A CENTURY
of Gospel Publishing
◆ BY JOEL TRAMMELL ◆
S
INCE Johannes Gutenberg center of activity for the Holiness Church there that the name was changed from
invented the printing press in soon followed. On October 10, 1906, 10 the Holiness Church to Church of God.
1440, the printed word has been months after the first General Assembly At the third and fourth annual
a major force in spreading the was conducted in North Carolina, the Assemblies in 1908 and 1909, there were
gospel. The Holiness and Pente- Holiness Church (now North Cleveland extensive discussions of a church paper.
costal movements of the 19th and 20th Church of God) was organized in Cleve- Several spoke of the advantages of having
centuries were both propelled by various land, Tennessee, with A. J. Tomlinson as a publication for the movement, but no
publications that were used to promote its first pastor. The second General Assem- action was taken. At the fifth Assembly in
their message. A. J. Tomlinson was one bly was held in Cleveland, and it was 1910, a committee report on the matter
of the earliest leaders in these movements
to see the merits of publishing.
Having journeyed from Indiana to the
mountains of western North Carolina,
Tomlinson soon became part of the Holi-
ness Church at Camp Creek, a branch
of the group that began as the Christian
Union in 1886. On January 1, 1901, Tom-
linson began a four-page paper called Sam-
son’s Foxes. At the cost of 10 cents for a
one-year subscription, the paper achieved
a subscription list of 620, but was dis-
continued after only two years. After
becoming pastor of the Holiness Church
at Camp Creek in June 1903, Tomlinson
“THIS LITTLE PAPER NEVER LEAVES THE
began a new paper in 1904. The Way
OFFICE WITHOUT THE OFFICE FORCE,
featured four pages of sermons, messages,
testimonies, and announcements. It was
AFTER LABORING HARD TO GET IT OUT,
discontinued in September 1905. GATHERING AROUND AND LAYING HANDS
Tomlinson moved from the moun-
tains of North Carolina to Cleveland,
ON IT AND ASKING THE LORD TO MAKE
Tennessee, in December 1904, and the IT A BLESSING.”—M.W. Letsinger, 1929
8 EVANGEL • MAR 2010
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