W. T. Gaston: Assemblies of God General Superintendent, 1925-1929

This Week in AG History — June 8, 1929

By Glenn W. Gohr
Originally published on AG News, 6 June 2019

William Theodore Gaston (1886-1956), better known as W.T. Gaston, was an early general superintendent of the Assemblies of God. He was born in Boone County, Arkansas (near Eureka Springs). His mother dedicated him to the Lord and affectionately called him her “little preacher boy.” Unfortunately, she died when William was about 3 years old, and he was cared for by other members of the family until he reached adulthood. He was converted at an early age and felt the call of God on his life.

As a teenager, he began testifying and witnessing, eventually becoming an evangelist. At age 20 he married Artie Mattox, the daughter of a fairly prosperous mercantile store owner. Gaston started out in full-time ministry at the age of 23. He participated in many early camp meetings including the organizational meeting of the Assemblies of God at Hot Springs in April 1914.

Gaston’s early ministry involved many hardships and sacrifices as he and his wife raised a large family. It has been said that he virtually “walked over” Arkansas in the early days of his ministry, as walking was his only means of transportation. He often went to small, out-of-the-way places to preach the gospel, and many times he was away from his family for weeks at a time. In addition to evangelistic work, he also pastored churches in Tahlequah and Tulsa, Oklahoma, and in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. From 1919 to 1920 he was the pastor of Central Assembly in Springfield, Missouri. He also pastored First Assembly in San Diego and helped with Berean Bible School, which was connected with the church.

After serving as general superintendent from 1925 to 1929 (during his tenure the title was changed from general chairman to general superintendent), for a short time he pastored a church in North Hollywood, and from there he was called to Bethel Temple in Sacramento, where he ministered for nine years. He was also widely known as an inspiring camp meeting preacher.

In 1944, he was elected to the office of district superintendent for Northern California and Nevada, where he served for 12 years until his death in 1956.

Gaston was noted for his generosity and for his encouragement and instruction of young ministers. He also took a special interest in the Christ’s Ambassadors program (now National Youth Ministries). He was vitally interested in education, being associated with three Assemblies of God Bible colleges. He helped with Berean Bible Institute in San Diego, was an early instructor at Central Bible College, and served on the board of Bethany Bible College in Santa Cruz, California.

Ninety years ago this week, Gaston wrote an article offering practical helps and hints for young ministers and Christian workers.

He extolled the value of a solid Bible education, yet he emphasized that “we can only learn to preach by preaching.” He believed that practical experience was an essential part of ministerial training.

He also stressed that a person in ministry must have the calling and anointing of God in order to succeed. He said, “A God-ordained ministry is taken from among those with inherent ability for particular service, upon whom the Lord has laid His hand and placed His gift and anointing.”

Another word of advice involved preaching. Gaston said, “We should remember that sermons that are really blessed to ourselves and others after all may not be quite perfect.” The key he said is to “learn something from every sermon you preach or hear.”

Gaston promoted the idea that if someone is called to preach, then he or she needs to go out and preach and not wait for circumstances to change. “Jesus said, ‘Go into all the world and preach,’” said Gaston, but there “is no inference that He expects us to wait for the world to send for us.” The conclusion from this, according to Gaston, is that “we may go on the streets, into jails, private home, or country schoolhouses. Go someplace — any place — but preach.”

After offering several more tidbits of advice for Christian workers, Gaston closed with these remarks: “Ordinary men, with concentration of purpose and unflagging zeal and devotion, have often accomplished extraordinary things. Shall we not stir into flame the gifts that are in us, and move forward with renewed determination to be and to do our best for the Lord and a world in need?”

Read more in “Helps and Hints for Christian Workers” on pages 5 and 7 of the June 8, 1929, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel.

Also featured in this issue:

• “Darkness and Dawn,” by Blanche Appleby

• “The Beauties of the Redeemer,” by Perry W. Hadsock

• “Questions and Answers,” by Ernest S. Williams

And many more!

Click here to read this issue now.

Pentecostal Evangel archived editions courtesy of the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center.

Do you have Pentecostal historical materials that should be preserved? Please consider depositing these materials at the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center (FPHC). The FPHC, located in the Assemblies of God national offices, is the largest Pentecostal archive in the world. We would like to preserve and make your treasures accessible to those who write the history books.

Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center
1445 North Boonville Avenue
Springfield, Missouri 65802 USA
Phone: 417.862.1447 ext. 4400
Toll Free: 877.840.5200
Email: archives@ag.org
Website: http://www.iFPHC.org

The Prosperity Gospel and Worldliness: A Warning from an Early Pentecostal Leader

W. T. Gaston, circa 1927

This Week in AG History — August 16, 1953

By Darrin J. Rodgers
Originally published on PE-News, 17 August 2017

Will the Pentecostal movement follow “the path of gradual surrender to carnal forces” like most Christian renewal movements before it? This question, posed by former General Superintendent W. T. Gaston (1925-1929) in the Aug. 16, 1953, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel, remains strikingly relevant.

Gaston wrote that history’s “tragic lesson” is that a church’s solid foundation does not prevent corruption from “fleshly elements within.” He offered this warning at a time when certain media-savvy Pentecostal healing evangelists had been exposed for their ungodly lifestyles, but who continued to promote themselves and their unbiblical message that God guarantees financial prosperity to believers.

Gaston suggested, “If we are to have a future that is better or even comparable and worthy of our past, we will need to learn over again some of the lessons of yesterday.” One of the important lessons to rediscover, he wrote, was the importance of promoting “pure, undefiled” religion.

He recalled that many early 20th century Pentecostal pioneers were bi-vocational ministers, that often met in homes or rented buildings, and that most were not very impressive by the standards of the surrounding culture. However, they did not need worldly goods and accolades in order for the Holy Spirit to accomplish great things through their lives and ministries.

Gaston wrote that he witnessed an “utter disregard for poverty or wealth or station in life” in the early Pentecostal movement. Yet “those rugged pioneers,” he noted, “had something that made them attractive and convincing.” The contrast between the attitudes of the world and the early Pentecostals was striking. According to Gaston, early believers were “completely satisfied without the world’s glittering tinsel, and content to be the objects of its scornful hatred.”

Believers must carefully guard their hearts, Gaston warned, or face a dissipation of this consecration and sacrificial spirit. He noted, as an example, that some ministers in the 1950s seemed to “project themselves and their projects instead of promoting the common cause and sharing equally in the honors and sufferings of the common brotherhood.”

Gaston identified a love of money as a danger to the Pentecostal movement and an impediment to the gospel. We “must draw the line against all comers with a money complex,” he asserted, in order “to retain its good sense and religious balance.” He lamented that certain high-profile evangelists promised God’s blessings to those who would give money to their ministries. He wrote, “Ministers of the gospel who lay up treasure on earth while they preach that people should lay theirs up in heaven are neither consistent nor worthy.” Gaston suspected that the “selfless, lowly Jesus” would “refuse to go along” with such ministers.

Furthermore, Gaston was troubled by sensationalism promoted by some of the big-name preachers in his day. “Full-orbed religion throbs with sensation,” he wrote. However, he warned against “unbridled sensationalism,” which could easily bring “disillusionment and disintegration” to those who have not developed a strong faith. Gaston concluded with “a simple appeal for consistency and reality in our religious approach,” praying that the Pentecostal movement would “purge itself of practices or propaganda patterns which are not compatible with the spirit and letter of the New Testament.”

Gaston’s article offers several important lessons to 21st century Pentecostals. First, Pentecostals should carefully guard their hearts. History demonstrates that selfishness and worldliness tend to creep into the church, and that even Christian renewal movements can drift from their founding ideals. Second, early Pentecostalism grew amidst widespread scorn and persecution as believers joyfully embodied consecrated, holy living. Third, Pentecostals can avoid the dangers of extremism and sensationalism by being solidly grounded in Scripture and biblical values.

Read W. T. Gaston’s article, “Guarding our Priceless Heritage,” in the Aug. 16, 1953, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel.

Also featured in this issue:

* “Eternity-Proof,” by Arne Vick

* “Sunday Schools around the World”

And many more!

Click here to read this issue now:

Pentecostal Evangel archived editions courtesy of the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center.

Do you have Pentecostal historical materials that should be preserved? Please consider depositing these materials at the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center (FPHC). The FPHC, located in the Assemblies of God national offices, is the largest Pentecostal archive in the world. We would like to preserve and make your treasures accessible to those who write the history books.

Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center
1445 North Boonville Avenue
Springfield, Missouri 65802 USA
Phone: 417.862.1447 ext. 4400
Toll Free: 877.840.5200
Email: archives@ag.org
Website: www.iFPHC.org

Central Assembly of God in Springfield, MO: 100 years of ministry

This past weekend Central Assembly here in Springfield, Missouri (Pastor James Bradford), held an all-church banquet on June 1, 2007 and special services on Sunday, June 3rd. The banquet commemorated to the day, the 100th anniversary of the church. It was during the wee hours of the morning of June 1, 1907 when Lillie Harper Corum was baptized in the Spirit in her living room in Springfield, after praying with her sister, Rachel Sizelove, an evangelist who had come from the famed Azusa Street revival in Los Angeles.

Further details of this testimony and much of the early history of Central Assembly is contained in a book produced by the Corum Family called The Sparkling Fountain. The book is still available for those interested. (See the Seen in Print section of the FPHC website.)

FPHC Director Darrin Rodgers and Assistant Archivist Glenn Gohr sold copies of The Sparkling Fountain, and Central Assembly sold copies of its new history book, Windows Into Central’s 100 Years of Ministry: Ordinary People God Used to Build an Extraordinary Church. This brief history contains vignettes of some of the former pastors and important families in the church as well as a time line of significant events in the church’s history. Central, now located on the block south of the AG Headquarters, became the mother church for several of the 30 AG congregations now in Springfield.