A Look Back: New Position, No Pay

Under Bishop Robert C. Lawson's leadership, Refuge Temple was a very exciting place to be. Early on, services were held daily. Bishop Lawson often invited guest evangelists to preach. Some were young ministers associated with Lawson's movement. Sometimes outside preachers were called, one interesting example being the Rev. George Becton, known for his "consecrated dime" gimmick.

One wonders if Lawson's dealings with Becton are not partly responsible for his later dealings with young ministers. He was not fond of ministers raising large offerings. Author Steve Walters, in his 2002 biography of Apostle Lymus Johnson, describes Johnson's relationship with Lawson when it came to finances. Writes Walters, "Bishop Lawson was not apt to give you any money, but if he did, he would make you sign [a promissory note] for it. If you didn't pay it back, he would certainly talk about you" (A Shepherd's Journey, 109). 

We can gather that Bishop Lawson prioritized financial discipline, and had no compunction about warning others about potential adverse risk.

More personally, after selecting, proving, and appointing Johnson to the office of National Evangelist Board chairman, Johnson would be sent throughout the country without one penny from Lawson or the national organization. Johnson brought up the issue to Lawson, who replied, "[Y]ou don't need any money. God called you, not me" (Journey, 72).

Over time, Johnson began to understand Lawson's mind about the situation. Lawson was "a man that started from scratch," a man who "gave up three thriving churches" to go "where there was no one who knew him, no kind of support system for him and church to go to. How did he get there? ... He preached his way there..." (Journey, 73). If God could bless a man who arrived in New York City with five cents in his pockets to become a millionaire, complete with chauffeur (Journey, 109), Johnson, too, would have to learn to trust God to supply for and prosper his ministry. 

For Johnson, reprieve came "[w]hen the saints began to realize what was going on[;] they began giving him financial handshakes" (Journey, 109; Bishop William L. Bonner has been known to tell a similar story, in which the financial handshakes amounted to some $2,000). 

On the road, Johnson learned to focus his fundraising efforts on the host church, particularly in smaller churches and new missions; sometimes he would give a part of whatever money he received during his evangelistic meetings back to the host church. As time progressed, money ceased to be a concern, and by the end of his life, Johnson could be considered quite well off. It was those difficult years, mastering the art of "knowing how to go in and come out" (Journey, 111), when Johnson, under Lawson's strict oversight, learned to achieve success in ministry and to hold the natural desire for money in check.

This, readers, is how Lawson avoided scandal, and why Johnson and the evangelist that he in turn groomed did not become little Bectons, little fundraising evangelists who prayed and pocketed. 

All this notwithstanding, living and traveling by faith may have frustrated some ministers. Fortunately, some ministers, like the future Smallwood Williams, were sent by Lawson to take charge of established churches. Let's explore this experience from the point of view of those who lived it in our next article. 

The Bible Way Split: Witness to Schism

In the year 1914, Elder Robert Clarence Lawson took charge of a fledgling mission started by an evangelist. He incorporated in 1919 it as a church in Columbus, Ohio, calling it the "Church of Christ of the Apostolic Faith, Inc." His assistant pastor there was Karl Smith. 
 
Later in 1919, Lawson went east to New York City on a word from the Lord. He had preached there before, but this time he stayed. Beginning at a prayer meeting in a basement on 40th Street, Lawson established the Refuge Church of Christ in Harlem, the "city of refuge" for migrant Negroes escaping the South. He preached up other little congregations throughout the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and Southeast. Eventually he invited all of these congregations to partake in a convention in New York, including his church from back in Columbus, the Church of Christ. Over time, it became clear that, despite continued fellowship, Lawson was organizing his own work and was no longer a part of the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World. Karl Smith took office as General Secretary of Lawson's new organization.

After some years, Lawson met with Smith and the Church of Christ congregation regarding some issue that surfaced within the congregation. Smith, following his personal convictions, disagreed with Lawson's approach to the issue. Part of the church followed Lawson's leadership, and the other part stayed with Smith, who returned to the PAW. This incident, though minor, was perhaps the first interruption to occur under Lawson's leadership.

Watching the whole affair was a young Smallwood Williams. It was he who recalled Smith's words, "I will not yield." The writer will not attempt to read any psychological effects into Williams' witnessing of this event. He was just 18 years old at the time (1925). However, observing Lawson's disagreement with another, subordinate minister must have been instructive. 

While Karl Smith was willing to take a definite stand for his convictions, Williams being so young may have seen Lawson's intransigence as a force to be reckoned with; after all, some 24 years lay between them. Williams was just entering manhood, while Lawson had ascended into middle age. Social custom demanded deference, as did the sheer power of Lawson's personality. He was respected by young and old, a genuine intellectual, and a rhetorician of unusual power. Inasmuch as he needed someone to vouchsafe his legitimacy as a teenage preacher, it is not hard to imagine Williams recognizing the need to carry on ministry in a way that not only pleased God, but also went over well with Lawson.

While the Bible Way split was based on the argument that Lawson was dictatorial, one wonders what Lawson was really like as an administrator. In our next article, we'll examine Lawson's relationship with his junior ministers.

The Bible Way Split: What Happened?

Bishop R.C. Lawson left the Middle West for New York City around 1919. Forthwith, he began to prosper. Days of privation for ministry's sake gave way to years of business and ministry success. Within months of his arrival in Harlem, the city of refuge for southern black migrants, he turned one of Harlem's most vicious blocks on 133rd Street (popularly called Beale Street, after a similarly notorious street in New Orleans) into what became known as Hallelujah Boulevard. Refuge Church of Christ and a host of businesses run by the saints there changed the face of the neighborhood. From there, Lawson's work grew and grew, anticipating the lyrics that have inspired so many to come to the city: "If I can make it there, I can make it anywhere... New York, New York."

Alas, if only those lyrics could be truly said of Lawson. Though he and his ministers successfully set up ministries up and down the Eastern Seaboard, one area would prove particularly problematic: Washington, D.C. Early on, Lawson called the area "a preacher's graveyard." Church planting in Washington, for whatever reasons, was apparently no easy task. Almost 10 years after coming east, Lawson finally found a minister, Smallwood E. Williams, who would successfully plant a mission in the capital district.

Williams had grown up under Lawson's ministry in Columbus, Ohio. He was called to preach at a young age, and in the face of opposition because of his youth, he was licensed to preach at 16, catechized and ordained at 18, and in 1927 was sent to take over a small mission in Washington. He was 20 years old. Over the next 30 years, he established excellent rapport with the Washington community and became one of its most visible men of faith. Moreover, he was a high-ranking officer in the Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ and overseer of Maryland and the District of Columbia. His working relationship with Lawson was uniquely productive; he seemed to know his father in the gospel inside out and could cajole him in a way no one else could.

What great irony it was, that after 30 years of faithful service, this same young man, Bishop Williams, would bring the most grievous schism the Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ has ever had up to that point or since. What happened? We'll look into the background of the course-changing Bible Way split in the next few articles.