Melvin L. Hodges, former missionary to El Salvador, field director of Latin America, professor at AGTS, and author of “The Indigenous Church ” and other missions books, is interviewed by Dr. Gary B. McGee at the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary, Springfield, Missouri, 1985.
ID: V125
Filed under Audio
Everett L. Phillips, former missionary to Nigeria, West Africa and former field secretary for Africa, is interviewed by Dr. Delbert H. Tarr at the Assemblies of God Graduate School, Springfield, Missouri, January 21, 1981.
ID: V014
Dr. Delbert H. Tarr interviews Murray N. Brown, Sr., in Springfield, Missouri, March 4, 1981. They are discussing Brown’s work as an Assemblies of God missionary in Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso), West Africa.
ID: V005
“A Christianity that coldly sits down, and goes on its routine of formal work, and allows its fellowmen to starve, or to be obliged to go through all the hard sufferings and exposure connected with famine, without effort to help them, might as well quit its preaching.”
This bold statement, which argues that Christian preaching must be accompanied by works of compassion, was written in 1919 by Albert Norton, an Assemblies of God missionary to India.
Norton, who was witnessing an unfolding human tragedy, asked that “all missionaries, Mission Boards and Committees and all Christian Workers to do what they can to save their brothers and sisters in India from dying of starvation or from the kindred train of evils following famine.”
Pentecostal Evangel editor Stanley H. Frodsham responded and devoted the entire front page of the February 22, 1919, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel to the desperate situation in India. He asked readers to send famine relief to Gospel Publishing House, which he promised would “be promptly sent to the field.”
Frodsham provided three justifications for this request to save bodies as well as souls. First, he stated that Scripture required it, quoting Proverbs 19:17 and 24:11-12. Second, he noted that the Methodists were being asked to deny themselves luxuries for a few months and to instead provide money for Indian relief. He challenged Pentecostals to do likewise. Third, he noted that the future of the church depended upon rescuing those who are starving now. He again quoted Norton, “There are young men and women in India today, who were saved as famine orphans several years ago, and now they are filled with the Holy Spirit, and being greatly used in the extension of Christ’s Kingdom. How unutterably sad it would have been if they had been allowed to die of starvation.”
This is one of many examples of how early Pentecostals ministered in both word and deed. When the Assemblies of God, at its 2009 General Council, added compassion as the fourth element for its reason for being – joining worship, evangelism and discipleship – this was an affirmation of a long-standing practice.
Read Frodsham’s entire article, “Plague and Famine Raging in India,” on pages 1-2 of the February 22, 1919, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel.
By Darrin J. Rodgers
We Believe [2nd ed.]. Griffin, GA: Congregational Holiness Church, 2003.
The Life Story of Rev. B. F. Duncan, 1874-1949 [rev. ed.]. Griffin, GA: Congregational Holiness Church, 2004.
My Earthly Pilgrimage, by Cullen L. Hicks. Augusta, GA: Augusta Printing Center, 2004.
Vision Caster: The Story of Hugh B. Skelton, by E. Amelia Billingsley. Cleveland, TN: Pathway Press, 2000.
The Congregational Holiness Church (CHC) (www.CHChurch.com) made its entrance onto the Pentecostal scene in 1921, resulting from a disagreement within the Pentecostal Holiness Church (PHC) over the role of medicine in divine healing. Many early Pentecostals, including PHC leaders, eschewed human remedies (such as physicians or medicine) and instead encouraged believers to seek divine healing, which they taught was provided for in Christ’s atonement. This rejection of modern medicine was not universally held in the PHC. When evangelist Watson Sorrow and Hugh Bowling disagreed with the PHC on this and other issues, they were forced to leave the PHC in 1920. They — along with a handful of other ministers and churches — organized the CHC in High Shoals, Georgia in 1921. The CHC was organized along congregational lines, differing from the PHC’s episcopal polity, in an attempt to democratize church governance.
The CHC has grown from 12 churches in 1921 to over 5,200 churches in 12 states and 19 countries in 2007. The CHC’s growth reflects the growing importance of the emerging Pentecostal movement in non-Western contexts. Like the Assemblies of God, fewer than five percent of CHC churches and members are located in the United States. The CHC claims 25,000 adherents in 225 churches in the U.S. and almost one million adherents in about 5,000 churches outside the U.S. (primarily in Central and South America). Continue reading
Lietuvos Sekmininkų Bažnyčia: Istorine Apybraiza (The Pentecostal Church of Lithuania: Historical Sketch), edited by Rimantas Kupstys, et al. Vilnius, Lithuania: Apyausris, 2002.
Lietuvos Sekmininkų Bažnyčia: Istorine Apybraiza, published in 2002 upon the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Pentecostal church in Lithuania, provides a detailed grassroots account in the Lithuanian language of the development of Pentecostalism across the Baltic nation. The volume was assembled by an editorial committee headed by Rimantas Kupstys, Bishop of the Union of Pentecostal Churches of Lithuania.
The publisher notes the volume is not an exhaustive scientific study. However, this historical sketch is a valuable written account of a national history that, until now, was largely available only in scattered documents or in oral form. The work was based on archival materials, memories of eyewitnesses, published articles, and government documents.
Lietuvos Sekmininkų Bažnyčia begins by tracing Pentecostalism’s roots in the trans-Atlantic revivals of the 18th and 19th centuries, resulting in a significant evangelical and Holiness movement in England and America. The traditional version of Pentecostal origins is retold, identifying Charles Parham and the Azusa Street revival as central to the emerging movement. Thomas Ball Barratt, the Methodist minister from Oslo who received the Pentecostal message while visiting New York in 1906, is commended for, upon his return to Norway, helping to nurture Pentecostal leaders across Europe. Continue reading
To India with Love, by Mabel Hicok Snyder and compiled and edited by Jean Snyder. Springfield, MO: Jean Snyder, 2007.
Mabel Hicok Snyder has witnessed the growth of the worldwide Pentecostal movement firsthand. Her family began attending a Pentecostal church in the Detroit, Michigan area in the early 1920s. Soon after her Spirit baptism in 1924 at age 16, she felt a calling to serve as a missionary to India. After graduating from T. K. Leonard’s West Park Bible School in Findlay, Ohio, she set sail for India in November 1929. She and her husband Emery — whom she married in 1936 — spent the next four decades as Assemblies of God missionaries to India, working primarily in Kurebhar.
Now 99 years old, Snyder — with the help of her daughter-in-law — has written her memoirs. To India with Love is a careful retelling of the story of the lives and ministries of one missionary family. Readers will appreciate the numerous faith-building missionary stories, such as the rescue of a girl who was raised by wolves. Approximately 45 of the book’s 60 richly-illustrated pages detail the Snyders’ work in India. This book will be of interest to those who counted the Snyders as family and friends, and also to those who wish to better understand the development of the Assemblies of God in India.
Reviewed by Darrin Rodgers
Paperback, 60 pages, illustrated. $10, plus $2 shipping. Order from: Jean Snyder, 1415 E. Buena Vista St., Springfield, MO 65804 (phone: 417-887-0345)
Technorati Tags:
Biography, History, Pentecostal, Assemblies of God, Missions, India, Kurebhar, Mabel Hicok Snyder, Book Review
Filed under Missions
My Journey: An Autobiography of Dr. Lula Baird, by Lula Baird. Turlock, CA: The Author, 2004.
Lula Baird is part of, to use Tom Brokaw’s words, “The Greatest Generation.” Lula — along with thousands of other mostly unheralded men and women who were born in the first two decades of the twentieth century — built the Assemblies of God. Born in 1908 in Utah to a family of Mormon lineage, few could have imagined that Lula Ashmore Baird would serve as a leader in the emerging Pentecostal movement. But she did — serving as an Assemblies of God missionary and pastor to the Chinese people in Asia, Cuba, and the United States. Continue reading
The 100th anniversary celebration of First Assembly of God in Eureka Springs, Arkansas takes place this weekend (March 30-April 1, 2007). The theme of the three-day event is “Celebrating 100 Years of Pentecost and More.” The public is invited to attend any or all of the services. The church is located on Ark. Hwy. 23 on the south side of Eureka Springs.
Former pastor Bob Willhite is preaching on Friday night at 7 p.m. Then a number of former pastors will be on hand Saturday morning at 11 a.m. for the church’s radio program, “Christian Perspective,” hosted by pastor Gene Gilmore on KTCN, 100.9 FM. A barbecue is planned for Saturday afternoon and a 7 p.m. concert with Louisiana-based New Liberty Quartet.
Sunday activities include a special Sunday school class on “The Church and Its Mission” taught by three former pastors. Rev. Glenn Beaver, secretary-treasurer of the West Texas District AG, is the speaker for the 10:30 a.m. service. Afterwards a time capsule will be placed on the grounds of the church, followed by an afternoon luncheon.
That evening, Rev. Eugene Rose will preach, and a commemorative gift of $35,000 will be given to Missionary Kerry Mauldin for the construction of a new church building in India.
Eureka Springs Assembly of God is one of several AG churches in the nation currently celebrating 100 years.
Adapted from an article in the Carroll County News Weekend Edition.
Additional information can be found in “Centennial Churches: A Survey” in the 2007 issue of Heritage.
Posted by Glenn Gohr
Filed under News
