was it instantaneous as the Wesleyan-holiness Pentecostals taught, or progressive throughout one’s life?

• William H. Durham of the North Avenue Mission in Chicago challenged the holiness doctrine of the second work of grace taught by Parham and many other Pentecostal leaders.

• Durham traveled to Los Angeles to the Apostolic Faith Mission to experience the Pentecostal baptism in March 1907.

• Afterward Durham’s ministry in Chicago grew until it rivaled Los Angeles as a center of influence in the Pentecostal movement.

FAITH LIFE” MISSIONARIE

• Introduction • Charles W. Chawner• Martin L. Ryan • Daniel Berg and Adolf Gunnar Vingren• Alice C. Wood • Harold A. Baker • Christian Schoonmaker• Esther B. Harvey • Minnie T. Draper

FAITH LIFE” MISSIONARIE

• Immediately after the Topeka revival (1901), Pentecostals focused on evangelizing in the United States.

• In November 1904, the first Pentecostal missionaries, Mary Johnson and Ida Andersson, left Minnesota for South Africa.

• By the end of the decade, two hundred or more ministered abroad.

• For a true understanding of Pentecostalism, one must understand its missionary vision.

Charles W. Chawner (d. 1949)

• Charles and Emma Chawner were baptized in the Spirit at the East End Mission, a center of Pentecostalism in eastern Canada.

• In 1907, they went to South America after Charles received a vision.

• They spent the rest of their lives there in fruitful missionary evangelism.

Martin L. Ryan (b. 1875?)

• Ryan responded to a letter telling of the revival in Los Angeles by shouting and praising God.

• Moving to Spokane, Washington, Ryan led the Pentecostal revival in that region until he traveled to Japan.

• Ryan and twenty members of his congregation were the first group of Pentecostal missionaries to go from the West Coast to East Asia.

Daniel Berg and Adolf Gunnar Vingren

• The highest growth of Pentecostalism anywhere has taken place in Brazil.

• The origins of the Pentecostal movement can be traced to Luigi Francescon, Daniel Berg, and Adolf Gunnar Vingren.

• Berg and Vingren, who met at a Pentecostal convention, later copastored a church in Indiana.

• A member of the congregation prophesied that they should go to “Pará” (in Brazil) and preach the gospel.

Alice C. Wood

• Alice C. Wood attended Friends’ schools and pastored a Friends’ Church before hearing a call to missions.

• She then spent three months at the Alliance school in Nyack, New York, and several years of ministry in Venezuela and Puerto Rico.

• With May Kelty, another Alliance missionary, she went to Argentina in 1909.

• They started one of the earliest Pentecostal centers in Argentina.

• Wood remained in Argentina for more than fifty years.

Harold A. Baker

• The well-educated Baker stands out as an exception among most lesser trained first generation Pentecostal missionaries.

• After two frustrating years of waiting, the Bakers went to work on the China-Tibetan border.

• Uncomfortable with the growing “modernism” in the Disciples of Christ church and now seeking Spirit baptism, he resigned his ministerial credentials.

• They traveled to the Yunnan province of China to open an orphanage and to evangelize in that region.

Christian Schoonmaker

• Christian Schoonmaker, who had a Methodist background, went to work for the Dholka mission and boys’ school in Gujarat, India.

• When the mission became a center of Pentecostal activity, Schoonmaker pondered the importance of speaking in tongues until he received Spirit baptism himself.

• Refusing to compromise on Spirit baptism, Christian and his wife, Violet, resigned from the Christian and Missionary Alliance.

• Schoonmaker then accepted a pastorate at a Toronto mission.

Esther B. Harvey

• Believers from a local mission in Port Huron, Michigan, prayed for Esther B. Harvey and she was healed.

• Leaving the Methodist church, she began attending services at the mission and heard the call to missions.

• Harvey began preparing to go to India but fund-raising tested her faith.

• The testing of Harvey’s faith toughened her resolve to trust God in greater crises still to come.

Minnie T. Draper

• After receiving prayer at A.B. Simpson’s Gospel Tabernacle, Minnie T. Draper was healed.

• She then became an associate to Simpson and a speaker in the Christian and Missionary Alliance.

• Longing for a deeper work of the Spirit, Draper saw a vision of the Lord one night and spoke in tongues.

THE SAINTS JOIN HANDS

• Introduction • The Road to Hot Springs • Networking • Problems Here and There • The First General Council • Council Leaders • Disagreements on Doctrine • Expanding Ministries • Moving the Headquarters • The Great War • Lightning in a Bottle

THE SAINTS JOIN HANDS

• More than three hundred Pentecostal believers gathered at the Grand Opera House in Hot Springs, Arkansas, in April 1914.

• They wanted to consider moving beyond just spiritual unity to a limited measure of organizational unity, a church organization with legal standing.

The Road to Hot Springs

• Most Pentecostals wished to remain free from denominations, but they cherished fellowship with other believers.

• They were loosely unified by conventions and camp meetings and informed about current happenings through Pentecostal periodicals.

• Pentecostals came from a cross section of American society.

Networking

• Networking laid the basis for founding the Assemblies of God.

• Henry G. Rodgers and Howard Goss consolidated their respective groups at a 1912 convention in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.

• There they traded opinions about forming an even broader association of Pentecostals.

• Some leaders favored a bolder solution to the growing needs of the Movement.

Problems Here and There

• Pastors and educators alike were frustrated with the selection and support of missionaries.

• They didn’t want to support individuals who had defected doctrinally or morally.

• Also, some self-appointed missionaries seemed to do more traveling to and from the States than sowing on the foreign field.

• Attempts to organize missionary efforts met resistance because people feared human organizations would curtail the missionaries’ ability to be led by the Holy Spirit.

The First General Council

• More than three hundred delegates attended the first General Council in Hot Springs, Arkansas, on April 2–12, 1914.

• The first four days spent in fellowship and prayer created a deep sense of unity among the delegates and allayed fears about creating an authoritarian denomination.

• Mack M. Pinson preached the keynote sermon on the “Finished Work of Calvary,” clearly identifying the posture of these believers on the sanctification issue.

The First General Council

• The leadership of the General Council was placed in the hands of E. N. Bell, general chairman, and J. Roswell Flower, secretary/treasurer.

• Two schools were approved for ministerial training:

– Nashoba Holiness School in Mississippi

– Gospel School in Ohio

• The Council restricted the role of women in ministry to that of “helpers in the gospel.”

Council Leaders

• The first two leaders of the new organization were a study in contrasts. –E. N. Bell was one of the best-educated leaders of the time, having attended Stetson University, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and the University of Chicago Divinity School. –J. Roswell Flower, an immigrant, had no formal training above public school but had begun reading law under the guidance of a local attorney before being called to ministry.

• Bell was pastoring a Baptist church when he heard about the Pentecostal revival.

Council Leaders

• A. P. Collins was elected the second general superintendent at the November 1914 General Council.

• A former Southern Baptist, Collins had prepared for ministry at Baylor University.

• While pastoring in Texas, he and his wife received the baptism in the Holy Spirit.

• He left the Baptist church to join the Pentecostal movement.

• John W. Welch served as general superintendent during the controversy over the nature of the Godhead.

• A long-time pastor in the Christian and Missionary Alliance, he received the Pentecostal baptism in 1910.

Disagreements on Doctrine

• Soon the Council was tested on vital points of doctrine.

• Interest in restoring the apostolic pattern of baptizing in the name of Jesus Christ only had been growing.

• This “New Issue,” as it was called, departed from biblical teachings and historic Christian doctrine.

• After the adoption of a strongly worded Trinitarian doctrine, the members who embraced the “Jesus Name” or “Oneness” doctrine walked out of the Council.

Expanding Ministries

• Ministers, missionaries, and laypersons concentrated their energies on many different activities in serving God: –Street meetings –Revivals –Camp meetings –Church plantings –Missions

• In 1915, the Council promoted the evangelization of the heathen according to New Testament methods.

• In 1921, the Council defined the methods according to “Pauline examples.”

• The Missionary Department became the first established department of the Assemblies of God in 1919.

Moving the Headquarters

• The first headquarters were at T. K. Leonard’s church and Bible school in Findlay, Ohio.

• Leonard also offered the use of his printing press to publish Word and Witness and the Christian Evangel.

• A year later, the Council moved the headquarters and printing equipment to St. Louis, Missouri.

• St. Louis, a better site for publishing, proved to be too expensive for the Council.

• In 1918, the headquarters were moved to a building in Springfield with sufficient space for both the offices and the printing equipment.

Lightning in a Bottle

• Many observers have wondered what caused the dramatic growth of the Pentecostal movement and the Assemblies of God over the twentieth century.

• The answer lies in the people who made it happen. • They believed that through Holy Spirit baptism and the

restoration of the gifts of the Spirit, the spiritual power of the New Testament had been restored.

• Combined with a pragmatic willingness to use virtually any means available to accomplish world evangelization, the Pentecostals set to their task with unusual vigor.

• Through the years, Council members would find innumerable ways to share the gospel at home and abroad.

WORKING FOR AN AMERICAN HARVEST

• Introduction

• Robert and Marie Brown

• Henry C. Ball

• Francisco Olazábal

• Ethel Musick

• Robert and Mary Craig

• Aimee Semple McPherson

WORKING FOR AN AMERICAN HARVEST

• The delegates at the second General Council committed themselves and the Movement “for the greatest evangelism the world has ever seen.”

• The passion for evangelism was driven by the belief that time was short—Jesus was coming soon.

• Church planting didn’t demand ordination, ministerial credentials, or education; it required faith and lots of grit.

• Pentecostals seemed to thrive on “proving God.”

Robert and Marie Brown

• Marie’s family moved to Zion City and joined Dowie’s Christian Catholic Church in 1901 after she and her sister were healed of tuberculosis.

• She was baptized in the Spirit during Parham’s meetings in Zion City and, at Parham’s request, went to New York City to share the “apostolic faith.”

Henry C. Ball

• With almost no knowledge of Spanish, Henry C. Ball began a church for the Hispanic community in Ricardo, Texas.

• Soon attendance jumped from two to fifty, and the congregation became an established Methodist church.

• After Ball was dismissed from the Methodist church for receiving Spirit baptism, he joined the Assemblies of God and started a new congregation (1915).

• Ball proved to be one of the most creative missionary strategists that the Assemblies of God has produced.

Francisco Olazábal

• After moving from Mexico to California, Francisco Olazábal received a gospel tract from George Montgomery and was saved.

• The Montgomerys began to mentor and teach him basic Christian doctrines.

• Olazábal returned to Mexico and started preparing for ministry in the Methodist Church.

• He graduated from Wesleyan Methodist College and ministered in the Methodist Church.

• With Olazábal back in California, the Montgomerysintroduced him to the Pentecostal experience.

Ethel Musick

• The gifts of Ethel and Marcus Musick were complementary: – Ethel preached. – Marcus worked as a carpenter to help support her

ministry.

• Ethel was saved in a holiness church and started preaching as a teenager.

• Marriage and seven children did not stop her successful evangelistic meetings.

• When the children were older, Marcus stayed home while Ethel continued to evangelize.

Robert and Mary Craig

• Robert Craig reported “that [God] would give [me] 100,000 souls to shine with Him in Glory” if he would faithfully minister in San Francisco.

• While starting the new congregation in San Francisco, the Craigs lived above an old saloon.

• Mary would sober up drunkards who came by and then pray with them for salvation.

• By 1922, they dedicated the new sanctuary of Glad Tidings Temple, which was large enough to hold twenty-five hundred people.

Aimee Semple McPherson

• Aimee Semple McPherson, “Sister,” held barnstorming campaigns with only minimum advanced planning.

• Within days, however, testimonies of salvation and remarkable healings circulated widely.

• In her ministry, she dramatized her own life story, “From Milkpail to Pulpit,” to reach listeners.

• She then invited the unsaved to give their lives to Christ and challenged believers to commit themselves to His service.

• On January 1, 1923, she opened her world-famous Angelus Temple in Los Angeles, one of the first megachurches in the U.S.