IPHC Brief History Organizational Developments

Brief History: Organizational Developments

The first general conference after the merger was held at Toccoa, Georgia, in 1913, at which time the change from biennial to quadrennial meetings was affected. At the time of the merger, missionaries sent by both churches already had opened fields in Hong Kong, China, Africa, and India.

In 1915 at Canon, Georgia, the Tabernacle Pentecostal Church consolidated with the Pentecostal Holiness Church. This merger brought the Holmes Bible and Missionary Institute of Greenville, South Carolina, into the fellowship of the church. The founder of both the Tabernacle Pentecostal Church and the Bible Institute was Nickels John Holmes of Greenville.

Early missions work of the combined churches included the Hong Kong field begun by Anna Dean in 1909; the Indian field opened by Della Gaines in 1910; the South African field started by J. O. Lehman in 1913; and the Central American field opened by Amos Bradley in 1913. Later efforts by K. E. M. Spooner (1915) and D. D. Freeman (1924) in Africa; W. H. Turner (1919) in China; and J. M. Turner in India (1921) greatly strengthened the early overseas missions of the church.

In 1917, the church began publication of an official journal known as the Pentecostal Holiness Advocate. The first editor was George Floyd Taylor. Two years later, in 1919, Taylor also founded the Franklin Springs Institute near Royston, Georgia. In 1933 the name of the school was changed to Emmanuel College.

Foreign missions work opened in this period included Argentina, started by Janet Hart in 1931; the Mexico field, founded by Esteban Lopez in 1933; and the Hawaiian field, founded in 1936 by Mildred Johnson Brostek.

In 1937 at Roanoke, Virginia, the honorary title of bishop was bestowed on the general superintendents. The two general superintendents elected at that conference, Joseph H. King and Dan T. Muse, were the first to bear this title.

At the general conference in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, in 1945, the church voted to have four general superintendents. Elected to serve with King and Muse were Joseph A. Synan and Hubert T. Spence. At the death of Bishop King in 1946, Muse assumed the leadership of the church. He served as presiding bishop until his death in 1950 when he was succeeded by J. A. Synan who served as chairman until 1969.

After twenty years of changing the number of bishops, the 1957 General Conference that convened in Oklahoma City decided henceforth to have only one general superintendent.

During the 1950s the church experienced rapid expansion in the mission fields. Works were opened in this period in Costa Rica, Cuba, Northern and South Rhodesia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Nigeria, Mozambique, Ghana, and Botswana.

In the late 1960s affiliations were initiated with sister pentecostal bodies abroad. The first international affiliation was with the Pentecostal Methodist Church of Chile in 1967, followed by a similar agreement with the Wesleyan Methodist Church of Brazil in 1983.

J. Floyd Williams was elected general superintendent in 1969 in Memphis, Tennessee. During his tenure of office, the headquarters of the church was moved in 1974 from Franklin Springs, Georgia, to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

In 1981 the general conference elected Leon O. Stewart as general superintendent. He was succeeded in 1989 by Bernard E. Underwood, who had served as executive director of World Missions for 16 years. Underwood was reelected at the 1993 General Conference in Jacksonville, Florida.

The First World Conference of Pentecostal Holiness Churches met in September of 1990 in Jerusalem, Israel. This was a significant milestone in the church's history. There the PHC established the Target 2000 goals globally. The church adopted The Jerusalem Proclamation, which has become a global battle cry for PHC people.

Out of that meeting also came the School Of Ministry (SOM) program for equipping pastors and church planters, and the Global Desk (which is now merged into the NET). NET is an acronym for New Evangelism Technologies. The NET is an electronic communications network designed to unite the various ministries and conferences of the IPHC.

At the close of the 1994, the International Pentecostal Holiness Church consisted of 1,645 churches and nearly 4,000 licensed and ordained ministers in the United States. Membership in the U.S. was 150,133.

Update. At the close of 1999, official published statistics showed the following global totals:

8,383 Churches (1,771 in U.S.)
1,040,400 Members (184,431 in U.S.)

Those who led the churches before the consolidation at Falcon in 1911 were:

1898-1900 Benjamin Hardin Irwin
1900-1911 Joseph Hillery King

1898-1908 Ambrose Blackmon Crumpler
1908-1911 A. H. Butler

1911-1913 Samuel Daniel Page
1913-1917 George Floyd Taylor
1917-1946 Joseph Hillery King
1937-1950 Daniel Thomas Muse
1945-1969 Joseph Alexander Synan
1945-1946 Hubert Talmage Spence
1946-1949 Paul Franklin Beacham
1946-1953 Thomas Alexander Melton
1953-1957 Oscar Moore
1969-1981 Julius Floyd Williams
1981-1989 Leon Otto Stewart
1989-1997 Bernard Edward Underwood
1997- Pres James D. Leggett