CHURCH OF GOD

A PUBLICATION OF THE HAL BERNARD DIXON JR. PENTECOSTAL RESEARCH CENTER

When they r$used to Ict MS preuclz WC invited the congregakn to come OUT in tk big road inJront of the tubenzncle where we preached with much liberty. We curie out singing WJ~ile tlzc Yecl1:o Roll On. TJle powerJell, the sninls begtin lo slzoul, dance und tall? in IoI?pes.

vangelist Sallie 0. Lee (cu. 1874-1949) and her evangelis- tic team had arrived in

Calhoun, Georgia, expecting to wor- ship in the local union tabernacle. In 1915, the Church of God owned very few buildings and often relied on p~h- lit Facilities when they were available, a tent if they could afford one, or a brush arbor if the weather permitted. But in Calhoun the trustees ol the tabernacle refused their request because Church ol God people were known for disturbing the neighbor- hood wherever they went. Undaunted, the evangelistic team moved to the road and later to a mill shed, where Lee reported that worshippers saw supernatural fire in their services2

Such occurrences were not unusual for Lee, who frequently wrote to the Church of Gall Evangel about being in the battle for the Lord. According to her Evungel obituary, Lee helcl an evan- gelists license [or thirty-seven years, retiring from minist:ry in 1934. Evangel subscribers frequently read her reports of evangelistic activities, prayer requests and church doctrine.

Ammarilous Lorena Jane Cotton (1855-1933) received her evangelists license on January 29, 1911, at the

Fulton Springs, Alabama, Church ol God. I-Icr ministerial ccrtifcnte autho- rized her Lo publish[ ,] preach and dcknd the gospel of Jesus Christ as taught by rhc Holy Apostles. W&en bencath this authorization were the words and is rccommendecl to the love and kllowsl4p 0T tlx saints.

C0tt011 W:IS :I prolik writer for the Evangc~l with no less than lorry articles published between 1.9 14 and 1.930. Thcsc includccl reports ol her own minislly, the activities d olher minis- ters, clcscriptions of camp meetings and Assemblies, and numerous articles on various thcologicnl topics.

evangelistic Learn. Somclimes 11x! rem1 WlNllCl be two 01

more wometi; olhcr times it would incluck one or more married couples. MLICII olher ministry was conclLlctccl in a tent, although she would &II. visit

churches between her tent meetings. Ikquently Cotton stayed in the sake location until there was enough sup- pm to call in a male minister to bap- tizc converts and set :I Church or God in ordcc For example, on one occa- sion she preached in sarcty Harbor, Flolicla, for live weeks.

III 191.5, L~lla L. Jones (1881- 196 1.) nppcaled to Evarzj$ readers to pray that she could bc kcttcl kom some ol Lhc cares oI life in order lo enter cvangclistic work. About that time she assisted Lorenn Cotton in the work at Salcty Harbor, Florida. Three months lntcr she wrote again, There are so ninny calls liar laborers. How I

ong to bc out in the vineyard to my, li)r I cl0 not want Lo bc idle when Jesus comes.

God answered Jones 1 prayer, Reporting a five-

week meeting in I-Iudson, Plorida, two years later, she exclaimed, I am praising

HISTORY AND HERITAGE * Page 2

out in the great harvest: field which truly is white. In her thirty years of ministry Jones planted and served as pastor of nine churches, and she reportedly pioneered another nine of which she did not remain as pastor. Licensed as an evangelist in 1916, she preached 1,634 sermons as a Church of God minister.*

Responding to the Call Lee, Cotton, and Jones are exam-

ples of many women who responded to the call of God and the Church of God to enter the harvest field. General Overseer A. J. Tomlinson and other Church of God leaders believed that the outpouring of the Holy Spiril was evidence. that Jesus would return soon. An urgent call went out for both men and women to win the losr in these last days.

0, God, give us an army of men and women who will fear nothing but God. Set them on fire with such holy zeal thal no cries of fanaticism, delusion of the devil, manifestations of lhe flesh, or anything else will check the fervor or impede the progress until this glorious gospel is heralcled to rhe utCerrnost parts of the earth; and the full blaze of Pentecostal power, with all the signs, wonders and divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost are ablaze and uti- lized for the glory of God, as at the beginning of the blessed glori- ous gospel Age.

This acceptance of women in the min- istry was remarkable for,che time. When the Minutes first listed the names of ministers in 191.3, 12.2 percent were women. This peaked at around 18.2 percent in 1950.La

Total equality between male and female ministers has never existed in the Church of God, however. In 1908, the General Assembly excluded women from ordination as deaconesses because the Assembly could not find an example of the ordination of female

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ministers in the New Testament. Additionally, by 19 1.0, Tomlinson

had effectively excluded women from lydrticipating in any of the business or official activilies of the church. When explaining Pauls commcnls regarding women keeping silence in the church, Tomlinson defined church as gov- ernment. Thus, accorcling to Tomlin- son, Paul proh.ibited women from par- ticipating in business meetings rather than prohibiting them from preaching in a worship service. Let the goocl sis- ters feel at perfect liberty to preach the gospel, pray for the sick or well, testifx exhort, etc., but humbly hold them- selves aloof from taking charge of the governmental affairs.12 Clearly, the

Church d Gods acccplmce of women ministers was within certain under- sloocl cultural and ecclesiastical boundaries.

Interestingly, Tomlinsons interpre- tation was not the only position avail- able to the Church of God. The holi- ness rradibn included other ways of interpreling the Scriptures regarding women. Many, such as Luther Lee and

---See WOMEN, page 5 **.11.1....,.

BY TATIANA GORBACHEVA

ora I. Clyambers was a pio- neer in Church of God ~UCI- tion. Selected by the Elder LO

be the first Bible Training School teacher, she answered. the challenge of the infant denomination. Her faithful- ness to her calling resulted in trained ministers who won many to the 1-0~1.

Chambers ministerial experience and educational training made her an obvious choice as teacher for the fledgling school. She had studied at what is now Holmes College of the Bible in Greenville, South Carolina. In 1911 with a group of students she started preaching holiness in the mountains of North Carolina and Ge0rgia.l Life in the mountains was poor, and the people worked hard to feed their large families. Sunday ser- vices, usually at Baptist or MethoclisL churches, were perhaps the most entertaining part of everyday li Ie: Being far from Lhe cities, people in Lhe mountains had not heard about holi- ness. Therefore, they responded to the groups preaching with violent pcr- seculion because they believed it was tearing up their churches. In an interview with The Lighkd Parhwy, Chambers testified: Persecution began and became worse and worse until. the Lorcl said, Its enough . . We were stoned many times, poisoned, and fired at. One of the band was beaten until he became unconscious, , , , But God revealecl Himself to us in many ways . ~ . . It was a difficult time, but later looking back on her life, Chain- bers observecl that in these two years of persecution, God was dearest to me.5

The call to preach the gospel that Nora Chambers felt in her early years

gave her a lik-long zeal for the evan- gelistic ministry, bLtt WC know vcly lit- tic about her preaching ministry One report in Lhc Evcvm~$ staled that the result of Llie ten-day mccling concluct- cd by Chambers and Siskr Sallie 0. Let in Spring llacc, Georgia, w;\s great victory and bkssing, and five 1~oplr rcccivccl Lhc Holy Ghost. WC also know that she was involved in mcct- ings al Crane llalcr near Calhoun, Georgia, and at CohuUa, Georgia. Nora Chambers nncl her husl~~~l Frccl Chamhcrs spent fourlcen years on Lhc bnLtlcGclcl assisL.ing various ministers in gospel work, but perhaps she is lxst known as the first Leacher d the Bible Training School.

In :I. c) I 0 Nora Chambers hccamc acquainted with the Church of God through EclwarclJohn Bochtner, one of the cvangclistic team mcnibcrs. Then when I?. G. Spurling convinced her l.hal lhc Church of God is the true Bible church she was happy Lo join the growing rlenominatiol~. By 1913 Chn&crs had movecl to Cleveland and was working as a proofrcadcr in the EvarqcZ office.

A. J. Tomlinson, general ovcrsecr of the Church of God, saw how ccluca- Lion could aid in preaching the gospel to the lost. However, he had to make addresses to the General Assemblies in 191 I, 1.914 nncl 1917 before the Assembly agreed to open the Bible Training School ,I2 It was not easy to find a location ancl funding for the school. But for Superintendent Tomlinson to find a teacher with for- mal training was nearly impossible. I) Nova Chambers was his choice to be the teacher of this first educational venture of the Church of God. She hacl

two years teaching cxpcricnce at Holmes Bible School at Altamont in South Carolina and was a creden- tialccl Church or God minister.

Despite her qualifications, Chambers expressed surprise at being selected as teacher, According to Chambers, when the general overseer said, Sister Chambers, you have been sclcctetl to teach the Bible Training School, and we want you to begin January 1. , she insisted that a man slioulcl be chosen ror that position, but finally conscntecl when all [her] sug- gestions met opposition. Thus, Chambers assumed Lhe responsibility as the first teacher of the Bible Trainin