Preserving and Sharing Our Heritage: Kingdom Partners
The Church of God celebrates 125 years of Pentecostal witness on August 19, 2011. This is the final article in a series relating our commitment to preserve and pass on our heritage to our children and grandchildren.
The Church of God has designated the Dixon Pentecostal Research Center as our primary agency for preserving and sharing our history and heritage, but insuring that our children and grandchildren know and understand the contributions of our pioneers necessarily involves many kingdom partners. Every ministry of our world-wide denomination must be involved in preserving and passing on our heritage. Additionally the Dixon Pentecostal Research Center will continue to develop strategic partnerships to enhance the fulfillment of our mission.
Preserving and sharing our heritage begins with every local church and ministry. Each congregation must take the initiative to collect and be good stewards of documents, photographs and other materials that safeguard the history of what God is doing through the ministries of that local church. Recording the stories of significant members and friends of the congregation will add key voices and contribute to the preservation of significant details that otherwise would never become part of the known record. Finally congregations should look for opportunities such as special anniversaries to celebrate their heritage. These celebrations might include testimonies, drama, a historical display, and even a publication about the history of local ministries. It is particularly critical that major resources are not discarded whenever there is a pastoral change or a file cabinet fills up. Our heritage is too important to be tossed out with the trash.
Every office at the state, regional, national, superintendent and international levels must make similar efforts to collect and preserve those materials that communicate the history of their ministry.
The Dixon Pentecostal Research Center is thankful for many partnerships that enable us to accomplish our mission. Lee University provides important services such as accounting, a computer network and our telephone infrastructure. On multiple occasions the university has provided funding for travel designed to further research and aid in classroom teaching. William G. Squires Library catalogs our books and maintains our shared online catalog. Recently the library completed an important collection of shape note song books. Other partners include Winters Technology providing web services, Spring Creek Productions digitizing reel-to-reel audio tapes, and the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center digitizing early Church of God documents and periodicals.
The research center is also thankful for opportunities to contribute to the ministries of partners as well. Center Director Dr. David G. Roebuck teaches at both Lee University and the Pentecostal Theological Seminary. Recently he completed an eight-year tenure as executive director of the Society of Pentecostal Studies–an organization that serves approximately 600 scholars, organizes an annual conference, and publishes the journal Pneuma. During his tenure the research center provided the executive offices for the society. Dr. Roebuck also serves as Church of God historian and is a member of the Church of God Historical Commission.
One especially important partnership is with the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center. By sharing duplicate copies of important book and other historical resources, we are able to make these items more accessible and help guarantee their preservation. Books we receive from the Flower Center build our collection so that we can better serve our users.
The Consortium of Pentecostal Archives is an emerging partnership that will substantially enhance the resources we are able to provide by way of the World Wide Web. This newly launched website (www.pentecostalarchives.org) contains early Pentecostal publications that are freely available for researchers. The CPA has selected Dr. Roebuck as chairman of their board, and the Dixon Pentecostal Research Center will soon begin to contribute early Church of God resources to the website.
In today’s economy, most archives depend on the work of volunteers, and the Dixon Pentecostal Research Center is no exception. Faithful volunteers process collections, inventory materials, clip articles from newspapers, and help in countless other ways. Without their labor much of the work would not be done. Recently, our longest-serving volunteer, Frances Treadaway Arrington, wife of Dr. French L. Arrington, went home to be with the Lord. During the years she volunteered at the research center she processed several important collections including the North Cleveland Church of God Collection. At the time of her death, she was working on the Lee College archives, and her family has established a memorial fund to help continue that work.
The center welcomes the help of those who see the need to preserve and share our heritage and would like to be a partner in our mission. This might include volunteering at the center, locating and donating items related to our heritage, or contributing financial resources. While the research center has already preserved much of our Church of God heritage, there are still hidden treasures waiting for discovery. These may be stored in file cabinets, attics, closets and garages. They are lost to the next generation unless someone recovers them. What about your file cabinet, bookcase or storage closet? You may have missing Evangels,* a photograph of your church, or a newspaper clipping about a long forgotten event. Hidden treasures still need to be found and passed on.
In addition to materials, the Dixon Pentecostal Research Center increasingly depends on the financial support of partners who recognize the value of passing our Pentecostal heritage to the next generation. Preserving our heritage demands skilled staff, a carefully controlled environment, and archival quality storage containers—all of which require substantial financial resources. Particular projects such as “Preserving Pentecostal Preaching” or the “Voice of A Legacy Oral History Project” cannot continue without additional funding.
If you would like to be part of our mission, here’s how you can help:
- Write, email, or call us about what historical materials you may have to donate at (423) 614-8576; dixon_research@leeuniversity.edu; or Dixon Pentecostal Research Center, 260 11th Street, N.E., Cleveland, Tennessee 37311.
- Pray for our ministry as we work to preserve and pass on our heritage. Let us know you are supporting us.
- Become a financial partner to help us preserve those historical treasures that are donated, digitize sermons, or interview a veteran of the faith. We need financial resources to collect, protect and make the records of our heritage available to the next generation.
Preserving our Pentecostal heritage requires all of us. Become a ministry partner with the Dixon Pentecostal Research Center today.
[*We are missing some issues of the Evangel prior to 1950.]
Dr. David G. Roebuck is director of the Dixon Pentecostal Research Center and an assistant professor of the history of Christianity at Lee University. He also serves as church historian for the Church of God.
