Leaves had long fallen from the trees as delegates gathered in the cool January air for a photograph of the eighth General Assembly of the Church of God. The 164 delegates desired to be part of the restoration of the New Testament church, and the atmosphere was filled with an exciting sense accomplishment and anticipation.
The 1913 Assembly convened in Cleveland, Tennessee.
On the opening morning of this 1913 Assembly, delegates from each state stood and greeted the congregation with a song. The seven delegates from Florida sang “Where He Leads Me I Will Follow,” and the four from New Mexico rendered, “I Would Not Be Denied.” Tennessee had the largest number of delegates represented. Approximately 125 strong, they offered “The Home of the Soul.” No delegates were present from Virginia or the Bahama Islands, but eight members of a missionary band that had ministered in the Bahamas sang “The Fields Away” in honor of the work there. State Overseer R.M. Singleton was the only representative from Colorado. Whether he was not inclined to present a solo or simply not encouraged to do so, he did not sing for the Assembly.
Later that day, several of the state overseers briefly reported their work during the previous year. The overseers noted the great need for evangelism, the opposition they had encountered, and the necessity of additional laborers in the harvest. T.L. McLain described a tent meeting in Benton, Tennessee. According to Overseer McLain, “Fourteen were baptized in water, the jailor’s wife got sanctified at home and afterwards came to the meeting and received the Holy Ghost.” These reports reveal that the Church of God was already ministering to ethnic groups in at least Colorado, New Mexico and Florida.
Also on that first full day of activities, General Overseer A.J. Tomlinson presented his annual address, during which he reviewed the work of the Church of God the previous year and introduced topics of business for the Assembly. The general overseer reported 3,056 members in 104 churches in ten states and the Bahama Islands.
General Overseer Tomlinson reminded the General Assembly that the mission of the Church of God included the restoration of the New Testament form of church government. He challenged the delegates: “At this Assembly we should earnestly seek to reinstate and reestablish the government under which banner the brave apostles and their contemporaries fought, bled and died to sustain. If His government was of such importance as to call forth the blood of its supporters to sustain it, is its importance any less today? If they gave their lives to sustain it, isn’t there a just cause for us to give our lives, if need be, to reestablish it before His return? Bring it back without causing any offence to anyone if possible, but bring it back at any cost!”
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This article was written by Church of God Historian David G. Roebuck, Ph.D., who is director of the Dixon Pentecostal Research Center and assistant professor of the history of Christianity at Lee University. This “Church of God Chronicles” was first published in the February 2001 Church of God Evangel.
[For a postcard of this photograph send $1 for postage and handling to the Dixon Pentecostal Research Center, 260 11th Street NE, Cleveland, TN 37311.]