3
Acting
more like a Denomination
1905 was a turning point year for the organization that would become The
Martin
Wells Knapp was dead (1901) and Seth Rees had resigned as General Superintendent
(1905) moving back to Chicago where he launched a ministry to prostitutes then
later moved west continuing his revival preaching especially among a new
vibrant denomination (the Church of the Nazarene). He eventually joined the
Nazarenes (1912) when became the first pastor of the newly formed University
Church of the Nazarene, at
Sixty year old George B. Kulp became the new General
Superintendent, 
replacing the 51 year-old Rees. Kulp
would serve for the next 16 years. Kulp made no speeches about being an
interdenominational movement. Rather, he aimed to turn the rag tag band of
independent entrepreneurs into a proper denomination. He would have some
success. Kulp had military experience[1]
and was known as an “old paths” conservative. Now renamed the International
Holiness Apostolic Union the new Manual included the objective “to
form local unions and Churches”(my italics) in order to “conserve the
Holiness work.” A series of “covenant”
questions were approved for new members which included the typical lifestyle
issues of the day: attending church, giving to the church and to the poor,
personal and family devotions, just dealings with others, discharging debts
faithfully, avoiding tattling, backbiting, and frivolous conversation, and the
usual prohibitions of the day: tobacco, alcohol, gambling, dances, shows,
theaters, horse-races, and base-ball games.[2] The new seven-member General Board (called
then the General council) included none of the original founders. The General
Conference (then called the General Assembly) included all the General
leaders, every DS, and one pastor and lay person from each church. All other
ministers got a voice though not a vote.
The come-out question
The most pressing question of the day for holiness people
was the “Come-out question.” What should holiness people do—stay in their home
denominations and be “Holiness leaven” or “come out from among them and be ye
separate[3]”
organizing their own holiness denominations. By the middle teens those who
determined to stay in their home denominations drifted away from the union. Those
convinced “coming out” was the right answer swelled the ranks of the
“denomination.” The independent spirit continued within the new denomination
for many years even as it coalesced into the structure of a denomiantion. There
still was no headquarters and scant centralized publications and even the
General Superintendent received no salary until about 1915.
Bible Schools
You might think that a fledgling denomination would need no
other Bible school than God’s Bible School in
Publications
The primary magazine (unofficially) of the new denomination
continued to be the Revivalist published in association with God’s Bible
School, but the entrepreneurial spirit affected publishing too. Besides the Revivalist
there was The Apostolic Visitor published in
Missions
Meanwhile the denomination launched all kinds of advances in
missions. A missions board was founded and new missions were sent out. Mrs.
Knapp continued her husband’s missionary zeal and raised significant suns
through the Revivalist. New converts from the
Size
Pilgrims never were good at counting. Many churches kept no
attendance records at all, preferring rather to ask, “How have your services
been going.” They were more interested in the presence of God in their services
than the presences of heads. Thus, nobody knows for sure how many members the
movement had in 1905. However, by 1906 they listed 74 churches, 145 ordained
ministers and 2744 members. By 1906 they had a greatly expanded Manual. Twelve
months later they had added another hundred ministers.[5] The movement was looking more and more
like a denomination
Not-yet-Pilgrims
By 1919, for all practical purposes the International
Holiness Apostolic Union looked a lot like a denomination. It walked like a
duck and quacked like a duck so it must indeed be a denomination. But actually,
even with all the structuring and organization, the movement still had lots of
“movement consciousness.” There were denominational leaders and denominational
publications but these ran in concurrently with similar independent
publications, Bible schools and independent regional leaders. It would take
fifty more years to finish Kulp’s work of fashioning a collection of independent
cowboys into a “proper denomination.” But Kulp’s early organizational work
would set the stage for the next era—a time of “mergers and acquisitions.” Through these coming mergers the Pilgrims
would merge with no less than eight other denominations, getting a fresh influx
of leaders and a new name. They would get Seth Rees back from the Nazarenes.
So what do you think?
During the first few
weeks, click here to comment or read comments
Keith Drury
To think about….
- The role of founders in a second-stage organization.
- Why did Rees leave leadership at age 51?
- The wisdom of organizing an interdenominational work
into a denomination.
- The come-out movement and its role in later come-out
movements from the come-outers.
- How to tap the vitality and growth of independent
entrepreneurialism.
- The role of
- Counting heads vs. asking about God’s presence in
services.