Evangelistic Campaigns in Idaho Falls, 1930-1931
In a previous blog, “Sharing the Gospel with Idaho Falls,”[1] I briefly described the revival meetings led by Rev. Terrell C. Newby and his wife Anna K. Newby in Idaho Falls in 1930, and evangelistic meetings led by Native American Paul Grant Wapato in Idaho Falls in 1931. Since then I have found more information about the first and discovered two additional evangelistic campaigns held in our city in 1931.
First, here is a report written by the Newbys during the 1930
Idaho Falls campaign, which gives a picture of what Idaho Falls was like 95 years
ago:
Well,
here we are in the country’s most famous potato patch. And the very best potato you ever ate at
that. It is truly a sight worth seeing,
beginning with the very edge of this beautiful city, driving on out into the
well irrigated region in every direction; it is just miles and miles of famous
Idaho spuds and when we look on those even rows of find blossoming plants we
should think it would cause miles and miles of smiles on the farmers faces.
That
isn't the only thing you see. We never saw so many peas in our lives. Thousands
of acres of them in every direction--where there were no potatoes, and then off
in another district it is endless rows of sugar beets - looks like we shall
have plenty of sugar by and by, baked potatoes, and scalloped, too, to say
nothing of peas. The peas, they tell us, will be sold for seed, so we are
enjoying them green while times are good.
But
that isn't all around here either. The Newby Evangelistic party are trusting
the dear Lord for a real harvest of souls. We may not be called upon to dig
spuds, but we surely are digging into the Word of God and giving out as fast as
we can with the Lord's help. And while the others who are raising seed peas are
carefully irrigating and cultivating, do please pray that the seed of God's
boundless love in soul saving and filling with healing for the body may be just
as persistently sown, watered, and cultivated in the lives of precious men and
women.
Though
this is vacation time for many and a very busy time for the rest, we can truly
say we are much encouraged in this the second week of the meetings. There are
four large Mormon Temples here and one in the building, as well as other large
churches, yet God is giving us a goodly number of dear souls and there is a
fine spirit of deep interest; numbers are coming from a distance. Naturally
they are being blessed in the services for the sacrifice of the long trips.
They
tell us that the Gospel has not been preached this way here before, but the
dear Lord has begun to heal bodies and create a yearning for the baptism of the
Holy Ghost. We always find much real hunger for the true Word in the newer
fields, and we are made glad, for some have already given their hearts to their
Christ.
One
thing that means so much to us is the splendid way that our dear Brother and
Sister Gear's church of Firth, Idaho, are helping with their talents, both
vocal and instrumental. It does cheer and help so much to see their smiling
faces and hear the ringing testimonies; Firth surely is having a remarkable
ministry under Brother Gear. My, how they all love him and his gifted wife, and
truly we do not blame them.
We
need the prayers of the saints everywhere. These fields, though new and hungry
are difficult in many ways. We need much of wisdom, understanding, long
suffering, and love. So do not forget us.[2]
-Evangelist
T. C. Newby and wife.
Terrell and Anna Newby had served as evangelists and pastors
in Washington, California, Colorado, Nebraska, and Mackay and Firth, Idaho prior
to the Idaho Falls campaign.[3] Following the campaign, Terrell led a campaign
South Dakota, leaving Anna to pastor the church here formed from converts of
their campaign until a permanent pastor was found, H. Randall Zelmer, in
December 1930. After Rev. Zellmer was
installed in the church in Idaho Falls, Anna joined her husband in forming a
church in Osage, Wyoming.[4]
What was the result of the Newby's Idaho Falls campaign? Here is the report from The Idaho Falls Post, under the heading, “Evangelist Get New Church
Here”:
“Bethel,
Church of the Whole Gospel,” has been organized in Idaho Falls following the
close of the Newby evangelistic revival held here for some time, it was
announced today by Anna K. Newby, pastor.
A schedule for services during the week and on Sunday will include a
mid-week prayer meeting on Wednesday night at 8 o’clock, a Bible class on
Friday evening at 8 o’clock, Sunday school on Sunday morning at 10 o’clock and
morning services at 11 o’clock. Services for young people will begin at 7 o’clock
Sunday evening with the regular evangelistic service at 8 o’clock. A young people’s society will be organized in
the near future, it was reported. The
church is located on Park Avenue and is interdenominational.[5]
Anna adds a few details in her brief report:
Bethel
Church of the Whole Gospel is your new sister church of the Bible Standard
family. We covet your earnest prayers. Prayer alone will put a victorious work
for God's own glory in this world today. Our flock has begun with thirty-eight
members and how we do trust they will all stand true and faithful unto the end.
On our first Sunday, we had a severe rain storm accompanied by much lightning,
but a very satisfying crowd and a Sunday school of 43 were present. I crave
your prayers as I do my best to serve here to the glory of Jesus while my
husband and son, Nicolous hold forth in South Dakota. PASTOR ANNA K. NEWBY.[6]
Bible Standard Churches in the Pacific region held a
four-day convocation in late November, 1930, splitting the time between Idaho
Falls and Firth. One of the delegates to
that convocation was Evangelist Roy E. Southard, who then returned to Idaho
Falls the spring and summer of 1931 to lead extended tent revival meetings.
The first meeting was on a Sunday evening, May 24, at the
corner of Boulevard and 14th Street, and they continued every night
except Mondays.[7] A report of the meeting submitted by Roy
Southard included:
Souls
have been saved and sick healed, but still we are claiming a real cloudburst of
power from heaven. We are planning on a young people’s rally the fourth of July
with American Falls, Aberdeen, Firth and Idaho Falls participating. We expect
to hold tent meetings in Blackfoot, Pocatello and right on down the line. Pray
for these services. Idaho Falls is a needy field, but we have a wonderful band
of consecrated saints and with the pastor, Randall Zelmer, the Lord will lead
on to victory.[8]
In the third week of the campaign, the Friday evening
service included a choir and male quartet from the Firth Full Gospel church and
other visiting musicians. The announcement added, “Meetings have been marked by
large crowd and some evenings the tent has been filled nearly to capacity.”[9]
Because of the “interest and results,” the evangelistic services continued at
least through July 10.[10] The evangelist leading the campaign, Roy
Southard, had graduated from the Simpson Bible Institute in Seattle and was the
field representative of the young people’s group of the Bible Standard society.[11]
His sister, Miss Veril Southard, assisted in the services by playing the piano
and leading singing.11 Following
their time in Idaho Falls, the Southards conducted revival services in Aberdeen
and Blackfoot.[12]
Overlapping with the Southard meetings were the Heidner
meetings in late June and several weeks in July, 1931. The Foursquare Church in Salmon began in June
1928 with three people meeting for prayer twice a week. Within nine months, “65
souls had been saved or reclaimed… and many sick bodies had been healed in answer
to prayer.”[13]
The young church held services three times a week in a hall on Main Street and
prayer meetings in homes twice a week.13 The pastor of the church
was Ethel M. Heidner; her husband ran a second hand store in Salmon.
The 1931 Idaho Falls campaign was conducted by Ethel’s 18-year
old daughter Betty, assisted by her younger brother Carl. Betty had recently graduated from L.I.F.E.
Bible School in Los Angeles.[14]
[15]
The previous summer, Betty joined two other L.I.F.E. Bible School students in a
2-week campaign in Salmon, and on a night she preached, 6 people were won to
Jesus.[16]
After the Idaho Falls meetings she helped her mother in 2 weeks of meetings in Salmon,
but then returned to Idaho Falls, and by September had become the evangelist of
Bethel Church, which was now meeting on Shoup Avenue between Broadway and A
Street.[17]
[18]
A few weeks later announcements for the church identify her as their pastor. In October her mother reported on the growth
of the Idaho Falls church:
According
to Sister Ethel M. Heidner, pastor of the Salmon ID Foursquare Church, God is
confirming His Word with signs following in the revival which here daughter and
son, Betty and Carl Heidner, are conducting in Idaho Falls. The attendance at
their services has increased from 40 to 50 to nearly 150 and they have an
orchestra of several different pieces. The power of the Lord is falling in
these meetings.[19]
Later that month the weekly announcement for the church
included:
“Did
you know – that we have a 10-piece orchestra and we need you; that we have a
choir of 20 voices started, but we need you; that we believe that Jesus Christ
is the same yesterday, today and forever, that Jesus saves and satisfies and
you need Him? Bring your burdens and
carry away a smile.” Betty Heidner,
pastor. “Come! A welcome awaits you.
Come!”[20]
Like Anna Newby, Betty Heidner and her brother Carl served as interim
pastors of the church until November 1932, when Rev. Arden Ragsdale accepted the
pastorate of Bethel Whole Gospel Church in Idaho Falls.[21]
Betty Heidner then moved to Emmett to
pastor the Foursquare church there; the following year, at age 21, she married Rev.
Harry Wilson, and the couple then pastored the Emmett Foursquare Church for the next
four years.[22]
While Betty had been serving as pastor in Idaho Falls,
Rev. Allen Brown, pastoring the Full Gospel church in Firth, encouraged the
Idaho Falls church to affiliate with the Assemblies of God, and they did so in
January 1933, changing the name of the church to Glad Tidings Assembly. In 1954
the church purchased lots on the corner of Holmes and Garfield, built the
building that still stands there and became known as Central Assembly of God
Church. In 1984 work was completed on a new church building at 2170 East 12th
Street, and the church name changed to New Life Assembly of God. Then in 2018, this
church changed their name to The Bridge and became non-denominational.[23]
Several things stand out to me from reading about these meetings. They were all weeks long - at least two weeks, and in the case of the Southard campaign, likely seven weeks. I found no indication that interest fell off over the course of these campaigns, but rather the opposite. So it appears God had prepared hearts, many hearts, to come to hear the gospel. Second, family discipleship. The calling of Ethel Heidner was somehow passed on to her daughter Betty and son Carl. Third, God can use youth - Betty at age 18 and her brother Carl at only 15 - leading the campaign, preaching, leading people to Christ, taking on pastoral responsibilities. Fourth, unity of purpose and mission. Betty had a Foursquare background, went to a Foursquare college, and left Idaho Falls to support a Foursquare church in Emmett. Yet in Idaho Falls she did not start a Foursquare church but served Bethel, at the time a Bible Standard church. While there is significant overlap in the beliefs and practices of these two branches of Christianity, there are differences as well. She apparently set those differences aside to support the work she saw Jesus doing in Idaho Falls. Finally and perhaps most importantly is the emphasis on prayer in these campaigns, as this is God's work and we need to be abiding in Jesus to see Him produce the fruit He desires.
The Great Depression in the United States began in August
1929, starting a series of bank failures that lasted through the 1930’s. Drought in 1930 and 1931 added to the
hardship of these times. Yet when evangelists
like the Newbys, Roy Southard and the Heidner family proclaimed the good news
of life in Christ, of His salvation, of eternal and present hope, people
responded and churches were formed and grew.
This period is known for the rise of cottage prayer meetings, the rapid
growth of evangelical and Pentecostal churches and miraculous healings. May we
remember these and other times of revival and be fervent in our prayers for revival
in our time.
[2] Bible Standard Overcomer, August, 1930,
p. 4
[3] In
chronological order, 1. Tacoma WA (1909-?), 2. Mackay ID, (~1920), 3.Sacramento
CA (1921-~1925), 4. Hermosa CA (~1927), 5.
Chappell, Mullen and Kearney NE (1928-1930) and 6. Firth ID (1929-1930)
[Terrell had come to Firth in 1929, with Anna staying behind as acting pastor
of the church in Kearney]. In an article “On the Far-flung Prairies of Nebraska,”
Bible Standard, June 1928, p. 2, Anna
Newby begins, “After having lived and labored so long in the larger cities of our
great land, such as Tacoma, Wash., Los Angeles, Calif., or Denver, Colo., as I
took my first walk of five minutes through the whole business section of
Chappell, I wondered and mused half aloud, - ‘will I like this place, this tiny
town…’” And then she continues, “I told myself, - ‘Well, we are only
evangelists and here but for a short time, as Jesus tarries, to build up this
new work of the whole Gospel until a permanent pastor shall come to carry on.’”
[4] Bible Standard Overcomer, December 1930,
p. 15
[5] The Idaho Falls Post, September 4, 1930,
p. 3. Two weeks after this announcement the
church began meeting is a building on South Lee and 4th Street, and
by then had added a Friday evening song service [From The Times-Register, September 19, 1930, p. 3 & 8.]
[6] Bible Standard Overcomer, October, 1930,
p. 8.
[7] The Idaho Falls Post, May 22, 1931, p. 10.
[8] Bible Standard Overcomer, July 1931, p.
10
[9] The Idaho Falls Post, June 11, 1931, p.
5.
[10] The Idaho Falls Post, July 3, 1931, p. 5
[11] The Idaho Falls Post, May 22, 1931, p. 8.
[12] Bible Standard Overcomer, July 1931 p.
10 & September 1931, p. 11.
[13] Foursquare Crusader, November 20, 1929,
p. 9.
[14] Foursquare Crusader, June 24, 1931, p. 8.
[15]
Now Life Pacific University, the Lighthouse of International Foursquare
Evangelism grew out of Aimee Semple McPherson’s ministry in Southern California
in the 1920’s, the first class graduating in 1925.
[16] Foursquare Crusader, July 30, 1930, p. 4.
[17] Foursquare Crusader, August 31, 1931, p.
3.
[18] Idaho Falls Times Register, September
18, 1931, p. 5.
[19] Foursquare Crusader, October 7, 1931, p.
7
[20] The Idaho Falls Post, October 30, 1931,
p. 6.
[21]
The Post-Register, November 11, 1932, p. 6.
[23]
For more of the history of the Assembly of God Church in Idaho Falls, see Helen
Brueggemann, editor, Assemblies of God of
Southern Idaho, A History, Artcraft Press, Nampa, 1993; for the more recent
change see “Idaho Falls Church Changes Its Name but Keeps Its Message,” Natalia
Hepworth, East Idaho News, September 7, 2018.
Comments
Post a Comment