The Evangel Church was a
Wesleyan-Holiness Evangelical
Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide Interdenominationalism, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being "bor ...
Christian
Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
denomination from 1933 to 1960.
The denomination was centered in the U.S. state of
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
with eight churches and 675 members at the time of its merger with the like-minded
Evangelical Methodist Church
The Evangelical Methodist Church (EMC) is a Christian denomination in the Wesleyan-Holiness tradition headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. The denomination reported 399 churches in the United States, Mexico, Burma/Myanmar, Canada, Philippines ...
.
History
The denomination was founded as the Evangelistic Tabernacles by
Azusa Pacific College figureheads Dr. William Kirby and Dr. Cornelius
Paul Haggard on March 27, 1933.
Kirby, president of the college from 1937–39, had previously led a movement away from the direct leadership of the
Quaker
Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...
/
Friends
''Friends'' is an American television sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994, to May 6, 2004, lasting ten seasons. With an ensemble cast starring Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa ...
meeting influential in the school's ecumenical founding. Kirby had joined the faculty in 1924 and quickly became an unofficial spokesman for the school's
fundamentalists
Fundamentalism is a tendency among certain groups and individuals that is characterized by the application of a strict literal interpretation to scriptures, dogmas, or ideologies, along with a strong belief in the importance of distinguishing ...
. Kirby and his theological allies challenged the increasingly Modernist stances of the Quaker leadership who had aligned with an
anti-revivalist position as several comparable Quaker/Friends colleges had been doing since around 1915. When a religion department was established, it was with the understanding that "religion was to be primarily an object of study, not a creed to be adopted." This reluctance to stand for a list of fundamental doctrines, joined with a support for
Higher Criticism
Historical criticism, also known as the historical-critical method or higher criticism, is a branch of criticism that investigates the origins of ancient texts in order to understand "the world behind the text". While often discussed in terms of ...
of the Bible and the theory of
Evolution
Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...
, drew intense criticism from conservative Friends and Holiness movement adherents associated with the college.
Kirby and company broke away from the local Friends church in 1933. They began a new, Wesleyan-Holiness congregation on campus which became "the school church." This shift diminished Quaker influence and related funding. The shift solidified the school's identity as an Evangelical Holiness institution.
C. P. Haggard followed Kirby as president and led the nondenominational school through several re-locations, four name changes, mergers with
Wesleyan
Wesleyan theology, otherwise known as Wesleyan– Arminian theology, or Methodist theology, is a theological tradition in Protestant Christianity based upon the ministry of the 18th-century evangelical reformer brothers John Wesley and Charles W ...
colleges, and rescued it from the brink of low attendance and financial exigency. He is the namesake of the theology school and served as president for nearly four decades.
During this time of mergers and moves, students and faculty planted many local churches which organized as the Evangelistic Tabernacles and later the Evangel Church—informally called "the Tabernacle movement."
In the late 1950s, Haggard approached the General Superintendent of the fledgling
Evangelical Methodist Church
The Evangelical Methodist Church (EMC) is a Christian denomination in the Wesleyan-Holiness tradition headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. The denomination reported 399 churches in the United States, Mexico, Burma/Myanmar, Canada, Philippines ...
(or "EMC"), Dr.
J.H. Hamblen, about a partnership between his new network of churches and the EMC. According to Hamblen, "I made it a matter of prayer that God would send a man who could take my place if anything should happen
o me
O, or o, is the fifteenth letter and the fourth vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''o'' (pronounced ), pl ...
At the Phoenix Conference as I was preparing to call the Conference to order, a tall, ruddy faced young man came in the front door. God spoke to my heart, ‘There comes your man.’ I was not sure who he was, but I arose and went down the aisle. He reached out his big hand and greeted me and said, ‘I have come to join you.'”
Under the leadership of President R. Lloyd Wilson, the Evangel Church, Inc., Annual Conference voted to unite with the Evangelical Methodist Church on June 4, 1960. The merger was approved by the Western Annual Conference of the Evangelical Methodist Church on June 22, 1960, thus forming a strengthened California District. At the time of the merger, the Evangel Church had eight churches and 675 enrolled in Sunday School classes.
This merger, along with the addition of the
People's Methodist Church on the East Coast in 1962, gave the modest Evangelical Methodist Church a stronger coast-to-coast presence in the United States.
Haggard served as an Assistant General Superintendent of the Evangelical Methodist Church. He declined nomination as General Superintendent, the top office of the EMC, so he could focus on his administrative responsibilities with the college he loved.
References
{{Reflist
External links
Haggard School of Theology at Azusa Pacific UniversityThe Cornelius P. Haggard Collection at APUArchived sermon of Evangel Church co-founder C.P. HaggardArchived sermon of Haggard and Hamblen on future of EMC
Christian organizations established in 1960
Methodist denominations in North America
Methodist denominations established in the 20th century
Fundamentalist denominations
Holiness denominations
Evangelical denominations in North America