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Pilgrim Holiness History -- 1936
“The Finch Dissention”
What do you do when your
denomination gets too liberal? Do
you stay in your denomination and try to work for a return to the conservative
paths or do you split off and start a new denomination? How far do things have to go before you’d be
willing to walk out with like-minded people to start something new? This was
the question Pilgrim preacher R. G. Finch and his followers faced in
R G. Finch was a
hot-hearted preacher who expected people to take their religion seriously. He believed in being completely sold out to God
which meant a Christian would be completely dead to the world and worldliness.
He had served as the General Superintendent of Foreign missions until 1930 when
the reorganization left him out of a denominational position. He took a newly
invented position of “General Evangelist” and went on the road preaching
revivals and camp meetings. There he called for a complete dying out to
carnality. But he found a lack of total commitment in the churches he visited
and saw worldliness creeping in. Trying to fight against this slippage he
organized “Prayer Conferences” across the church hoping to bring renewal and
revival. Many were packed with Pilgrim preachers as they too sought a revival
of old fashioned holiness preaching and living. Finch’s powerful preaching
placed heavy emphasis on “the death route” to entire sanctification—totally
dying out to the world through a period of self-renunciation and self
mortification. Some Pilgrim preachers were taking a more positive “take it by
faith” approach which offered sanctification through a simple prayer of
consecration and faith. Finch didn’t think it was that easy. He called for the
total mortification and crucifixion of the “old man” which took longer. Only
after anguished self-mortification and painful surrender did a complete “dying
out” happen. The resulting sanctified life would be one of total separation
from “worldliness” or even anything that hinted at the carnal lifestyle
prevalent in the world.
In this approach he was
not radically different from many other Pilgrims, but he and his followers were definitely more
conservative than many Pilgrims. For Finch the sanctified life was one of
strict separation. Some Pilgrim women (especially in places like
All denominations have a
spectrum of conservatives to progressives. Even among today’s “Conservative
Holiness movement” there is such a spectrum. In all denominations and
movements there are labels. The conservatives label the progressives “liberals”
while the progressives label the conservatives “legalists.” Sometimes they get along,
but eventually a controversy over something boils over and the conservatives
say “that’s far enough.” Then they sometimes split from the “liberal”
denomination. That is not exactly what happened with R. G. Finch, but it
resembles the situation. By 1933 Finch had taken a Pilgrim pastorate in
Denominational leaders
saw things differently. They saw
Finch’s traveling “prayer conferences” as a move to build personal support for
a separatist movement that would bring about an eventual “split” from the
Pilgrims.[3] They saw his “death route” to holiness as out of
sync with the denomination’s own doctrine. Denominational leaders heard that
Finch had consulted an attorney who had told him and his followers how they
could take the
The Emmanuel Missionary
Church split from the Pilgrims, and
continued their Bible school until 1995. The denomination continues to today
and was recently (March, 2009) featured in The Colorado Springs Gazette. Apparently the new group was not immune to its
own splits for there are actually two denominations that now exist—the
The Pilgrim splitters
from Methodism now faced their own splitters. Before 1930 the Pilgrims were gathering up new converts along with
splits and splinters from Methodism. Now they faced heir own split. As the
Nazarenes had faced the Rees’ succession, the Pilgrims now faced Finch. This
time the hot-hearted warrior was Finch and the moderates were the Pilgrim
leaders, who gained a bit more sympathy for the Nazarene leaders in
·
The
Colorado
District statement on the Finch dissention written to Pilgrims at large.
·
Daniel
Finch, grandson of R. G. Finch collection of R. G. Finch
excerpts, letters and bio.
·
Vangie Armiger response to the R. G. Finch story
To think
about….
1. What would it take for you to leave your denomination
causing a “split”? Where is your “line?”
What about your local church?
2. The Protestant notion that every person has a right to a
private judgment in the matters of religion seems to generate a “centrifugal force”
among Protestant denominations, with one splitting off another as they decide
their own convictions are right and their denomination is wrong. Yet even in
the new denominations that force seems to “split the splitters.” Protestants
split from the Catholics, then the Methodists split from the
Protestant/Anglicans. The Wesleyan Methodists, Free Methodists, Pilgrims and
Nazarenes were mostly a collection of splits and splinters from the Methodists.
Now the Immanuel Missionary Church split from the Pilgrims. Is this splitting
force good in that it brings vibrancy to the church or is it bad in presenting
a divided front to the world? Which of these splits were good and which were
bad?
3. Splitters who are successful are often considered
heroes—George Washington, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson are considered
“Founding Fathers” for splitting their country from the mother country. However
the country considered Jefferson Davis and the Southern Secessionists
treasonous. How is this? Orange Scott and Luther Lee are honored for splitting
the Wesleyan Methodists from the Methodists but Finch is considered mistaken
for splitting the Immanuel Mission Church form the Pilgrims. It seems that once
the secessionists succeed they label all future succession treasonous—why is
that?
4. The centralization of the Pilgrims in 1930 produced a
moderating effect (or “liberalizing effect,” depending on your perspective) in
the Pilgrim Holiness Church for the next 25-30 years. To what extent is
centralization a conservative, moderating or liberalizing effect in your own
denomination. Is it different today than it was in the past?
5. While the length of dresses, nylon stockings or “bobbed
hair” may not be divisive issues in your denomination today, what are the
issues where there are differences? Are any of these a cause for a justified
“split” from the denomination? Which are or aren’t?
6. To what extent does your own denomination have regional
differences in lifestyle expectations? Can a denomination even enforce one unified
standard of behavior for all the people in all parts of a nation? World?
7. Most Pilgrim leaders concluded Finch was a godly man but
was misguided. Can you tell of any incidents you know of where a person was
godly, but misguided?
8. If you had been Finch how would you have done things
differently? If you had been Surbrook? A
Bible college student?
9. Even through dissention and splits the children and
grandchildren in the family are not always turned away from God and the church.
Virtually all of Finch’s children entered the ministry and his grandchildren
continue to serve God all around the world. If dissention and succession
“happens” in your church or denomination how do you keep your children from
being destroyed by it?
So what do you think?
During the first few
weeks, click here to comment or read comments
Keith Drury
[1] We have focused here more on a woman’s dress than a man’s simply
because there was more concern for that—among both the Pilgrims and the Finch
folk. As for the men's dress, one would not be able to tell a Pilgrim preacher
from a Nazarene or Immanuel preacher, though the Immanuel neckties tended to
black (or at most risqué, dark navy) while the Pilgrims felt free to wear
patterned neckties. The Pilgrim women dressed very modestly, even severely the
world might say. Dresses tended to be well below the knee, three or four
inches, and always with hosiery. Sleeves were full length and (at this
time in
[2] In this Finch family picture remember that many women of all denominations dressed more “modestly” at the time though “holiness women took the counter-revolution against the “Flappers” to a more serious length. In the 1920’s a new style emerged in the secular culture: “bobbed hair,” cutting a woman’s hair short. The new style was promoted by Hollywood film stars and was quickly adopted by the “flappers,” a movement of young woman who disdained conventional approaches to womanhood by shortening their skirts, wearing bold make-up, driving automobiles, smoking, dancing sexily and insisting on their right to engage in casual sex. Christian woman and men were universally aghast. They rejected this “package” of values and likewise rejected some the social symbols that came to represent them: make-up, dancing, short skirts, and “bobbed hair” (though not women driving automobiles eventually). If secular woman would make these things symbols of their sexual liberation, many holiness women decided to steer clear of these symbols. They did not want to be seen as a “flapper” and all this implied at the time. If “bobbed hair” and shorter skirts meant sexual liberation, holiness women intended to go the opposite way—leaving both their hair and hems long. (A longer treatment of the “bobbed hair” issue and holiness can be found in my 25th anniversary edition of Holiness For Ordinary People.)
[3] In this story I give the
benefit of the doubt to R. G. Finch though many of the eye witnesses that I
interviewed for this story are not so generous to Finch. Some interpret the story
politically like this: “Finch was a dominant force among Pilgrims as the
General Superintendent over foreign Missions but his influence declined by the
1930 general conference when moderates restructured the denomination to simply
eliminate his job (and influence). Finch hoped he would become the single
General Superintendent but the moderates put up Seth Rees who was impossible
for Finch to beat. Finch was a leader
who was out of a job so he took his new unpaid title of “General Evangelist” to
hold Prayer Conferences” across the church build support for launching a more
conservative denomination which he planned to lead or get elected GS after
Rees. In two years in 1932 Rees was gone and the
[4] Apparently there was “some
history” between the two young leaders, Finch and the new General
Superintendent, W. L. Surbrook. Both had lived in the
close knit community of
[5] The oral tradition today in the western part of the Wesleyan Church still remembers that the dissenters even took the student desks from the Pilgrim Bible college so that the few remaining students (and the new faculty) had to find their own desks to reopen the Bible School, but I cannot anywhere in print confirm this tradition but it is a comical side story. E. R. Mitchell who was a student at the time said in an interview (2009) that he knew nothing of any desks being taken to the new school.
[6] The local history of the churches should be cited as a potential factor here. Much of the Colorado work had come from The People’s Mission that was founded by the independent-minded William Lee who had taken the work into the Nazarene Church then left that denomination nine months later because “the government was too congregational.” The tradition of independent entrepreneurial launching of inner-city missions, foreign missionary boards and even Bible schools was recent and highly lauded among Pilgrims so Finch may have considered what he was doing to be purely “natural church growth.”
[7] The President of the
Pilgrim’s Bible college (and also DS of the district) was D. W. Reynolds who
was a loyal Finch follower. The two of them together orchestrated the split and
both were removed from their positions. Later R. G. Finch and his son Paul
split from Reynolds to form the Immanuel Missionary Church which
was an association of ministers with independent churches. In the original
split Finch took from the Pilgrims leaders like J. R. Mitchell and his brother
E. R. Mitchell. These two brothers, along with Eldon Rotz
followed Finch into the second split but raised troublesome doctrinal questions
about the “death route” promoted by Finch. They were pastors of local churches
in and around Salem, Ohio when in the spring of 1952 they received letters
excommunicating all three of them from the Emmanuel association. At this point
L. W. Drury, District Superintendent of the Pittsburg District of the Pilgroms arranged for taking into the
[8] General Superintendent Tom Armiger’s wife, Vangie is the daughter of J. R Mitchell and a granddaughter of R. G, Finch—her mother was Naomi Finch, daughter of R. G. Finch. Grandson Daniel Finch is now 73 and serves as part-time Assistant Pastor at the largest Wesleyan Church, 12Stone near Atlanta Georgia where he also serves as part-time Assistant District Superintendent for the Wesleyan Church. R. G. Finch’s great grandson, Lowell Adams is now under appointment as a Wesleyan missionary by Global Partners in Haiti.
[9] This is the summary statement in the official Pilgrim history, The Days of our Pilgrimage. It is a exceedingly magnanimous statement for the primary writer of the history, Paul Thomas who was from the Colorado district work, had worked closely with R. G. Finch and his son, and (along with Armor Peisker) picked up the pieces at the Pilgrim’s Colorado Springs Bible school. I personally heard dozens of stories from Paul Thomas and Armor Peisker about this affair when I worked with both of them for more than a decade beginning in the 1970’s at the Wesleyan headquarters. My take on this story is based somewhat on those conversations.