From its earliest years, the CRC identified itself as a Pentecostally-inspired movement dedicated to “active, Spirit-directed evangelism [so] that many more will come to know the saving, healing, reviving power of Christ…”194 It declared that “Pentecostal churches are missionary churches.”195 Harris maintained the strong Pentecostal ‘full gospel’ identity of his roots in the Apostolic Church and Assemblies of God movements when he wrote:
We preach Jesus the Saviour, the Healer, the Baptiser in the Holy Ghost and the soon-returning King of Kings. Is there not a grave danger that we be Pentecostal in doctrine, in creed, but without the Pentecostal power, without the Spirit’s anointing? We preach healing and the Pentecostal baptism – but what results are we seeing in our midst, compared with bygone days? We preach the Second Coming, but have we lost that vital, quickening, convicting sense of the reality of Christ’s imminent return? Should not the very knowledge of this truth dominate and control and influence our lives continually?196
Just prior to his launch of the CRC in Australia, Harris conducted a series of lectures in Adelaide, reported as “an earnest of the ‘rushing mighty wind’ of the promised Holy Ghost revival … [which would] produce the harvest of souls so desired by the Redeemer of Israel!”197 This eschatological Pentecostal fervour was inextricably linked to the extensive proclamation of the ‘national’ message of the British-Israel identity of Commonwealth nations. Church of God founder, Cecil Harris, writing with the editorial approval of his son, Leo Harris, stated that:
It is because the Anglo-Saxons are the Israel of the dispersion, regathered, redeemed and restored, that the Spirit is poured out on them primarily and upon other nations through their ministry under the New Covenant.198
193 Leo Harris, “Mile-Posts of Revival,” Revivalist 332 (1970): 3.
194 Leo Harris, “National Revival Crusade Fund,” Echoes of Grace 30 (1944): 11.
195 Leo Harris, “Go Ye,” Echoes of Grace 69 (1948): 15.
196 Leo Harris, “Pentecost at the Crossroads: An Appeal to Pentecostal People,” Echoes of Grace 52 (1946): 15.
197 Cecil Harris, “The Hands of Fellowship,” Echoes of Grace 42 (1945): 7.
86
Originally introduced to Leo Harris by Tom Foster, this distinctive was contextualised as prophetic and timely providence against the backdrop of wartime uncertainty and thus as a primary means of effective Pentecostal evangelism in Australia and New Zealand. Believing that the Isaiah 54:17 promise, “No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper,” was made to Israel as a nation and therefore to its descendant members of the British Commonwealth, reverence and hope were instilled in the face of a contemporaneous Nazi threat.199 This message was then made effective by Spiritual empowerment to the new Israel which facilitated successful evangelistic outreach to its rightful inheritors of salvation. Harris, declared Old Testament prophecy (namely Isaiah 44:1-3, Hosea 6:3 and Zechariah 10:1) to especially connect the gift of the Spirit at Pentecost to the redemption of those in the nations of the Commonwealth, believing it to be:
…inseparably linked with the latter-day restoration of Anglo-Saxon Israel…and the salvation of ‘all Israel’ … the great purpose of God as revealed in Old and New Testaments, and it will be realised in the coming Pentecostal Revival. May God hasten it and prepare us for it!200
Foster similarly ‘nationalised’ the evangelistic mandate as a Pentecostal event:
Another glorious Pentecostal outpouring is promised to Israel’s Church and it will certainly be needed for the gigantic task confronting Israel-Britain in these latter days.201
Early Echoes of Grace contributions revealed the need for “the abiding energy of His power [as] the dynamic of all Christian service” and the Baptism of the Spirit as a distinct experience of empowerment accompanied by speaking in tongues.202 It also urged a revival mandate of personal evangelism encapsulated in one edition as follows:
It is fire that prevails. For fifty days the facts of the Gospel were complete, but no conversions were recorded. Pentecost registered three thousand souls. It is the cause that sets men ablaze that wins converts. Gladstone's fiery passion routed Parliaments and slew the giants of oppression. Wesley, Whitefield, and General Booth wrought wonders by the Fire kindled by the Holy Ghost. Men ablaze are invincible. Hell trembles when men kindle. Sin, worldliness, unbelief, hell, are proof against everything but Fire. The Church is powerless without the Fire of the Holy Ghost. Destitute of Fire, nothing else counts; possessing Fire,
199 Foster, Life and Times, 20.
200 Leo Harris, “A Present-Day Pentecost: Its Possibility, Its Power, Its Purpose,” Echoes of Grace 39 (1945):
11.
201 Thomas Foster, “Israel-Britain,” 13.
202 O. Adermann, “The Challenge of Pentecost – Part 1,” Echoes of Grace 13 (1943): 6; Samuel Gardiner, “The
87
nothing else really matters. The one vital need is Fire. How we may receive it, where we may find it, by what means we may retain it, are the most vital and urgent questions of our time. One thing we know: it comes only with the presence of the Spirit of God, Himself the Spirit of Fire. God alone can send the Fire. It is His Pentecostal gift.203
Though at risk of elitism, CRC writings remained devoid of any suggestion of nationalised or inclusive salvation. Redemption still required a personal faith in Christ and the purported Israel identity of Anglo-Saxons implied a concomitant responsibility to appropriate it.204 Indeed, the Great Commission imperatives of Matthew 28:18-20 and Mark 16:15-20 were seen to emphasise the priority of widespread preaching with God “confirming the Word with signs following,” these being inclusive of the miracle of speaking with new tongues.205 The movement’s passion for evangelistic success was born of a revival impetus prompting the belief that nobody had “the right to hear [the Gospel] twice until everybody has heard it once.”206 Participation in the 1959 Graham campaign was an extension of this value and was approved on the weekend of the CRC’s formal incorporation as a nationally constituted body.207 By this time, the British-Israel message had ceased to find relevance to the more diverse population of post-war immigrants and to CRC articles promoting mission. It was absent from any four-fold mission formulation or any related evangelistic promotion.208 The CRC’s conceptualisation of revival had been adopted in the movement’s name and was described in terms of the fourfold expression of the ‘full gospel’ unmistakably anchoring it in the classical Pentecostalism which had been the common experience of the Harris family, Thomas Foster, and other early CRC pioneers.209
It is questionable that this ‘full gospel’ expression derived exclusively from its four-fold usage by Aimee Semple McPherson’s International Church of the Foursquare Gospel in 1922 (in which Justification and Sanctification were referred to as ‘Salvation’).210 A similar
203 Samuel Chadwick, “Editorial,” Echoes of Grace 23 (1944): 1.
204 Chant, Heart of Fire, 186.
205 Leo Harris, “Christ’s Last Commission,” Revivalist 76 (1948): 4-5.
206 Tony Smits, Interview by David Bland, digital recording, Seaton, SA, May 19, 2009.
207 Author Unknown, CRC Interstate Conference Minutes, November 1958, 1.
208 See, for example: T. L. Osborne, “Ye Are My Witnesses,” Revivalist 167 (1956): 10-11; James Stewart,
“Personal or Mass Evangelism?” Revivalist 196 (1959): 11. Noel Hollins, “Geelong Update: Salvations –
Baptisms – Healings,” Revivalist 182 (1958): 9 further typified the absence of references to biblical prophecy pertaining to British-Israelism by this time.
209 Leo Harris, “The Challenge of Untouched Fields,” Echoes of Grace 58 (1947): 17; Belle Harris, Interview by
Dudley Cooper, digital recording, Adelaide, SA, January 10, 1990; Foster, Life and Times, 21; Cooper,
Flames of Revival, 45.
210 Cecil Robeck, “Aimee Semple McPherson,” in Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements
88
statement is often attributed to Elim Pentecostal Church founder, George Jeffreys, who met McPherson in 1924, but this was only after McPherson’s 1922 visit to Australia.211 There, she directly encountered the work of Sarah Jane Lancaster who had communicated with her prior to McPherson’s own declaration of the ‘full gospel’ of the Foursquare Church.212 This may suggest that the embryonic expression of Pentecostal mission derived from Australia through the work of Lancaster’s Good News Hall in Melbourne. It is not altogether unreasonable to suppose that this influenced the emergence of CRC Pentecostalism via the evangelistic ministry of Frederick van Eyk who worked with Lancaster and with Jeffreys and then impacted the CRC’s founding Harris family.213
Lancaster’s influence in Australia was, however, enhanced by her publishing efforts which resembled those seen in Seymour’s marketing of the Azusa Street Mission. Lancaster promoted the classical Pentecostal message through her Good News periodical which reached an annual circulation of 36,000 copies and typically displayed a primitive version of the fourfold emphasis of classical Pentecostalism on its later covers.214 The elements of this expression appeared by 1913, including explicit reference to unlimited salvation through the finished work of Calvary, divine healing, “the sign of tongues” and the “soon coming of Jesus, as key dimensions of mission.215 This essence was preserved, as evidenced by its restatement of purpose ten years later, describing the circular as:
An Australian monthly, showing that Jesus is just the same today; saving souls from death; answering prayer; baptising in the Holy Spirit; healing the sick; preparing the church for his speedy return.216
It was in its final fourfold form that this mission was then used by the CRC to identify its continuity with classical Pentecostalism for the purpose of urgently enacting the mission of national evangelism, a view regularly affirmed within the statement of faith prefacing its monthly publications.217 This detailed the ‘full gospel’ proclamation, inclusive of the characteristic British-Israelism of the early years and the Foursquare formulation, as:
…the Scriptural fundamentals of Salvation by Grace; Divine Healing; the Infilling with the Holy Spirit with signs following; the revelation of the Mystical
211 Charles Nienkirchen, A. B. Simpson and the Pentecostal Movement: A Study in Continuity, Crisis, and
Change (Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 1992), 40.
212 Clifton, In Transition, 56; Chant, Heart of Fire, 71. 213 Chant, Heart of Fire, 99, 181.
214 Sarah Jane Lancaster, “Printer,” Good News 19 (1928): 12. 215 Sarah Jane Lancaster, “Editorial,” Good News 6 (1913): 32.
216 See, for example: Sarah Jane Lancaster, Masthead, Good News 14 (1923): 1.
89
Body of Christ and the operation of Spiritual Gifts; the Israel Identity of the Anglo-Saxon Nations; the Personal Return of our Lord Jesus Christ and His Millenial (sic) Reign upon earth.218
Nevertheless, a survey of the Echoes of Grace, Revivalist and Impact magazines published sequentially by the CRC from 1942 to 1980, reveal the fourfold ‘full gospel’ emphasis clearly. In an analysis of all topics covered within such periodicals (see Appendix 10) and the grouping of similarly-focused concepts presented within them, the subjects of salvation, divine healing, Spirit baptism and the return of Christ clearly feature as the four most prominent categories.219 Further analysis shows that the increased presentation of topics on Spirit baptism in particular preceded a significant period of growth in the number of CRC churches in 1962, although this was also concurrent with a resurgent interest aligned to the emergence of the global Charismatic movement.220 Prominent focus was given, though, to the treatment of Spirit baptism after the movement was nationalised with its aforementioned constitution inclusive of reference to Spirit baptism when tabled in 1959. In that year, a new training course was promoted for the purpose of evangelism and consolidation of the work of the Spirit in which the Markan commission and Acts 1:8’s reference to Spirit-empowered witness were recommended reading prior to the submission of any application to study.221 When graduates were commissioned to Papua New Guinea throughout the 1960s, they worked in partnership with Foursquare Pentecostals, readily celebrating examples of Spirit baptism in evidence.222
Impact upon missional engagement is through five core elements of contemporary Pentecostal praxis identified by Andy Lord as being inclusive of mission, doctrine, experience, spirituality
218 Leo Harris, “Editorial,” Echoes of Grace 24 (1944): 2.
219 Topic categories and number of occurrences were: Faith/Healing/Miracles/Power of God (442); Second
Coming/End Time Events and Prophecy/Rapture (358); Spirit Baptism/Tongues/Pentecostalism/Gifts of the Spirit (305); Salvation/Jesus/Justification/Cross/Resurrection (302); with categories such as Christian Living, the New Creation; CRC; deliverance, prayer, money, family and church being well below two hundred in number.
220 The other ‘full gospel’ topic categories showed no significant trends for the same period, although a slight
increase in the number of articles on salvation before this growth and a slight increase in the number of articles on healing shortly after, may have reflected the importance of these subjects in the culture and emphases of these newer congregations. The number of articles on the return of Christ was approximately consistent throughout this period, though declining from the zenith of associations with the rise of communism in the late 1940s. This fact, the rise in articles concerning Spirit Baptism in the 1960s, and a similar appearance of topics related to environmental and social issues in the 1970s, shows a tendency for articles to reflect societal interests, despite also attempting to shape a cultural affinity for shared values. 221 Lyall Phillips, “Crusade Bible School,” Revivalist 202 (1959): 4-5.
222 Leo Harris, “C.R.C. Workers Share in New Guinea Harvest,” Revivalist 247 (1963): 15; Ian Van Zuilecom,
90
and Scripture which McClung regards as the non-negotiable beginning point of mission.223 Regarding these as evidenced in the Lukan writings and expounded in the Pauline corpus to identify contemporary praxis, Pentecostals embrace the rituals earlier identified by Albrecht and codified summarily here by Lord, whilst nevertheless deriving from and expressing the core ‘full gospel’ kerygma subsumed in Spirit baptism.224 Whilst Lord acknowledges the overlapping of ministry distinctives in various specific contexts, he also deems them essential to understanding Pentecostal identity.225 Importantly, these are also observed in the Pentecostalism of the CRC, as previously noted, whereby they are also built upon the foundation of the four-fold Gospel.
An address to CRC College of Ministry graduates in 1970 espoused these key virtues, suggesting that the experiences of the Spirit should be adopted within the application of Scripture, Spirit-empowered ministry, and faithfulness to the calling to missional service, in the context of an urgency propelled by the soon-coming second advent.226 A special issue of the CRC’s Revivalist publication in 1961 focused on the emphases of CRC ministry for the purpose of mission, identifying the importance of application of Scripture (through the ministry of healing and deliverance), spirituality and experience (described in the form of Spirit- empowered gifts and the presence of spiritual fruit in every believer), ministry gifts (for Spirit- empowered mission), and due regard for the imminence of Christ’s second coming.227
More recently, further definition has been given to these values in the charter of the movement to which all ministers and churches must subscribe, despite the aforementioned contemporary minimisation of these distinctives. They nevertheless affirm the primacy of Scripture, promoting spirituality that balances Word and Spirit, contextualising experience within interdependent and harmonious relationships of accountability, enacting mission through church planting and disciple-making through the use of supernatural signs, and supporting doctrinal statements inclusive of the return of Christ and the priority of Spirit baptism with the normal initial evidence of speaking in unknown languages.228
223 Lord, Network Church, 7; McClung, “Theology and Strategy,” 2.
224 Anderson, “Pentecostal Missiology,” 43.
225 Lord, Network Church, 9.
226 Marianne Voortman, “Where Lies Your Ministry?” Revivalist 331 (1970): 15.
227 See Alan Bonython et.al., “Our Faith for Today’s Challenge,” Revivalist 221 (1961): 3-13.
91
The application of such distinctives to mission through formation processes will be considered in the next chapter. To therefore move from content to context is to better appreciate how mission has informed ministry. Therefore, ministers faithful to a classically Pentecostal movement such as the Australian CRC are to be purposefully formed for a ministry that derives inescapably from the fourfold mission that then finds expression within the praxis of church worship and evangelistic impact. For a detailed examination of this link between ministry and mission within the Australian churches of the CRC movement, it is first necessary to explore the historical development of formation and the extent to which this has been both intentionalised and formalised.