At the 1927 General Council, the Assemblies of God considered a possible name change as one of two hot topics covered on the Council floor. Delegates also considered and adopted the formal constitution and bylaws of the Assemblies of God (which included several minor changes to the Statement of Fundamental Truths).
The Oct. 8, 1927, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel includes lively discussion of the reasons for a name change and, whether the AG was a denomination. Two years earlier, the 1925 General Council had rejected a proposed constitution and bylaws. A Revision Committee was formed to craft changes that would be more acceptable. In the process of making revisions, this committee explored the possibility of a new name.
J. Narver Gortner, the chairman of the committee, reported: “When the Revision Committee was looking for a name, we wanted to find one that would indicate what we are, one in harmony with our real character. And we all agreed that we are Pentecostal people. Then we are evangelical too, we believe in evangelization.”
The committee recommended changing the name “Assemblies of God” to “Pentecostal Evangelical Church.”
“For a long time there has been widespread dissatisfaction concerning the name by which we have been known,” Gortner said. He found precedence for a name change in Scripture, since God changed the name of Abram to Abraham, Sarai to Sarah, Jacob to Israel, and several others.
After continued discussion from a number of delegates, Harold Moss interjected.
“We as a people are evangelical, that is, we have a worldwide evangelistic program to get men and women saved through the blood of Jesus Christ,” Moss said. “But the name is not sufficient as there are other evangelical churches, so we need another name to draw a clear line of demarcation — Pentecostal Evangelical church. We are Pentecostal, thank God; and I am not ashamed.”
T. K. Leonard, who had originally suggested the name Assemblies of God in 1914, reminded everyone that “after days of meditation and trying to get an undenominational, nonsectarian name” the founders saw this as the “God-given name” for the Fellowship.
“When It was read to the audience, by one standing vote, unanimously, the whole body stood there and sang, ‘Praise God from whom all blessings flow,’ Leonard said. “And the whole house was filled with the power of God.”
The discussion of a possible name change went on for several days. At the close of the discussion, delegates decided to delay the suggested change until the next meeting of the General Council, to allow additional feedback and study on the matter. The constitution was adopted at the 1927 General Council, but not the name change. In the years since its founding, the name Assemblies of God had become familiar to the world at large. So with very little further discussion, when the General Council met two years later in 1929, the name Assemblies of God was retained and continues to be the name of the Fellowship, 109 years after its founding.
More information is available in the article, “The Assemblies of God: A Good Name,” in the fall 1994 issue of Assemblies of God Heritage.
The Pentecostal Evangel, “A Suggested Change of Name,” is on pages 5-7 and 9-10 of the Oct. 8, 1927, issue.
Also featured in this issue:
• “Continuous Revival,” by R.E. McAlister
• “A Fine New Church,” by Mae Eleanor Frey
• “God’s Call to Pentecostal Saints,” by Sara Coxe
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
Meyer Tan-Ditter (1896-1962) was an unlikely candidate to become an Assemblies of God evangelist and missionary. Born into an Orthodox Jewish home in London, England, Tan-Ditter abandoned his family’s strict religious standards when he reached adulthood. A gifted musician, he spent seven years playing in cabarets. He spent considerable time at race tracks, where he exercised horses. For nearly five years, he traveled the world in the British Naval Service and the American Merchant Marine. Tan-Ditter later described himself as living “the life of a sailor.” He spread his wings and imbibed deeply in the ways of the world.
A friendship with a Christian woman – known to history only as “Sister Wicks” – changed the trajectory of Tan-Ditter’s life. Wicks, knowing that the young man came from an observant Jewish background, began asking him about his childhood faith. At first, he resented her questions. He was not interested in discussing religion. Furthermore, his family had taught him to distrust Christians.
Wicks continued to show esteem for both Tan-Ditter and for Jewish traditions. Over time, he opened up to her. She asked about his thoughts regarding the identity of the Messiah, but she carefully refrained from mentioning the name of Jesus. Her inquiries sparked questions in Tan-Ditter’s mind. He was already very familiar with the Talmud and the Torah, and he began to suspect that it could be possible that the Messiah had already come.
One night while staying at his parents’ home, something jostled Tan-Ditter awake. He was startled to see a glow with a bright lighting shining in his eyes. The longer he stared at the light, the clearer it became. He soon realized that it was the face of Jesus Christ in the light! He jumped out of bed and ran into the kitchen, nervous and shocked.
His mother came into the kitchen and asked what was wrong. He was not sure what to say. His vision seemed to confirm what he already suspected – that Jesus could be the Messiah. He knew that his family would disown him if he confessed this belief. Finally, he told her that he had just seen Jesus in a vision.
Tan-Ditter’s mother began weeping, thinking that her son must be either crazy or apostate. Rumors circulated about his vision. A little while later his father asked, “What is this I hear? I hear you are becoming a Christian.” Tan-Ditter answered, “I am not becoming one, I have been one for three weeks.” His father immediately kicked his son out of the house and asked him to never return. The local Jewish community ostracized him, and people would come up to him on the streets and mockingly ask him to describe what Jesus looked like. Following Jesus would be costly.
Sister Wicks provided a room for the 25-year-old homeless convert and encouraged him to seek God in prayer. For 10 days, Tan-Ditter spent extended times of prayer on his knees. He asked God to show him whether Isaiah chapter 53 does indeed refer to Jesus. His vision of Jesus as Messiah held fast. His father brought him to two rabbis, who cross-examined the young man. But he held his vision of Jesus close to his heart, and the rabbis could not shake his faith.
Tan-Ditter received another vision. This time he saw an angel carrying a large book come into his room. The angel told him to eat the book, which he did. The next morning he awoke with a great hunger to share the message of Jesus Christ with the Jewish people. This vision propelled Tan-Ditter toward a life of ministry to the Jewish people.
To prepare for this calling, Tan-Ditter attended two Assemblies of God schools. He initially enrolled at Beulah Heights Bible Institute in North Bergen, New Jersey (now University of Valley Forge). After one year, he transferred to Bethel Bible Training School in Newark, New Jersey (which in 1929 merged into Central Bible Institute/Central Bible College, and is now Evangel University). He graduated in 1922, was ordained as an Assemblies of God evangelist in 1924, and married Alice Laura French in 1926. Together, they served in pastoral ministry and became well-known musical evangelists and missionaries.
The Tan-Ditters served as missionaries to the Jewish people in the United States until Meyer’s death in 1962. Alice passed away in 1975. The couple did not have children.
Meyer Tan-Ditter’s testimony illustrates several themes in Pentecostal history. Many early Pentecostal converts testified that signs and wonders drew them to faith. Likewise, Tan-Ditter’s vision confirmed, in his mind, that Jesus was the Messiah. Early Pentecostals also often found that serving Jesus was costly. And Tan-Ditter was not the only early Pentecostal whose Jewish background and knowledge of Hebrew Scripture proved to be a strong foundation for Pentecostal faith. Myer Pearlman, the noted Assemblies of God systematic theologian from the 1920s through the 1940s, had a similar testimony. The Assemblies of God, mirroring the Book of Acts, proved fertile ground for both Jews and Gentiles.
Read Meyer Tan-Ditter’s obituary on page 23 of the Sept. 30, 1962, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel.
Also featured in this issue:
• “Open Doors in the Congo,” by Gail Winters
• “Dedicated to Sacrifice,” by Anthony Sorbo
• “Pioneering among the Deaf and among the Hearing,” by Maxine Strobridge
Click here to read Meyer Tan-Ditter’s testimony, “How God Got Hold of a Jew,” published on page 8 of the Jan. 22, 1927, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel.
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
Fifty years ago marked the opening of the Assemblies of God Graduate School (AGGS, now Assemblies of God Theological Seminary). The Sept. 16, 1973, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel included a cover story about the launch of the school.
There was excitement in the air when the AGGS opened its doors for the first time. Approximately 450 guests attended an open house hosted by the school’s administration in July. Seventy-seven students enrolled in a special missions session over the summer and made initial use of the chapel, classrooms, library, and other facilities.
Over the next couple of months, a number of groups touring the national offices of the Assemblies of God (AG) were able to visit the school, which was located on the sixth floor of the Distribution Center on the back side of the complex. The school later expanded to include the fifth floor. The fall semester of classes started on Sept. 4, 1973.
Education has always been an important core value of the AG. However, AGGS was not launched overnight. Over several decades, AG leaders grew to realize that providing graduate school education in an AG context would aid the mission of the church. The growing trend for Bible college graduates to pursue graduate theological training was perhaps the greatest factor that led to the founding of AGGS. Increasing numbers of pastors, missionaries, and educators felt the need for advanced education in order to better fulfill their callings. In addition, after World War II, there was great need for military chaplains. The government required that chaplains hold a graduate degree from a seminary or divinity school in order to be endorsed. The endorsement of military and institutional chaplains became a strong motivator to establish a graduate education program within the AG.
The Educational Department of the AG, created in 1945, addressed the need for graduate level training. The first attempt at AG graduate training took place at Central Bible Institute. From 1951 to 1957, the school was called Central Bible Institute and Seminary. It featured a fifth-year degree (Th.B.). Beginning in 1958, that program was phased out, and the school then offered an M.A. in Religion. Due to inadequate funding and accreditation issues, the graduate level training ended in 1963. About this same time, Northwest Bible College (now Northwest University in Kirkland, Washington) began offering an M.A. which reverted to a Th.B. within one year.
Building on these initial degree programs, the concept of a graduate school on the national level was approved at the 1961 General Council. Part of its stated responsibilities included training for ministry in the United States and specialized training for foreign missionary service. It took a few years for plans to fall into place.
A preliminary constitution and bylaws was approved in May 1972. The school was incorporated in December 1972. It was first known as the Assemblies of God Graduate School. Since the school was established by the General Council, the general superintendent served as the school’s chief executive for the early years, and the president of the school went by the title of executive vice president.
Cordas C. Burnett was named the first executive vice president of the school, serving under General Superintendent Thomas F. Zimmerman. Burnett laid the groundwork for the infrastructure of the school, helping to get it established on the sixth floor of the Distribution Center of the AG national office. He also drafted academic policies, course descriptions, and other necessary documents.
In August 1984, the school changed its name to the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary (AGTS). In March 1996, the school broke ground for a new building on the northeast corner of the Evangel University campus. The new AGTS building was dedicated in September 1997. In 2013, as part of a consolidation of residential schools in Springfield, AGTS became the embedded seminary of Evangel University.
In the past 50 years, additional Pentecostal graduate school programs have been established, helping to meet the growing need for education within the Pentecostal tradition. However, AGTS is the only national Assemblies of God seminary and, with over 200 students pursuing doctoral degrees in theology, ministry, and missiology, it has one of the largest doctoral programs among peer seminaries. Thousands of AGTS graduates have served as pastors, educators, missionaries, chaplains, and in numerous other fields around the world. AGTS has become both a training ground and a proving ground for servant leaders in the Assemblies of God.
To learn about the opening of the Assemblies of God Graduate School, read “A/G Graduate School Officially Opened on September 4” on page 29 of the Sept.16, 1973, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel.
Also featured in this issue:
• “The Bible Evidence of the Baptism of the Spirit,” by Smith Wigglesworth
• “One is Taken; One is Left,” by Stanley M. Horton
Photo caption: First graduating class of AGGS; June 27, 1974. Front (l-r): Douglas Banks, John Watkins, Dexter Higgins, Cordas C. Burnett (Executive Vice President), Marcella Dorff, Thomas F. Zimmerman (President), and James E. Richardson. Back (l-r): Charles Lamson, Jimmy Powers, Stanley Wayne, Roderic Butterworth, Robert Elam, and Terrance R. Lewis. Missing: Donald Hohmann.
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
When most Christians share the gospel, they do so through words or actions. But Charles Ramsay (1911-1994) preached using cartoons, and for 43 years his pulpit was the Pentecostal Evangel.
Ramsay grew up in Minnesota and, pursuing his love for art, attended the Chicago Art Institute. Yielding to a call to the ministry, in 1935 he enrolled at Central Bible Institute, the Assemblies of God school in Springfield, Missouri. To help make ends meet, he began working part time at Gospel Publishing House (GPH). A gifted artist, Ramsay was asked to create weekly cartoons for the Pentecostal Evangel and the Adult Sunday School Quarterly.
Ramsay began working full time for GPH after he finished college, and his cartoons became a well-loved feature in the Pentecostal Evangel for decades to come. Ramsay was the leading Christian cartoonist of his era, according to Vaughn Shoemaker, chief cartoonist for the Chicago Daily News. “Every one of his cartoons,” Shoemaker stated, “is equivalent to a sermon. It will never be known in this world just how far his cartoons have gone in extending the kingdom of our Lord.”
In 1955, Ramsay accepted a position as head of the art department at Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association. He moved to Tulsa but continued creating cartoons for the Pentecostal Evangel until 1978. He began teaching art at Oral Roberts University when the school opened in 1965, and was a leader in the Tulsa arts community.
When Ramsay passed away in 1994, the Assemblies of God lost its best-known cartoonist. Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center Director Wayne Warner memorialized him, writing: “Now Charlie’s ink pens have been laid aside. He has autographed his last creative work. He has met his last deadline. Few will remember his preaching or writing, but multitudes remember his distinctive ink drawings and paintings that in the words of Vaughn Shoemaker were ‘equivalent to a sermon.'”
For decades, one or two Ramsay cartoons could be found in each issue of the Pentecostal Evangel. However, the Sept. 12, 1936, issue, dedicated to Sunday School and ministry to children, featured 20 of his cartoons.
Also featured in this issue:
• “Does Your Bible Wear Out Evenly?” by Myer Pearlman
• “The Living Word in the Written Word,” by Alice E. Luce
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
Hardy W. Steinberg (1918-1993) served the Assemblies of God as pastor, evangelist, and district youth director but is most remembered for two things: his preaching ministry and his role in educational administration.
Born in 1918 in China to Pentecostal missionary parents Edgar and Ida Ziese Steinberg, he grew up speaking three languages – English, Chinese, and German. In 1923, the Steinberg family returned to the United States to secure a better education for Hardy and his three sisters.
From an early age, Steinberg had a conviction of the call of God to ministry. Following high school, he attended Central Bible Institute in Springfield, Missouri. As part of his education, he developed early preaching skills at an outstation in Nichols, Missouri, playing his trumpet and honing his understanding of the needs of the local church.
In 1939, during his last semester of Bible school, he received an unexpected call from Harry Bowley, who was pastoring in Coffeyville, Kansas, and wanted a young man to help him in the ministry there. After his time in Kansas, Steinberg served pastorates in Wisconsin, Illinois, and Missouri. In 1942, he invited Frances Hatfield to join him in family and ministry life.
While pastoring in Galesburg, Illinois, Steinberg received a call from the dean of his alma mater, W. I. Evans, asking him to consider a position on the faculty at Central Bible Institute. He served in that position from 1946-1949 when he accepted the invitation to serve as president of Great Lakes Bible Institute in Zion, Illinois, a school owned by the Illinois district. He led that school until it merged with Central Bible College in 1954.
During this time, the presidents of the Assemblies of God schools formed an Education Committee to discuss the needs of higher education. Steinberg’s abilities to understand the demands of Pentecostal education led him to be named as secretary of the Education Department of the Assemblies of God in 1959. He served in leadership in the administration of Assemblies of God higher education for more than 30 years, retiring from the national office in 1986. During this time, he oversaw the publication of educational literature and had responsibility for providing leadership to the endorsed Christian day schools, institutes, colleges, and seminaries.
When asked about his work in higher education in 1971, Steinberg remarked, “Assemblies of God educators feel as called to their classroom much as a pastor feels called to the pastorate. There is nothing like being in the classroom, having one generation of students after another come through. In a matter of just a few years, you have friends all over the country and around the world. You can go almost anywhere, and a former student comes up and will slap you on the back and say, ‘Hi Teach, it’s good to see you again.’ It’s amazing.”
In addition to his administrative role, Steinberg also proved to be an excellent writer and editor, editing the national ministerial magazine for ministers, Pulpit (precursor to Influence magazine), which was published from 1958 to 1965.
Thomas F. Zimmerman, who served as general superintendent of the Assemblies of God from 1959 to 1985, felt that the Fellowship needed a publication focusing on the moving of the Holy Spirit. Many people without Pentecostal backgrounds were coming into Assemblies of God churches in the 1960s, and there was need for more in-depth scholarship and written resources on the Holy Spirit.
In 1967, Steinberg was tasked with the creation of Paraclete, a periodical that focused on the work of the Holy Spirit and gave a theological framework to many people both inside and outside the Pentecostal movement who were interested in knowing more about the working of the Spirit.
Despite his gifting as an able administrator, when Steinberg retired, his colleagues most remarked of his abilities in the pulpit. During his time of leadership, Steinberg was in demand not just at college meetings but at district councils, camp meetings, national conventions, and in local churches. Many of his sermons were reprinted in the Pentecostal Evangel, including one in the Sept. 8, 1963, issue titled, “Who Needs the Faith for Healing?” His organizational skills come across in each of his sermons as they logically progress from one point to the next.
After his retirement from the national office in 1986, Steinberg continued to minister both in the pulpit and in the lectern, including teaching students about “Improving Your Pulpit Ministry” at the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary. He passed away in Springfield, Missouri, in 1993 at the age of 75.
Read one of Hardy Steinberg’s sermons, “Who Needs the Faith for Healing?” on page 2 of the Sept. 8, 1963, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel.
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
Retired United States Navy Chaplain David W. Plank represents many of the courageous and hardworking military chaplains in the Assemblies of God. Chaplain Plank served in the United State Navy in war and in peace, on foreign shore and home shore, and as an enlisted man and an officer.
Plank was born and raised in Pasadena, California. In 1956 he became the 19th Assemblies of God minister serving at that time in the Armed Forces Chaplaincy. He was assigned to the U.S. Navy. He served in various posts and achieved the rank of commander. For his service aboard the USS Hancock (CVA-19) during combat operations in Vietnam, Plank received the Navy Commendation Medal for “outstanding spiritual guidance…giving strength and fortitude to officers and men facing great peril…dynamic professional competence…loyal devotion to duty in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.”
In addition to his military career, he attended the University of California-Berkeley, Fuller Theological Seminary, Hoover Institute, and Harvard (where he was selected for postgraduate studies through an award given to one chaplain annually).
After completing postgraduate studies at Harvard Divinity School in May 1968, he was assigned to work as an Assemblies of God chaplain at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland (which included the Navy University and the Navy Cathedral). He joined two other Protestant chaplains in providing a religious minister to the over 4,000 midshipmen at the Navy’s premier academy for graduates dedicated to a career in the naval service.
Upon starting his duties, he received an interesting handwritten letter from Don Ross, a football coach at the Naval Academy. Ross wrote, “I just learned of your assignment here. May I say you are an answer to prayer.” Ross told how he had been a Christian for many years, but had felt that something was lacking in his life. After a time of prayer, he and his wife, Carol, experienced the infilling of the Holy Spirit.
Ross’s letter continued: “There is a real movement among the midshipmen … I can think of no better place for a chaplain than at our Academy.” He offered to assist Plank in any way possible with his duties as chaplain. He was excited to have a Spirit-filled chaplain at Annapolis.
Plank’s tour at Annapolis was three years. Soon after his arrival, he reported: “It is thrilling to witness here the clear evidence of the Holy Spirit’s working, to be joined by Christian brethren of kindred spirit, to realize that at this institution midshipmen are being trained not only in the naval science, but in godliness as well.”
Plank was serving in the Navy Chaplains Office at Camp Pendleton, California, when he retired from active duty on Jan. 1, 1977.
During his military career, Plank worked with many men and women around the globe, whose lives were changed by the Holy Spirit and went on to direct prayer meetings, open churches, and lead through their Christian example. Plank produced a manual for deacons, an altar workers manual, Called to Serve (GPH, 1967), and other books and articles for various publications.
Following his term in the Navy, Plank pastored two churches and for 14 years was the chaplain for the Army and Navy Academy in Carlsbad, California. Some of his duties included counseling, offering bereavement support, and officiating at funerals and weddings.
One of Plank’s treasured mementos is a government issued stapler which was personally given to him by Admiral Chester Nimitz, who is remembered for directing the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Fleet to victory during World War II. He also has an autographed photo of Nimitz signing the Japanese surrender in 1945 aboard the USS Missouri.
While he is proud of his friendship with Admiral Nimitz, what has mattered the most to him is serving others and sharing the love of Christ through his many years as a military chaplain and pastor. He felt that his position at the U.S. Naval Academy, as well as each of his other assignments and places of ministry were strategically directed by the hand of God.
Read, “God’s Strategic Naval Assignments,” by David W. Plank on pages 10-11 of the Sept. 1, 1968, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel.
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
Carl M. “Daddy” Hanson (1865-1954), a spiritual father to many early Pentecostals on the northern Great Plains, earned his Pentecostal stripes on both sides of Azusa Street. He experienced the Pentecostal distinctive of speaking in tongues in the 19th century, and he became an early leader in the Assemblies of God in the first half of the 20th century.
The son of Norwegian immigrants to Minnesota, Hanson was converted while a student at Augsburg Seminary and became an evangelist affiliated with the Scandinavian Free Mission (now known as the Evangelical Free Church). The Scandinavian Free Mission, in the 1890s and early 1900s, witnessed a significant revival in which many people experienced salvation, healings, and biblical spiritual gifts such as speaking in tongues.
This revival made a deep impression on Hanson, who himself was healed of a terminal illness in 1895. A short time later, he held services in Grafton, North Dakota, where people had a great hunger for God. There, he saw a young Norwegian girl, enraptured in the presence of God, speak in a language she had not learned. Hanson pondered what it meant, studied Scripture, and came away convinced that that the prophecy in Joel 2:28 was coming true before his eyes: “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions.”
Hanson continued as an itinerant evangelist. His daughter, Anna Berg, recalled, “My father began giving testimony wherever doors were open to him: in churches, schoolhouses, homes, and missions. The response was amazing. Everywhere people were saved. This was usually followed by a consuming desire for more of God’s power in their lives.”
In about 1899, Hanson received the gift of speaking in tongues. In 1904, he opened a rescue mission in Minneapolis, where he sought to give physical and spiritual help to those who were drunken, homeless, and destitute. He traversed the region, raising support and seeking young people to work with him at the mission.
Hanson soon identified with the emerging Pentecostal movement in Chicago, which had its roots in the 1906 Azusa Street revival in Los Angeles. Chicago Pentecostal leader William Durham ordained Hanson in 1909, and Hanson transferred his ordination to the Assemblies of God in 1917. In 1922, when the Assemblies of God organized churches and ministers in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and the Dakotas into the North Central District, participants unanimously elected Hanson to serve as the district’s first chairman.
Hanson and his wife, Mathilda, had 13 children, two of whom became Pentecostal missionaries. Esther M. Hanson served at L.M. Anglin’s orphanage in China, and Anna C. (Mrs. Arthur F.) Berg served in Belgian Congo prior to pastoring in Sisseton and Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Former Assemblies of God General Superintendent G. Raymond Carlson also traced his family’s Pentecostal experience back to Hanson’s ministry. It was in Carlson’s maternal grandparents’ home in Grafton, North Dakota, that Hanson first saw someone speak in tongues.
Hanson’s story reminds us that the modern Pentecostal movement emerged from a variety of sources. Revivals at Topeka and Azusa Street may have been two of the most visible focal points of early 20th-century American Pentecostalism, but prior revivals, including those among Scandinavian settlers in the northern Great Plains, provided precedents and leaders for the emerging movement.
The Pentecostal Evangel published a memorial tribute to Hanson on page 12 of the Aug. 22, 1954, issue.
Read more about Hanson in the article, “Carl M. Hanson: Scandinavian Harbinger of Pentecost,” in the Spring-Summer 2006 issue of Assemblies of God Heritage magazine.
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
Joseph Reynolds Flower (1913-2010), the oldest son of J. Roswell Flower and Alice Reynolds Flower, had a long and distinguished ministry in the Assemblies of God. He is remembered as a pastor, district official, and as general secretary of the Assemblies of God.
Joseph Flower was born in Indianapolis in 1913, one year before the founding of the Assemblies of God, and he often told people that he was born the same year as the start of the Christian Evangel, which later became the Pentecostal Evangel. His parents, J. Roswell and Alice Flower, were the founding editors of that publication, which was started in Plainfield, Indiana, just outside of Indianapolis.
Flower lived in St. Louis for two years and then moved to Springfield, Missouri, with his parents in 1918, where he attended elementary and junior high school. As a teenager he moved with his parents to Pennsylvania. While his father was superintendent of the Eastern District, the Flower family lived in Lititz, Pennsylvania, and Joseph attended Franklin and Marshall College for two years in nearby Lancaster.
Flower was preparing for a teaching career when he attended a camp meeting in western New York conducted by Charles S. Price. He said later, “It seems that God dealt with me in a special way at that camp meeting to go into the ministry.” In 1932 he enrolled in Central Bible Institute to prepare for the ministry. He graduated in 1934.
In the 1930s and early 1940s, Flower pastored or pioneered churches in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; Dansville, New York; and Buffalo, New York. One of the churches he helped found is now known as The Tabernacle in Orchard Park, a suburb of Buffalo, New York.
In the summer of 1936, 16-year-old Mary Louise Paige preached a tent revival in Buffalo, and this led Gordon Bender of Riverside Assembly of God to want to start a new church in South Buffalo. He asked Joseph Flower to pioneer this work. The church was started in a small, vacant lot across the street from a tire shop.
Salvaging lumber from a barn that was being torn down, Flower and Bender built a small building, starting with a basement. The congregation was still meeting in the basement when Joseph Flower left a couple years later. That church grew and prospered over the years and is now one of the strongest churches in Buffalo.
While pastoring the church in South Buffalo, Flower agreed to have a single female evangelist hold services. That evangelist was Mary Jane Carpenter, who later became his wife. Joseph and Mary Jane (Carpenter) Flower were married on June 6, 1940, during the New York/New Jersey District Council at Maranatha Park in Green Lane, Pennsylvania.
One interesting story is that on the way to their honeymoon, the couple stopped to visit the pastor at Dover-Foxcroft, Maine, who was Charles Greenaway. He had recently lost his wife and was grief-stricken. Joseph and Mary Jane decided to invite him to come to the campground where they were going for their honeymoon, and he could have his own cabin and get away for a while.
While at the camp, the two men ended up going fishing almost all day every day. Mary Jane was feeling left out, so some friends helped her to dress up like Pocahontas and get in a canoe to see if she could get her husband’s attention. The plan worked, and the men quit fishing for the day. After their time at the camp was over, both Joseph and Mary Jane were glad they could be a blessing to Greenaway after the loss of his wife.
Joseph Flower was ordained in 1943 by the New England District Council. Together, Joseph and Mary Jane pastored in Pottstown, Pennsylvania; Dover-Foxcroft, Maine; Melrose, Massachusetts; and Syracuse, New York. From 1953 to1954 Flower was assistant district superintendent of the New York-New Jersey district, and then served as New York district superintendent from 1954 to 1975.
Joseph followed in his father’s footsteps. J. Roswell Flower was the first general secretary, elected at the Hot Springs convention in 1914 and continued in that role for much of his life. Joseph Flower in turn served as general secretary from 1975 to 1993. During his time as general secretary, not only did he keep the minutes of the General Presbytery, Executive Presbytery, and General Council meetings, but he maintained the records of credentialed ministers and churches. He also responded to questions of doctrine and practice in the Assemblies of God.
Spending hours in careful and prolonged Bible study, Joesph took detailed notes on his studies and used them in writing articles for the Pentecostal Evangel as well as in his preaching and speaking. Some of his writings include “The Charismatic Movement,” “The Christian and His Money,” “The Christian’s Attitude Toward Intoxicating Drinks,” “Does God Deny Spiritual Manifestations and Ministry Gifts to Women?” “Holiness, the Spirit’s Infilling, and Speaking with Tongues,” “Initial Evidence: Maintaining Our Pentecostal Distinctive,” “The Purpose of Prophetic Utterance,” “The Relationship Between the Pastor and the Church Board,” “A Sign or Stumbling Block?” and “Why Tongues?”
Flower also served on various administrative committees and boards, including Northeast Bible Institute, Long Island Bible Institute, Central Bible College, Evangel University, the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary, and Commission on Chaplains. J. Roswell and Alice Flower started the Homemakers Sunday School class at Central Assembly of God (Springfield, Missouri) in 1937, and after their passing, Joseph and Mary Jane Flower led this class for several years. This class still continues, being taught by a family member, David Ringer.
Devoted to ministry, Flower went to great lengths to be compassionate to others. He often quoted Philippians 1:6, “Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
In looking back over his life, Joseph Flower once said, “I always felt that God was there behind the scenes controlling my destiny and being in charge of all the circumstances.”
Joseph Flower passed away in Springfield, Missouri, on March 29, 2010, at the age of 97. He and his wife are both buried in Greenlawn Memorial Gardens in Springfield.
Read Joseph Flower’s article, “Why Tongues?” on pages 5-7 of the Aug. 19, 1962, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel.
Also featured in this issue:
• “The Promise of the Father,” by Robert L. Brandt
• “Manifestations Do Profit,” by J. Robert Ashcroft
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
The Pentecostal Evangel, an official organ of the Assemblies of God from 1914 to 2014, often published reports of small revival services and camp meetings taking place around the country. These reports, like the towns in which they took place, were often easy to overlook. Yet a deep spiritual work was taking place in these meetings that affected lives and communities for more than a century.
One such report was given by traveling evangelist John McConnell in the June 28, 1919, issue when he wrote that he was leaving Ferndale, Washington, for a camp meeting in Harrington, Washington, a small and insignificant village of farmers not too far from Spokane. In November of that same year, McConnell again reported of a second Harrington camp meeting that saw reaching results with many saved and about 35 receiving the baptism in the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues, among them the pastor of a local Methodist church. He ends his report with, “The meeting closed with about 25 still seeking the Baptism. Pray for them.”
In the Aug, 7, 1920, Evangel, McConnell wrote that some of his associates were continuing with the camp meeting revival taking place at Harrington. This revival eventually impacted the breadth of Lincoln County, Washington, and saw the call of God on young lives that eventually filled the pulpits of Pentecostal and Assembly of God churches around the northwest region of the country.
But the revival didn’t have its roots in the McConnell campaigns. The real evangelist of what became known as the Lincoln County revival was a newspaper published by a small church in Los Angeles that was experiencing its own revival.
When the Azusa Street mission began publishing the Apostolic Faith paper in 1906, it was delivered to people hungry for a move of God all over the nation. In March of 1907, the Pittman family of Latah, Washington, was given a copy of this paper. The young daughter, Rose, was asked to read the paper aloud to the family after supper. While reading, Rose’s mother began to pray and repeat, “It’s the Lord.”
For the next few days, the events recorded in the paper were all the family could talk about. When they heard that a certain minister who had experienced the revival was coming to Spokane to conduct cottage prayer meetings, Mr. Pittman and a neighbor, Mr. Born, attended the meetings to see what it was all about. When they returned, Pittman was convinced it was a move of God after seeing Born receive the baptism in the Spirit and noting the working of the Holy Ghost in the meetings.
Mrs. Pittman and her daughters, along with a few others decided to go to Spokane the next Wednesday to attend the prayer meetings. When a neighbor called at the home on Tuesday night, they explained their journey of the next day. Before the neighbor left, Mrs. Pittman asked him to read from Scripture and lead in prayer. He took the Bible, read, and then said, “Let us pray and wait upon God until He does something for us.”
Just a few moments after he finished praying, Mrs. Pittman began to speak in tongues and the entire household was touched by the power of God. Rose, who had been skeptical to this point, prayed, “Lord, take everything, only let me have Jesus.” She also experienced the overwhelming power of the Spirit and began to speak in tongues.
The trip to Spokane was cancelled as they were experiencing their own Pentecost right there in Latah. Neighbors came the following night for a prayer meeting and five more people experienced the baptism in the Spirit in the Pittman home.
The fire soon spread to Edwall, Washington, where R.D. Streyfeller, a minister, was leading home prayer meetings. Some of the Latah group intermingled with the Edwall group and soon a Methodist Sunday School teacher named Ben Hoffman along with the Bursch family began to seek after a move of God in their community of Harrington.
After the devastating effects of the Spanish flu in 1918, it was decided that a camp meeting seeking for an outpouring of God’s blessing on their community was in order. Thus, evangelist John McConnell reported that he was going to Harrington to conduct a camp meeting in July 1919.
The camp was held on the property of the Bursch farm. Conditions were primitive with no running water, except a small stream. Kerosene lanterns provided light as there was no electricity and cooking facilities were a simple open pit. But people came from miles around, some from as far as Canada. The gifts of the Spirit were in evidence and many repented of sin and received Christ as Savior. Two young women held Bible studies for the children in the farmhouse teaching them the truths of Scripture and explaining what was happening to the grown-ups in the tent out in the pasture. McConnell did most of the preaching, although others also participated.
There was much opposition to the revival and a division between neighbors and friends over what was taking place concerned all involved. Yet those who had life transformation could not deny what they saw and experienced. It was finally decided that an indoor facility was needed, and an old schoolhouse was repurposed as a place of worship. Soon so many were coming that a larger building was needed.
People gave sacrificially, including one family who gave the money they had saved to buy their own house, in order that the Harrington revival had a place to continue. They soon began to reach out, assisting other churches in surrounding communities.
The Harrington church officially joined the newly formed Northwest District of the Assemblies of God under the leadership of J.S. Eaton during the period of 1922 to 1924. Growth continued and in 1937 the Harrington church building was dismantled to build a larger building just up Highway 28 in Davenport, where an Assembly of God church still exists today.
Like the 1919 Evangel announcement from McConnell, the small towns of eastern Washington would have been easy to bypass. Yet the Lincoln County Revival, sparked by one family reading testimonies from a single copy of the Apostolic Faith paper, made its way to Edwall, Harrington, Rocklyn, Peach, Wilbur, Coulee City, Hartline, and Davenport, Washington, changing lives and communities. Many of the early ministers and missionaries of the Northwest District of the Assemblies of God can trace their roots to this camp meeting revival.
Read McConnell’s announcement on page 10 of the Aug. 7, 1920, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel.
Also featured in this issue:
• “Questions and Answers,” by E.N. Bell
• “A Tribute to the Young Preachers,” by A.P. Collins
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
Assemblies of God missionary Ivan Voronaev (center) meets with new leaders of the Union on Christians of Evangelical Faith in Odessa, Ukraine (September 1926). Voronaev and countless other Slavic Pentecostals would later be imprisoned and martyred for their faith.
Following the Russian Revolution of 1917, the newly formed Soviet Union launched a campaign to eradicate Christianity within its borders. It relentlessly pursued a policy of militant atheism. Clergy were imprisoned or murdered, churches were demolished or converted to other uses, and an intensive propaganda campaign sought to convince people that Christianity was a harmful superstition. It was in this context of persecution that the Pentecostal movement among Slavs (peoples of the former Soviet Union) formed its identity.
The Pentecostal movement found fertile soil in Russia. Early evangelists, impacted by the Welsh Revival (1904-1905) and the Azusa Street Revival (1906-1909), first brought the Pentecostal movement to Russia a decade before the 1917 revolution. Prior to the revolution, the Orthodox church occupied a favored place in society and cooperated with the czarist government to persecute both political insurgents and religious minorities, including Pentecostals.
Following the revolution, communist government officials began persecuting their former persecutors, seeking to stamp out the Orthodox church. The government soon targeted other churches, including Baptists, Mennonites, Seventh Day Adventists, and Pentecostals.
While the Soviet Union ostensibly guaranteed its citizens the “freedom of religion,” this freedom only allowed individuals the right to believe and not the right to practice their faith. If Christians practiced their faith, they became lawbreakers and were subject to fines, imprisonment, or exile to Siberia.
Laws forbade Christians to hold church services, to provide religious instruction to their children, or to share the gospel. The government further marginalized Christians by excluding them from professional and government positions.
Gustav H. Schmidt, a pioneer Assemblies of God missionary to Poland, wrote a series of three articles, published in the Pentecostal Evangel in 1934, which described the suffering endured by Pentecostals in the Soviet Union.
Slavic Pentecostals developed a deep faith burnished by persecution. Schmidt wrote, “In those prisons and places of exile matured that heroism for Christ which shrinks from no difficulties.” The communists mistakenly believed they could quash the Christian faith by destroying church buildings and imprisoning pastors.
Prisons became the proving grounds for Christian leaders. According to Schmidt, “there were many thousands of true believers who had been trained in the school of suffering and persecution.”
These Pentecostals, Schmidt wrote, became “a valiant army of gospel workers through whose testimony and preaching a mighty revival soon swept over the vast plains of Russia.” By 1930, approximately 500 Pentecostal churches had been organized in Russia and Ukraine. Each convert to Christ knew that their decision would cost them dearly.
One of the most insidious Soviet plans, according to Schmidt, was the insistence that the government, and not the parents, be in charge of the education of the youth. Government schools, hostile to Christianity, attempted to undermine the faith of the parents.
Schmidt wrote, “A mother who sends her children to school knows that they will be taught to hate God, and Christianity will be presented to them in such a way as to make it appear ridiculous to them and this in an endeavor to cause them to despise the very idea of religion.”
Laws prohibited parents from providing religious teaching to their own children. But many Christian parents obeyed a higher law. Schmidt suggested that “a mother in Russia who loves Jesus Christ will, in spite of such rules, teach her child to pray and to live a life of respect and godliness.”
Teachers would ask young students, who were likely to tell the truth, whether their parents taught them about religion. In this way, many students unwittingly let the government know that their parents were committing treason.
Another attempt to destroy families and the freedom of conscience, according to Schmidt, was the collectivization of agriculture. Eighty percent of Russians lived on farms, so when the government took over all farms, it made farmers into slaves of the state. This was an attempt to “destroy the (peasant’s) home and rob him of his privacy.” Agricultural workers were forced to live in communal buildings, their children were taken away, and it was difficult for people to practice their faith without being noticed.
“In Russia the follower of Christ is constantly beset with trouble and is always in danger,” Schmidt recounted. “He has to be ready to be torn away from his loved ones any time, Bolshevik police will break into a home during the night, after twelve o’clock maybe and bid the husband, father, or son to accompany them, and with a bleeding and broken heart they bid their loved ones a hurried last goodbye.”
Prison sentences, consisting of hard labor, frequently lasted 10 or 20 years. Many died within several years due to malnutrition and disease.
Persecution separated consecrated believers from nominal Christians. Schmidt wrote, “Anyone who is zealous for Jesus in Russia is marked for arrest and this makes Christian activity hazardous. Therefore we find no half-hearted Christians in Russia . . . Such who are not fully consecrated will not be able to stand the strain for any length of time but will step over into the enemy’s camp.”
Despite great dangers confronting Christians, the Slavic church saw no shortage of leaders. Unpaid elders led the congregations, which met in homes. Elders took turns preaching and, when one was arrested, another took his place. Congregational leaders did not receive qualification from a Bible college (there were none), but from their willingness to suffer and die for Christ.
Soviet authorities predicted that every church would be destroyed by May 1, 1937. But Schmidt responded that the true church does not consist of buildings. There are “real Christians in Russia,” he wrote, and they “are dying for their faith . . . We know that the Bolshevists will never be able to destroy Christianity.”
Communist persecution not only failed to destroy Christianity; it helped to create a very strong and vibrant Pentecostal movement in the former Soviet Union. Today, there are over 1.2 million Pentecostals in the former Soviet Union in churches that are in a fraternal relationship with Assemblies of God World Missions.
Beginning in the late 1980s, when Mikhail Gorbachev began to allow persecuted religious minorities to emigrate, many put down roots in America. An estimated 500,000 Slavic Pentecostals from this recent wave of immigration now live in the United States. While most are in congregations that are either independent or loosely affiliated with one of several Slavic Pentecostal unions, many are deciding to join the Assemblies of God.
In 2002, several Slavic Pentecostal churches in California joined the Assemblies of God and formed the Slavic Fellowship, which provided both a structure for Slavs to organize themselves within the Assemblies of God and also representation on the Fellowship’s General Presbytery. In September 2008, the leaders of the Slavic Fellowship, in addition to other Slavic Pentecostals interested in affiliating with the Assemblies of God, came together in Renton, Washington, and organized the National Slavic District. The district gives greater strength and visibility to Slavic Pentecostals, both within the Assemblies of God and within the broader society.
The Slavs, with deep faith burnished by decades of persecution, are poised to provide leadership within the broader church. And their leadership could not have come at a better time, as they have already proven their mettle in a culture that is hostile to biblical values.
Read the series of three articles by Gustav H. Schmidt, “Bolshevism Battling Against Christianity,” in the following issues of the Pentecostal Evangel:
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
Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center 