The Peniel Mission was an interdenominational holiness rescue mission that was started in Los Angeles, California on 11 November 1886 by Theodore Pollock Ferguson (1853–1920) and Manie Payne Ferguson (born 1850; died 8 June 1932). It was dissolved in 1949.
Contents
- Origins and early days 18861894
- Peniel Hall 1894
- Leadership difficulties 1895
- Subsequent developments and expansion 18951906
- Azusa Street and the rise of Pentecostalism
- Highlights
- Deaths of Theodore and Manie Ferguson
- Changes
- Methods
- The Peniel Missionary Society 18951949
- Prominent members and supporters
- Periodicals
- Archival material
- References
Origins and early days (1886–1894)
Manie Payne Ferguson, along with her husband, Theodore, founded the Los Angeles Mission on November 11, 1886 at the Masonic Hall on Spring Street (near 416 North Main Street) in downtown Los Angeles. However, after three months they were forced to move to the basement of the Nadeau Hotel (opened 5 July 1886), located on the southwest corner of Spring and First Streets. After a year, they were forced to rent the burnt-out Methodist Episcopal Church, South for six months until it could be demolished. The Mission then relocated to rented rooms at 107 North Main Street. In the first eight years, the Mission relocated six times, before establishing a permanent location.
The Mission was eventually renamed the Peniel Mission. Peniel means "Face of God", and "was chosen from Genesis 32: 24–30, and is meant to connote spiritual triumph."
Peniel Hall (1894)
From the outset, the Peniel Mission was non-denominational and nonsectarian. In 1894, the Fergusons received a significant anonymous financial donation (from former English cricketer George Studd). With this funding the Fergusons were able to plan to expand the ministry of the Peniel Mission. They invited former Methodist presiding elder Dr Phineas Bresee to join them in their endeavour, and planned to construct a 900-seat auditorium and ministry centre at 227 South Main Street, Los Angeles. It was decided that there would be four superintendents: Theodore and Manie Ferguson, George Studd and Phineas F. Bresee.
On Sunday 21 October 1894 the 900-seat Peniel Hall was dedicated. University of Southern California president Dr. Joseph Pomeroy Widney led the 9.30am Praise Service, while Bresee preached in the 11.00am service "from the text, "And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved."(Smith, 40). In the initial issue of the Peniel Herald, the mission's official newspaper, it was announced
"Our first work is to try to reach the unchurched. The people from the homes and the street where the light from the churches does not reach, or penetrates but little. Especially to gather the poor to the cross, by bringing to bear upon them Christian sympathy and helpfulness.... It is also our work to preach and teach the gospel of full salvation; to show forth the blessed privilege of believers in Jesus Christ, to be made holy and thus perfect in love."
As Timothy Smith explains:
Here were holiness and humanitarianism working hand in hand, as in the days of Wesley. And sectarian feeling was rejected: "Peniel Mission is thoroughly evangelical but entirely undenominational," the Herald declared. Its superintendents would welcome help from all "earnest souls . . . who have any time over and above the work in their churches that they desire to give."
In October 1894 at the dedication of the Peniel Hall, Widney announced his intention to organize a Training Institute, in which Bible and practical nursing were to be the principal studies. By December 1894 Bresee had urged in the Peniel Herald the creation of an organization to screen out undesirable workers, and to create a group for "those that are being gathered in, who have no church affiliation, who need care and fellowship, and a place to find a home and work." Bresee and the other three superintendents created a printed statement of belief to be required of all who wished to associate themselves with Peniel Hall. It was a broad one, "embracing in simplest statement… a few of those essential things which are the common inheritance of the children of God.":
"The Peniel Mission is an organization for Christian service and fellowship. It will be required that those who seek to become members of the Peniel Mission be sound in the faith on all the main points of Christian doctrine, which may be particularized as follows:
"1. The Divine inspiration of the Scriptures, the Old and New Testaments.
"2. The Trinity of the Godhead, Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
"3. The Fall of man, and his consequent need of Regeneration.
"4. The Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ for all men.
"5. Justification by Faith in Him.
"6. Sanctification by Faith in the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ, and the Baptism of the Holy Ghost.
"7. The Resurrection of the dead.
According to Smith, "What Bresee intended, apparently, was a combination of the interdenominational mission idea with that of an independent church, the former for the workers and sponsors who had no thought of forsaking their old allegiances, the latter for the converts and others who had no church home."
Leadership difficulties (1895)
However, by early October 1895, Widney and Bresee were "frozen out" of the Peniel Mission. Frankiel indicates: "At first Bresee joined with the Fergusons at the Peniel Mission in Los Angeles, where he tried to persuade them to open a school and organize to receive members like a church. They refused, however, and other difficulties led to his parting with them after one year." According to Smith,
[t]he immediate cause for the organization of the Church of the Nazarene … is not so much to be found in Bresee's differences with the Methodists as in those which developed between him and the proprietors of Peniel Hall. Certainly J. P. Widney must have been disillusioned when A. B. Simpson, leader of the Christian and Missionary Alliance and reportedly an extremist on divine healing, appeared as a special worker at the mission in May [1895]. Bresee on his part disagreed with Mr. and Mrs. Fergusons' insistence upon the use of young women in rescue work, and their growing interest in foreign missionary schemes.
Another cause of disagreement was that Bresee became convinced that the best ministry for the urban poor was to create strong churches that ministered to entire families, whereas the Fergusons believed that the Peniel Mission should focus instead on the "down and outer" and remain non-denominational.
Subsequent developments and expansion (1895–1906)
From the home base in Los Angeles, other missions were established as Peniel Missions, primarily on the west coast of the United States of America, but also in Memphis, New York, Alaska and Hawaii. "With a United States membership destined never to exceed a thousand (in 1906 a government report said 703), the ministry…had an impact on the larger [holiness] movement far in excess of that implied by numbers." By the turn of the twentieth century, more than 25 missions and rescue homes had been started. Among the Peniel Missions established were those located at:
Other Peniel missions were established, including:
Azusa Street and the rise of Pentecostalism
The Azusa Street Revival of April 1906 had a negative effect on the Peniel Mission. Among those defecting from Peniel Hall was an Owen "Irish" Lee, a former Irish-American Catholic converted through Peniel Hall, who hosted William Seymour in 1906 and allowed meetings in his home. The Lees informed other members of Peniel about the meetings (later held at 214 North Bonnie Brae Street). On 9 April 1906 Lee received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and spoke in tonguesin his home when Seymour laid hands on him and prayed. This precipitated other manifestations of tongues-speaking (including Seymour for the first time) later that day. Among those affected were Jennie Moore and Ruth Asberry who went to the Peniel Mission and spoke in tongues there. This resulted in the entire congregation of the Peniel Mission following them to the Azusa Street Mission. "Most of the churches, mission and tent meetings in the area were effected immediately. Some lost so many people to the Azusa Street Mission that they closed."
Among those who also defected to the Pentecostal movement was their primary financial supporter, George Studd, former English cricketer and one of the primary benefactors of the Peniel Mission since its inception in 1886, who defected to the Apostolic Faith Mission in September 1907; and Frank Bartleman (1871–1936), pioneer Pentecostal preacher and the chronicler of the Azusa Street Revival, who was appointed director of the Peniel Mission in Stockton, California in early 1904, and later preached regularly at the Peniel Mission in Pasadena, California immediately prior to his involvement in the nascent Pentecostal movement.
Highlights
About 15 October 1906 there was a fire at the Peniel Hall in Los Angeles which caused the death of one elderly female worker, injury to two male workers, and the total destruction of the building.
Deaths of Theodore and Manie Ferguson
After her husband's death in 1920, “Mother Ferguson” continued to direct the work until her own death. Upon the death of Manie Ferguson on 8 June 1932, control of the Peniel Mission passed to an all-female self-perpetuating board.
Changes
In 1947 the Peniel Mission became a part of the present-day World Gospel Mission.[8] In 1998, all but two of the former West Coast USA Peniel Missions missionaries resigned from Peniel Missions, Inc. / World Gospel Missions and went to work for CityTeam Ministries. Peniel Missions in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco and Oakland were closed and the buildings and small fixed assets were sold to the ministry of CityTeam in a transaction that allowed those being ministered to continue receiving the services they needed. Missionaries and Pastor's Bob and Lisa Margaron continue the work at Peniel Missions, Inc. at 1500 and 1508 S. Sutter Street, Stockton, California today. This is the only remaining American Peniel Missions affiliated with World Gospel Mission.
Methods
"The Peniel Mission used some of the same methods as the Salvation Army, including street-corner meetings followed by parades back to the mission hall". According to Schwanz,
"Manie Ferguson was more outgoing than Theodore and was the guiding force for the expansion of the ministry. … Under Manie’s direction, the Peniel Missions sought to provide a ministry for single women. This appears to have been a primary motivation in the growth of the movement. The women usually lived in rented rooms near the rented hall where they conducted evangelistic services. They boldly testified on street corners and in bars and houses of prostitution. All workers were unsalaried, but the local mission paid for most of their expenses. Even the Fergusons were not paid by the mission, but lived on the rental income from three small houses they owned."
According to Sandra Frankiel,
"Together with his wife Manie, he offered street-corner meetings in the afternoons and evangelistic services nightly, with a meal afterwards. Their entire work, like that of most of the city holiness missions, was oriented toward soul saving and the promotion of holiness. The mission was not a church, however; converts were supposed to join one of the regular denominations. It was, rather, a holiness revival station spreading the message of Christian perfection".
The Peniel Missionary Society (1895–1949)
In addition to the expansion of the Peniel Mission in the United States of America, and its overseas territories: Alaska and Hawaii, eventually Peniel Missions were established overseas in Africa, Bolivia (1911); China (1909)[9]; Egypt, Guatemala, India, Mexico, and the Philippines. A separate organisation, The Peniel Missionary Society, under the control of Manie and Theodore Ferguson, was formed in 1895. The objective of the organisation was: "Mission work, as God shall lead, and as means shall be provided." (Dennis). The Mission operated on the faith mission model, with workers unsalaried, and guaranteed no financial support. Despite this, by 1911, the Peniel Missionary Society was operating in the following fields: India, North Africa (Egypt), Mexico, Central America (Guatemala), South America (Argentine Republic, and Bolivia), West Indies (Puerto Rico), Alaska, and Hawaii. (Dennis)
Prominent members and supporters
Prominent members of the Peniel Mission included