HOLINESS ORGANIZED OR UNORGANIZED? This book printed and bound in the year of 1977 in loving memory of my good Father and Mother, John Thomas Benson, Sr., 1861-1930, and Eva Green Benson, 1865-1932. A HISTORY 1898- 1915 of the PENTECOSTAL MISSION, INC. Nashville, Tennessee GENESIS, NAZARENE INSTITUTIONS First Church, Nashville First Church, Chattanooga Tennessee District East Tennessee District FOREIGN DISTRICTS Guatemala Argentina INDEPENDENT The Benson Company 1977 ® TREVECC A PRESS A Division of Trevecca Nazarene College 333 Murfreesboro Road NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE 37210 INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT this . history . a classic example of the tension that always exists between the dynamic passion of a movement and the necessary but Stifling influence of organization. This study of the work of the Pentecostal Mission by John T. Benson, Jr., has deep spiritual implications. It is no "objective history." If such is ever possible, and I doubt that it is, it is neither possible nor desirable here. Who the author is, is more than coincidental, it is rather an integral part of the story. Only John T. Benson, Jr., from his unique perspective, could reflect the essential life that he reflects. He sat with his mother on the platform during the General Assembly of 1911 and watched the people wave handkerchiefs and heard their shout of holy joy. For well over a quarter-century he reflected on ''those days" with his parents. For sixty years and more he has lived the later chapters of the continuing story, and that intimately as president of John T. Benson Publishing Company, Minister of Music at the First Church of the Nazarene, and Secretary of the Board of Trustees of Trevecca Nazarene College. This account pounds with a heartthrob that one recognizes as attuned to that of his father. Brother Benson had given an invaluable service, by not only preserving the facts of the movement, but by presenting them to us from the imtimacy of his unique vantage point, so that we also catch mood, and feeling, and motivating purpose. Such a life-reflecting account makes deep spiritual implications obvious that would not be seen in a less intimate presentation. The passion of the Movement was Scriptural Holiness and its transforming work in the lives of believers. McClurkan, Benson, and the growing company of "possessors" were ardently, some would say ''foolishly," committed to the "cause," The wide range of ministeries that developed ~ foreign missions, home missions, education, publications, social work, campmeeting, and much more ~ were all expressions of the single passion. They were no less passionately persuaded that Scriptural Holiness was that freeing and unifying work of the Spirit that made organizational frameworks unnecessary and denominational lines unimportant. They seemed confirmed in the conviction that Holiness is not something that can be fenced in by a denomination. While their number included Holiness folks of many denomi- nations, and they welcomed many more, they firmly resolved not to become a denomination. 4 Yet, within these few short years reported by Brother Benson, the full transi- tion was made and the Mission did precisely what it resolved not to do - joining denomination. Strong and contradictory forces were at work during those years The Mission, and especially McClurkan, was deeply devoted to a non-denomina- tional setting as essential to the central meaning of Holiness. At the same time, organization was inevitable in order to carry out the mission of the Holiness message. For seven years the annual conventions agonized with the riptide caused by these contradictory currents. No man was torn by them more than J. O. McClurkan himself. Only after his death was the union with the Church of the Nazarene finalized. This segment of church history provides a classic example of the tension that always exists between the dynamic passion of a movement and the necessary but stifling influence of organization. Brother Benson projects the question, "Can Holiness be organized?" I think the question must be stated in the negative ~ "Can you keep from organizing Holiness?" The Pentecostal Mission made a noble effort. From the very beginning the Mission moved irreversibly toward denominationalism. Organization was unavoidable. Fervent passion and organization are the two necessary forces of every dynamic organization, even though they are contradictory. McClurkan saw the contradiction and recognized further that while organization follows inevitably, fervent passion does not. So the historic tendency is for an organization to lose the passion that called it into existence and allow its ultimate goal to become its own perpetuation. The sectarian spirit was seen by McClurkan to be a contradiction to the Holiness passion. The concern of McClurkan reflected to us by Brother Benson in this history is ever-current. The same dynamics are at work today. So this history is of more than casual interest. It has deeply spiritual implications. Brother John confesses his love for his "dear fatlier" in this book. As his pastor, I confess my love for him and his family and my gratitude to him for the insights reflected within these pages. Pastor of the First Church, Nashville A SECOND PRELIMINARY STATEMENT out of the past comes . what we are today and where we are going tomorrow. History is forever the drama of people. Every life, no matter how humble and insignificant it might seem, is dramatic. Birth is dramatic. Death is dramatic. The span of years, between, is the drama of decisions, judgements, achievements, failures, breakdowns, patch-ups, loves, ambitions, sorrows, joys ad infinitum. In the early years of 1898 to 1914, our fathers and mothers were the good Sanctified people of the Pentecostal Mission. It would be a mistake to think of their lives as hum-drum. Sanctification lifted them from dullness to a Hfe that was thrilUngly new and powerfully dramatic. Oh, they felt so deeply! They had a marvelous message. It was the answer to every sorrowing cry. What were they going to do with it? It burned within them. Tell it they must. Preach, shout, testify, sing . the message was too good to bury within themselves. Born in 1904, my childhood days were a part of the Holiness Movement. My roots are in that era of 1898 to 1914. Memories sweep me back to the sheer excitement of those early Holiness people singing, shouting, crying, praying, testifying, waving, clapping hands, and even dancing before the ark of the Lord. Old tents, mission halls, hard benches, tobacco warehouses, street meetings, prison services . this was the drama of it all. It was powerful and far from being hum-drum. Others might have sought the comforts of padded pews and the splendors of stained glass windows, mighty organs, steeples and belfries . but to these people ''Jesus was a-coming." Get ready brother! Sister! Put your wedding garment on! You have no time to spare! The marriage supper is at hand! But with the Blessing came the burden. The agony, the sad, sad spectacle of men and women lost in sin and hell-bound. Said they to themselves, "What will we do?" Their answer was, "We will get them to the altar and there at the mercy seat we will love them, hug them, pray for them, cry with them, and pound them on the back, if necessary, to get faith to take hold and the joy of salvation to enter their poor, benighted hearts." Indeed, in the early years of 1898 to 1914, the good people of the Pentecostal Mission lived humble lives, but nonetheless dramatic as Sanctified beings. It is this drama that backdrops this book. Much of the drama I saw as a small boy, too young to comprehend, but I have read and re-read the records. The Minutes of the Pentecostal Mission fire my childhood memories. Indeed, the records overwhelm me with the knowledge that I was born in the Holiness Movement in a household of consecrated parents. And now, at this ripened age, I find it 6 easy to bridge the years and sit with these Saints of yesteryears, witnessing their preaching, praying and shouting in the intensity of their Annual Conven- tions. It's easy to reHve campmeeting days and witness the fervent scenes around the altar where seekers were hugged and pounded until the Blessing came. It's easy to form the old circle for a street meeting and see my good Mother pump the portable organ and Father leading the singing. I feel their discouragements when early missionaries resigned on the fields and see them persistently send replacements. I see them again and again in the straights of self-criticism because they could not organize and function better. I share with them the keeness of disappointment as some of the good brothers and sisters went with the ''Tongues" people. I see them in the pall of sorrow as good men and women died and left sorrowing hearts behind. I live with them and share their perplexities with their early confrontations with the Nazarenes. Yes, I see them as the ''light went out" and J. O. McClurkan, their beloved leader at age 53, was called to glory, leaving them to dig deeply into their pockets to supply funds for missionary shortages. Philosophically, if we are to understand what we are today as Holiness people, we must understand what has been handed to us out of the past. We must know and relive our beginnings. Therefore, out of this past comes the backdrop of what we are today and where we are going tomorrow. Several books have been written about J. O. McClurkan and the good people of the Pentecostal Mission from 1898 to 1914. Why add another? Someone said that to be a writer is to be a "colossal egotist." Somehow, I feel I have some insight, some understanding, some philosophy, some coloring, some side stories and some observations as well as some early memories of the Pentecostal Mission people that are worth preserving in this, another book.