In 1933, Williams moved to Cleveland, Ohio, with his wife, who was also a member of Refuge. There, as often was the case for saints relocating, there was no church of the same discipline and doctrine as their old church. While the Midwest was, in its way, a fairly active area for Apostolic Pentecostals, the Williamses started a church in their area. Like many of the churches started in the earliest stages of Lawson's Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ, this church took the name "Church of Christ," distinguishing itself with a prenomial caress that evoked both religious piety and a story marked by travel, "Pilgrim."
All available reports show the new pastor following very closely in Lawson's path, from the very beginning. William's embraced a style of worship that combined the reverent with the jubilant, and preached a doctrine that gave ease and hypocrisy no place. Williams was a little over 40 when he started his church; Lawson had been just under 40. Finally, Pilgrim Church of Christ, like Refuge, had its beginning in a home prayer meeting.
The pivotal moment in Williams' life was his call to Columbia, South Carolina, 11 years later. His wife's neice lay in a sick bed and did not seem to be recovering. Elder Williams' wife, Bessie, went down to aid in her care. According to the organization's history, Sister Williams had been fasting for a week when her help was requested. After some 21 days, she asked her husband to come and pray for her bedridden neice, and the day after prayer, the neice was well enough to sit up and eat. The Williamses shared the apostolic message of salvation with Bessie's neice, Helen, and baptized her. Eight days later, she received the gift of the Holy Ghost.
The whole series of events -- protracted illness, prayer, healing, and infilling -- impressed upon Elder Williams, who had not anticipated ever moving south again, to consider Columbia as the venue of a new move of God. Over the next two months, Williams met with Lawson to resign his pastorate and left with his wife permanently for South Carolina, where they started a church that grew into an organization.
This separation was so anticlimactic, so free of conflict, that the writer almost naturally digresses into a further recounting of the history of what is today known as the Progressive Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ, which evolved independently of but in tandem with Lawson's organization. For instance, Williams is said to have called upon Lawson to "rededicate" the first house of worship built by the young congregation, which seems to mean that, though Lawson was not able to be present at the initial dedication, Williams insisted on making Lawson a part of the church's early history. Lawson did not make any recorded attempts to absorb Williams' work into his larger organization, even though Lawson's organization had had a presence in South Carolina since the 1920s.
In a sense, the story of Williams' Progressive Church combines two stories. One is that of the early Pentecostal pioneer whose life is marked by mission work and supernatural testimonies wherever they go. A child or grandchild of Azusa, the pioneer minister or missionary centers his or her life around the call of God to an area or a particular type of spiritual labor. Because this person is sent by God, he or she is gifted above the norm with energy, influence, and scriptural conviction, which, among other things, helps sustain his or her efforts. This person overcomes or outlasts adversity many times and is held up an as example of the spiritual and material success that God makes available to those that obey Him. Williams and Lawson both fit this narrative.
Our view of Williams' life is also informed by a narrative that emerged as Pentecost developed as a social phenomenon, and that is the faithful disciple narrative. Williams, reserved but direct, had come into his success by being faithful and consistent in his walk with God, which was demonstrable by his life in the church. He had proven himself teachable as a new member, trustworthy as a new husband, and capable as a new pastor, all in the sight of other saints and his pastor. When God in his divine timing needed someone to send to Columbia, He remembered the faithfulness of Elder Williams. When Williams responded affirmatively to God's call to Columbia, God honored him by prospering his work.
While Lawson's work in the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World fits this narrative, it is one that could also be more widely applied, as churches began to multiply in places where Pentecost had already been heralded. Smallwood Williams, who was sent by Lawson to Washington, D.C., had also established a track record of faithfulness to God and loyalty to the church, which befit his later success as a preacher and pastor of one the District's largest congregations.
One reaches for narratives to justify such a peaceful ecclesiastical birthing, with the assumption being that most new organizations are birthed out of conflict. Not having the time to measure the various dimensions of that assumption, let it be sufficient to point out that church separations are, at the core, personal separations. Such was Lawson's separation from G.T. Haywood, and so would Smallwood Williams' separation be from Lawson.
As for the future Bishop Joseph Williams, ways in which his ministry took cues from Bishop Lawson have already been demonstrated. To add to that, both were tall; both believed in the superiority of the apostolic doctrine, believed in moving decisively on divine instructions (the Progressive congregation went from cottage meetings to a borrowed building to building their own church in a little over a year!). Both were strict disciplinarians. Both had their leadership styles questioned, with both suffering splits to their work near the end of their lives.
There is a saying in national government, "All politics is local." Similarly, all church is personal, despite popular conception of "the church" as an institution. Lawson's conflict with Smallwood Williams was not some inevitable event stemming from the nature of church as an organization. Decisions were made; conflict was actively stoked. The story of the Progressive Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ is a gentle but firm rebuke to the notion that peaceful separations are necessarily rare. Indeed, Progressive continued to embrace not only Lawson, but Hubert Spencer and William Bonner, even as it maintained an almost parallel existence to the Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Southeast.
All church is personal, and we have been examining the personality of Bishop Lawson in the context of his relationships with his ministers. On the other side of this conflict was Bishop Smallwood Williams, who was roundly admired, both in his organization and in his local community. In what ways did his personality play into this separation? Let's examine Smallwood Williams in our next few articles.
In a sense, the story of Williams' Progressive Church combines two stories. One is that of the early Pentecostal pioneer whose life is marked by mission work and supernatural testimonies wherever they go. A child or grandchild of Azusa, the pioneer minister or missionary centers his or her life around the call of God to an area or a particular type of spiritual labor. Because this person is sent by God, he or she is gifted above the norm with energy, influence, and scriptural conviction, which, among other things, helps sustain his or her efforts. This person overcomes or outlasts adversity many times and is held up an as example of the spiritual and material success that God makes available to those that obey Him. Williams and Lawson both fit this narrative.
Our view of Williams' life is also informed by a narrative that emerged as Pentecost developed as a social phenomenon, and that is the faithful disciple narrative. Williams, reserved but direct, had come into his success by being faithful and consistent in his walk with God, which was demonstrable by his life in the church. He had proven himself teachable as a new member, trustworthy as a new husband, and capable as a new pastor, all in the sight of other saints and his pastor. When God in his divine timing needed someone to send to Columbia, He remembered the faithfulness of Elder Williams. When Williams responded affirmatively to God's call to Columbia, God honored him by prospering his work.
While Lawson's work in the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World fits this narrative, it is one that could also be more widely applied, as churches began to multiply in places where Pentecost had already been heralded. Smallwood Williams, who was sent by Lawson to Washington, D.C., had also established a track record of faithfulness to God and loyalty to the church, which befit his later success as a preacher and pastor of one the District's largest congregations.
One reaches for narratives to justify such a peaceful ecclesiastical birthing, with the assumption being that most new organizations are birthed out of conflict. Not having the time to measure the various dimensions of that assumption, let it be sufficient to point out that church separations are, at the core, personal separations. Such was Lawson's separation from G.T. Haywood, and so would Smallwood Williams' separation be from Lawson.
As for the future Bishop Joseph Williams, ways in which his ministry took cues from Bishop Lawson have already been demonstrated. To add to that, both were tall; both believed in the superiority of the apostolic doctrine, believed in moving decisively on divine instructions (the Progressive congregation went from cottage meetings to a borrowed building to building their own church in a little over a year!). Both were strict disciplinarians. Both had their leadership styles questioned, with both suffering splits to their work near the end of their lives.
There is a saying in national government, "All politics is local." Similarly, all church is personal, despite popular conception of "the church" as an institution. Lawson's conflict with Smallwood Williams was not some inevitable event stemming from the nature of church as an organization. Decisions were made; conflict was actively stoked. The story of the Progressive Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ is a gentle but firm rebuke to the notion that peaceful separations are necessarily rare. Indeed, Progressive continued to embrace not only Lawson, but Hubert Spencer and William Bonner, even as it maintained an almost parallel existence to the Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Southeast.
All church is personal, and we have been examining the personality of Bishop Lawson in the context of his relationships with his ministers. On the other side of this conflict was Bishop Smallwood Williams, who was roundly admired, both in his organization and in his local community. In what ways did his personality play into this separation? Let's examine Smallwood Williams in our next few articles.
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