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Projects and programs
multiplied. These projects started with some noble purpose like helping the
poor, but they soon became social programs to entertain the members of the
church -- something for all ages, and special programs. Sunday schools were
developed for nurturing the young; and certainly if you learned anything
about the Bible you would have to learn it there because the preaching was
becoming more concerned with the political and social issues of the day.
There was a need for planning all these activities, and ministers and church
staffs became very busy with all these activities. Everything was managed and
controlled by a committee, or by an overseer, or what would later be called a
senior minister. They would still have revivals -- all very planned -- from
some visiting revivalist star in order to get new members and to put
enthusiasm back into the existing members. There were certain times when the
people were allowed to respond to the Spirit. This was a very nice church if
you already had your act together, if you were healthy, if you could respond
to the pressure for tithing, and if you were a respected and desired member
of the community. If you had a real need for God, you weren't going to feel a
lot in these churches, and if you did you were out of place. Now, keep this
in mind, because this was what Brother Sowders had in mind when he made
references to "Babylon". The Holiness Movement Then some people got to
remembering how things use to be; just like those in this movement are
beginning to remember how things were in the days of Brother Sowders. Some
people were devastated by the Civil War. They found more comfort in that
old-time, circuit-riding religion. Right after the war, a revival took place
among the Methodist. In the tradition of the Methodist, an annual camp
meeting was begun at Vineland, New Jersey. This meeting was not led by the
now powerful and prosperous Methodist hierarchy; but they did not oppose the
Camp Meeting, and thought it would do the Methodist Church good if it brought
new enthusiasm and people into the church. At these camp meetings new
Holiness associations were formed, mostly by lay people. Those attracted to
the Holiness associations were interested in a higher life, and were
resisting the new worldliness coming into the Methodist church. Lay
associations were an old tradition in the Methodists church. After all, the
church itself began as lay classes in the Anglican Church. John Wesley had no
intention of founding a new church, and as long as he lived he remained in
the Anglican Church. When the Methodist bishops begin to try to tone down or
to oppose the activities of the Holiness associations some of these groups
begin to form their own churches, and called for others to come out of the
fallen Methodist church. The response of the Methodist leaders then became to
crush the Holiness associations with the Methodist church. "Come outerism" then became "crush outerism". When the Holiness trouble makers were
expelled, the Methodist leaders turned the camp meetings into summer
retreats. They made sure they didn't get too spiritual, and cause them
trouble again. This was the beginnings of most of the Holiness churches in
America. This includes all those churches who have "Church of God"
as part of their name, even those who later became Pentecostal. It also includes
the Nazerene Church, and all the churches which
have Holiness in their name. The Fire Baptized Way One of the new Holiness
leaders was Benjamin Hardin Irwin, a preacher in the Iowa Holliness
Association. Irwin discovered a new baptism after sanctification. Since
sanctification was the Spirit baptism following water baptism, this baptism
must be the one of fire. He influenced a lot of people both in the Midwest
and in the South. Those who followed him added a lot of new Holiness
restrictions such as coffee, tea, and pork. They also didn't believe in the
new neck ties, which men were beginning to wear. I believe that Brother
Aubrey was probably a Fire Baptized preacher. That is possibly where Brother
Sowders got his early teaching against neck ties. Despite all this
strictness, Irwin fell into sin. Before this, however, he had already taught
Parham that there might be some new baptisms. The Apostolic Faith
of Charles Parham Charles Parham, the apostle
of Pentecostalism, also had his beginnings in the Methodist Church; and with
the separated Holiness associations. Parham was interested in a lot of things
including healing, prophesy and the return of Christ, and helping the poor.
He called his movement the Apostolic Faith, and the apostolic name has stuck
with Pentecostals ever since. What made Parham important to the Pentecostals
was that he was a theologian actively studying practical Christianity. It was
Parham who associated tongues with the Baptism of the Holy Ghost and taught
people to seek this experience. This was in a school which he taught in
Topeka, Kansas. Agnes Ozman was the first person to
receive the new experience, around midnight on New Years
day, 1901. The association of the Baptism of the Holy Ghost with tongues --
an objective sign of a supernatural experience -- practically kept the new
baptism from being reduced to a formality. People didn't get it automatically
from laying on of hands of the priests or ministers. This was an important
step, and in 1901 Parham conducted a Holy Ghost revival in Kansas and
Missouri. The elder Brother William Pennock,
associated with Brother Sowders, received the baptism in Parham's first
revival. The Holy Ghost revival, however, subsided; and Parham went back to
his healing revivals. It is easier for people to see their need for bodily
healing than for spiritual transformation. Parham didn't quit teaching his
doctrine of tongues in his School of the Prophets, but his revivals had
largely turned to healing campaigns. It 1905, he received an
invitation to bring his revival to Orchard, Texas. This is near Houston.
Brother Pennock accompanied him on his trip to
Texas. That campaign got a lot of attention when a prominent woman in
Houston, who had been injured in a street-car accident, was miraculously
healed. Since everyone in the town knew her condition, her healing created quiet a sensation. Parham also taught his school there in
Texas, and it was in this school that William Seymour heard the message about
the link between tongues and the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Seymour was a
black man. In accordance with the custom of his day, Parham was much
prejudiced against blacks, but in Houston he allowed William Seymour to
listen in on his school where he was teaching the doctrine of tongues
baptism. Azuza Street After a time, Seymour
decided to take this teaching to a contact of his in Los Angeles. He was
invited to preach in a Holiness church in Los Angeles, but when he began to
teach Parham's doctrine of tongues as the evidence of the Holy Ghost, the
doors of that mission were closed to him. He was then invited to preach at a
house in the Los Angeles slums. There, in that house, broke out the greatest
revival of modern times. The outbreak of tongues and other strange phenomena
caught the interest of local reporters at the Los Angeles news paper. This
brought a lot of people to the house, so soon the revival was moved to a
livery stable on Azuza Street. Church leaders and
other individuals in the area begin to go to Azuza
Street and check out the revival. Some of them opposed the revival, and some
of them supported the revival. Either way, the revival got a lot of
attention. The revival in Los Angeles was a lot more accessible to national
and international travelers than Parham's revival in Kansas. Soon reports of
the revival spread all over the nation and all over the world. For three
years, between 1906 and 1909, seekers and other interested parties traveled
to Los Angeles to observe or receive the new experience of baptism with
tongues. They carried their experience and understanding back with them, and
begin to propagate the Pentecostal revival that would become the fastest
growing religious movement in history. Azuza Spreads to the Midwest In the lower Midwest the
revival was spread through the evangelistic efforts of two women from Saint
Louis, "Mothers" Mary Gill Moise and Leanore Barnes. Mother Moise
had a "faith home" for wayward girls, drunks, prostitutes, and
other social outcasts, for which she was awarded first prize in the 1904
World's Fair. She open her mission to the new
Pentecostal evangelists. Mother Barnes gained notoriety in Thayer, Missouri
in 1909, when hoodlums threaten to kill her. Instead of getting killed, she
gained hundreds of converts to the new baptism experience. It was probably
these two sisters who conducted the revival near Vienna, Illinois in 1909 at
such place and time that Bob Shelton received the Baptism of the Holy Ghost.
He then hurried to Olmstead, Illinois to his brother's house. Before he
reached the porch, he shouted to Bye Shelton, "I have just received the
baptism taught in Acts 2:4, with the evidence of speaking in tongues!"
So in their home on the banks of the Ohio, River they started a new mission.
Soon these brothers and their wives were joined by Frank Knight and Brother
Aubrey and their wives. Brother Aubrey had a gospel boat. This was the
beginning of "that little church", which was so precious to Brother
Sowders. |
