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Digital text © copyright 2006 by the Wesley Center for Applied Theology of Northwest Nazarene University, Nampa, Idaho 83686. This text may not be redistributed in any for-profit form or mirrored at any other website without the expressed, written consent of the Wesley Center. CALLED UNTO HOLINESS -- VOLUME 2 By Westlake Taylor Purkiser, Ph.D., D.D. The Second Twenty-five Years, 1933-58 Nazarene Publishing House Kansas City, Missouri Copyright 1983 By Nazarene Publishing House Printed in the United States of America ISBN: O-8341-0868-2 Jacket design: Crandall Vail * * * * * * * Holiness Data Ministry Digital Edition 11/08/06 By Permission * * * * * * * CONTENTS Book Jacket Text Preface 01 -- THE EARLY YEARS The Beginnings -- Establishing a Denominational Life -- Leadership -- Headquarters -- Summary. 02 -- NAZARENE SELF-IMAGE IN 1933 A Holiness Church -- An Evangelistic Church -- Interchurch Relationships -- Social Awareness -- Summary. 03 -- THE LEAN YEARS Depression and the New Deal, The Silver Anniversary Observance -- Financial Pressures -- The Challenge of Foreign Missions -- Home Missions and Ministerial Relief -- The Herald of Holiness and the Publishing House - Crisis in the Colleges -- Amending the Constitution -- The Crusade for Souls. Summary. 04 -- THE GATHERING CLOUDS OF WAR The Ninth General Assembly -- C. Warren Jones and Foreign Missions -- Leadership Losses -- Fleming and the NMBA -- Other Changes. Nazarene Colleges to the Eve of World War II -- Summary. 05 -- THE CHURCH IN A WORLD AFLAME The Church Looks Ahead -- War and the General Church. Missions in a World at War -- A Publication Landmark -- Education in War Years -- The Passing of Pioneers -- Crisis in Leadership -- Summary. 06 -- ENTERING THE POSTWAR WORLD Facing a New Age -- The Changing Leadership -- The Generals Become a Board -- New General Officers -- Expansion in Kansas City -- Expansion Overseas -- In the Continental United States -- Educational Expansion -- "Showers of Blessing" - - Summary. 07 -- MID-CENTURY CRUSADE FOR SOULS Laying the Groundwork -- New Hands at the Helm -- Two Generals Die in Office -- Launching the Mid-Century Crusade -- Financial Crisis and the Ten Percent Program -- The Quadrennium in Education -- Publishing House Developments -- Missions Marches On -- Summary. 08 -- THE STRUGGLE OVER STANDARDS Gains in the British Isles -- A Middle Course on Standards, Headquarters and the Publishing House -- Education in the Middle Fifties -- Foreign Mission Developments -- Overseas Home Missions -- Summary. 09 -- BACK TO PILOT POINT Planning Ahead -- Gospel Workers Church of Canada -- The Church Abroad -- Education to the Golden Anniversary -- Church Schools -- The Golden Anniversary - - Pilgrimage to Pilot Point -- Evaluating Results -- Summary. Epilog Appendices Appendix A -- General Superintendents, 1933-58 Appendix B -- General Church Officers, 1933-58 Appendix C -- General Board Members, 1933-58 Appendix D -- General Officers, Auxiliaries, 1933-58 Appendix E -- Executive Secretaries of the Departments Appendix F -- Presidents, Institutions of Higher Education, 1933-58 Appendix G -- District Superintendents, 1933-58 Appendix H -- Missionaries in Service, 1933-58 Bibliography Index * * * * * * * BOOK JACKET TEXT CALLED UNTO HOLINESS Volume 2, 1933-58 This sequel to Timothy L. Smith's 1962 volume, Called unto Holiness: The Story of the Nazarenes -- The Formative Years, covers the second 25 years of the denomination's history. Though, as the author points out, this period lacked some of the drama of the early days, it was a time of explosive growth and expansion. The church's institutions and its methodology became established and its course set. It was a period of global crisis to which the Nazarenes responded with maturity and purpose. Rising to the challenge of adversity, the church won well- earned recognition in the religious world. But not at the expense of its founding principles. Though there was a complete turnover of leadership during this period, the central mission of the church was not lost. As the author comments in his preface, "The Church of the Nazarene on its golden anniversary was still very much a holiness church and still very much concerned with taking the whole gospel to the whole world." The story is not all glorious but it is filled with divine providences and mountaintop achievements. To give an objective account of a period not far removed from the present is difficult. Not all the ripples have reached the farthest shore yet. The problem is compounded when the writer has been a vital part of that scene, and many of the individuals mentioned are still living. Yet Dr. Purkiser has succeeded admirably in portraying the facts in true perspective -- and with sensitivity. This is the way it was, "warts and all." The extensive documentation confirms the accuracy of the narrative. This is both an inspiring and reassuring story filled with challenge to those who still carry the torch. * * * ABOUT THE AUTHOR Dr. W. T. Purkiser, PH.D., D.D., now living in Sierra Madre, California, was editor of the Herald of Holiness, official publication of the Church of the Nazarene, for 15 years prior to his retirement in 1975. Prior to that, he was for 3 years professor of English Bible at Nazarene Theological Seminary. Before coming to Kansas City he served for 20 years as a professor and administrator at Pasadena College in California, including eight years as its president. He is a graduate of Pasadena College and received his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Southern California. He is the author of numerous books including: Security: the False and the True; Conflicting Concepts of Holiness; Know Your Old Testament; The New Testament Image of the Ministry; Adventures in Bible Doctrine; and Beliefs That Matter Most. He has also co- authored and/or edited such major works as Exploring the Old Testament; Exploring Our Christian Faith; God, Man, and Salvation; and Exploring Christian Holiness. * * * * * * * PREFACE This volume is intended to be a sequel to Dr. Timothy L. Smith's outstanding book, Called unto Holiness: The Story of the Nazarenes: The Formative Years.1 It is an attempt to tell the story of the Church of the Nazarene during its second 25 years. The record of this period lacks much of the drama and excitement of the formative era. By 1933, the main directions had been established and the major moves made. Church structures had been worked out, as were patterns of administration and organization. Routines had been set up and even some traditions had developed. There would always be adjustments to make in the face of changing conditions and new leadership. But that is what they would be -- adjustments in structures already established. Yet the story of the second quarter century, for all its more pedestrian character, has a meaning of its own. It was a shaking and a testing time, and the work of the founders stood the test well. The history of a church is different in at least one important way from the histories of other human institutions. The church lives in two realms. It has its existence among men with its feet on earth. Yet its essential life is from above. The course of the church on earth is part of the overall history of mankind. But it cannot be fully understood apart from its theological dimension. Each particular denomination owes its shape to two conditioning factors: its place in the stream of history, and its participation in the life of the universal Church. It is the theological dimension that makes any church part of the Church and distinguishes it from all other institutions or agencies. When the church is the Church, it is more than the individuals who make up its membership. That "more" is the presence of the risen Lord in the congregation, breathing His life into His people by His Spirit through His Word. The Church has always viewed itself as the ecclesia, the company of the called-out ones. Its most radically distinguishing feature is the presence of God in the midst of the believing congregation and the sense of His continued presence when they are dispersed. Church history is the record of the life of the pilgrim people of God on earth, lived in the dust and heat of the common lot of man. Yet as has often been suggested, just as its Lord has both a divine and a human nature, so has His Church. The divine nature is evident in biblical descriptions of the Church as the Body of Christ -- a metaphor, as John Knox says, that is more than a metaphor, an analogy that is more than an analogy.2 For these, among other reasons, church history is not easy to record. When one has told the story of what has happened and has explored whatever reasons therefore that may be open to investigation, he is still conscious of an elusive element in it all that defies historical analysis and sociological evaluation. Thus there is an element of paradox in telling the story of the Nazarenes, as in telling the story of any segment of the people of God on earth. It is a story that in one dimension is subject to the canons of historical investigation and analysis. But it is also, in the vision of its adherents, part of "His story" -- the walk and work of a portion of the people of God living under the' Lordship of the risen Christ in the communion of His Spirit. This is not to suggest that the human dimension of the story is not important. Someone has commented that one of the problems of this generation is that it has not read the minutes of the last meeting! We do not understand ourselves because we do not know from whence we are. We do not know our own age because we have not made the ages our own. "To vilify our past is stupidity; to deify it is idolatry; to clarify it -- and so to learn from it -- is maturity."3 Even the historical dimension presents difficulties of its own.