Pentecostal origins of “Kum Ba Yah”

God’s Shining Jewels, by Marvin and Helen Frey. Columbus, GA: Brentwood Christian Press, 2008.

The song “Kum Ba Yah” is widely known, but few realize that this African-American spiritual emerged from the life of the Pentecostal church.

In 1936, young Pentecostal evangelist and songwriter Marvin Frey (1918-1992) wrote the chorus, “Come By Here.” According to a recently-published biography of Frey, God’s Shining Jewels, this chorus traveled to Belgian Congo with African missionaries, who eventually brought the song to Angola. The Angolan believers sang “Come By Here” in the Lu Valle dialect, sounding like “Kum Ba Yah.” The missionaries, upon their return to America, brought this musical adaptation with them, which quickly spread throughout America and beyond. Frey registered both “Come By Here” and “Kum Ba Yah” with the Library of Congress. For an alternate account of the song’s origins, see the Wikipedia entry for “Kum Ba Yah.”

Who was Marvin Frey? One of twelve children born to immigrants from Germany, Frey was reared in Portland, Oregon. At age seventeen he began a prolific songwriting career, composing some of the most popular Christian choruses of the twentieth century. In 1955 he and Helen united in marriage, and they formed a dedicated ministry team for thirty-five years. The Freys began a children’s and youth ministry in New York City. They held credentials with the Independent Assemblies of God, the Pentecostal organization led by Rev. A. W. Rasmussen.

God’s Shining Jewels is a careful retelling of the lives and ministry of Marvin and Helen Frey. Of particular note are stories of their memories of and interactions with Pentecostal luminaries such as Charles S. Price, Aimee Semple McPherson, Thomas Wyatt, and Jack Coe. This inspiring and informative volume will be of interest not only to friends and ministry partners of the Freys, but also to scholars who will appreciate this account of a significant figure whose influential music and ministry extended over several generations.

Twenty of Frey’s most sung choruses (followed by copyright dates) are below:

Alleluia, 1973
Blessing and Honor and Glory, 1977
Do Lord, 1977
He is Lord, 1977
He Showed Me His Hands, 1977
He’s All I Need, 1974
I Have Decided to Follow Jesus, 1983
I Have a Jubilee Down in My Heart, 1977
I Know It Was the Blood, 1977
I Love Him For He Is Mine, 1977
Isn’t He Wonderful, 1973
I’ve Got Peace Like a River, 1977
Kum Ba Yah, 1936
Lord Make Us One, 1977
Oh the Blood of Jesus, 1977
Praise Him in the Morning, 1977
The Move Is On, 1977
This Is My Commandment, 1977
We’ll Give the Glory to Jesus, 1977
With Healing in His Wings, 1978

Reviewed by Darrin J. Rodgers

Paperback, 160 pages, illustrated. $12.00, plus $2.00 postage. Order from: http://marvinfrey.com

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Vinton Huffey Autobiography

Born on the Seventh Day, by Vinton Earl Huffey. Xlibris, 2007.

Reverend Vinton Huffey has lived a life of adventure. Living by faith began when he experienced conversion in a St. Louis, Missouri church at age eighteen. A poor farm boy, he had been riding the rails, a hobo, planning to head north to Alaska, and no one was more surprised than he to find himself called of God to preach the gospel. Despite extreme financial hardship, he attended Central Bible Institute (Springfield, Missouri) and North Central Bible Institute (Minneapolis, Minnesota) and began his life of ministry, marrying Lillian Crouse, a young Assemblies of God evangelist, raising four children, always listening to see where God told him to go next. Reverend Huffey’s gift for storytelling is a mix of American farm wisdom and a long life based on practical and daily faith. Reverend Huffey pastored several churches in Iowa (Oelwein, Le Mars, and Ames) and then moved to southern California where he pastored the Monrovia Assembly of God (now New Life Assembly, Duarte, California) for twenty years. While pastoring, sometimes earning only one dollar a week, he discovered that God had given him the gift of wisdom in business, and as he became wealthy, he pioneered a missionary outreach to America’s inner cities, to communities the church has abandoned, funding some of the work with the money God has given him.

Born on the Seventh Day is a history told in human stories. Ninety-two years old, Huffey takes us to the poignant moments of his youth, and to the funny and impossible moments of life on the Assemblies of God frontier, and to the surprising work of God in one of his servants, a witness to the early years of the movement.

Reviewed by Rhoda Huffey.

Read the article, “The Life and Ministry of Vinton Huffey,” as told to Augustus Cerillo, Jr., Assemblies of God Heritage 27 (2007): 42-46.

Paperback, 81 pages, illustrated. $15.99 plus postage. Order from: amazon.com.

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Doris Dresselhaus Menzies Autobiography

Young at Heart: The Story of a Heart Transplant Recipient, by Doris Dresselhaus Menzies. Springfield, MO: Celebration Publishing, 2007.

Doris Dresselhaus Menzies has had two famous last names. Her husband, Dr. William W. Menzies, is one of the most highly-regarded educators in the Assemblies of God. Her cousin, Dr. Richard Dresselhaus, served as the long-time pastor of San Diego (CA) First Assembly of God and continues to serve as an executive presbyter of the Assemblies of God. Few people can claim to be related to one statesman of their caliber, much less two!

But Doris Menzies has her own story to tell. In Young at Heart: The Story of a Heart Transplant Recipient, Menzies recounted her testimony — from her Assemblies of God upbringing in Iowa, to her years in the ministry with her husband, to her roles as wife and mother, to her recent medical triumphs as a heart transplant recipient and as a cancer survivor.

Born on a frigid December day in 1932 on an Iowa farm, Doris was reared in the sturdy Willard and Beatrice Dresselhaus family. Her mother taught Sunday school, and her father was the Sunday school superintendent of the Decorah Assembly of God. Willard, a farmer, served as Farm Bureau president for Winneshiek County, was involved in local politics, and owned his own plane. Young at Heart challenges the assumption, held by certain historians, that early Pentecostals were disinherited or socially uninvolved.

Doris met Bill Menzies, her future husband, at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois. Bill graduated in 1953 and accepted the pastorate of the little Assemblies of God church in Big Rapids, Michigan. They married soon after Doris’ 1955 graduation and settled into pastoral ministry.

David and Gladys Guenther Missionary Biography

To God Be the Glory: The Story of David and Gladys Guenther, Assemblies of God Missionaries to Guyana, Belize, and Jamaica, by David J. Guenther. Springfield, MO: The Author, 2007.

David J. Guenther and his wife, Gladys, served on the evangelistic field and pastored Assemblies of God churches in Cataract, Wautoma, Marshfield, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. They also followed God’s call and served as missionaries from 1959 to 1995 in Guyana (known as British Guiana until 1966), Jamaica, and Belize.

Guenther, in his new book To God Be the Glory, preserves and shares the stories and lessons from their lives and ministry. This engaging autobiographical account will be welcomed, not only by those who have counted the Guenthers as friends and ministry partners, but also by church leaders and scholars. Guenther’s careful, detailed account of their ministry years documents the people, events, and places significant in the development of the Assemblies of God in three countries along the Caribbean Basin.

David and Gladys Guenther started life on the northern tier of the United States; David in Wausau, Wisconsin, and Gladys in North Dakota. Both were reared in Pentecostal homes. David’s grandfather, Ernest B. Guenther, was baptized in the Holy Spirit in about 1908, shortly after hearing of the great Pentecostal revival in Chicago. He was ordained by the Full Gospel Assembly in Chicago in 1911 and led German-language house meetings in Merrill, Wisconsin. David grew up in Wausau Christian Assembly of God, where his father was a lay pastor. Gladys was the daughter of Clarence J. Larson, a leader in the North Dakota District who pastored Assemblies of God congregations in Cavalier, Minot, Lisbon, Powers Lake, and Grand Forks, North Dakota, as well as in Eureka, California.

Congregational Holiness Church

We Believe [2nd ed.]. Griffin, GA: Congregational Holiness Church, 2003.

The Life Story of Rev. B. F. Duncan, 1874-1949 [rev. ed.]. Griffin, GA: Congregational Holiness Church, 2004.

My Earthly Pilgrimage, by Cullen L. Hicks. Augusta, GA: Augusta Printing Center, 2004.

Vision Caster: The Story of Hugh B. Skelton, by E. Amelia Billingsley. Cleveland, TN: Pathway Press, 2000.

The Congregational Holiness Church (CHC) (www.CHChurch.com) made its entrance onto the Pentecostal scene in 1921, resulting from a disagreement within the Pentecostal Holiness Church (PHC) over the role of medicine in divine healing. Many early Pentecostals, including PHC leaders, eschewed human remedies (such as physicians or medicine) and instead encouraged believers to seek divine healing, which they taught was provided for in Christ’s atonement. This rejection of modern medicine was not universally held in the PHC. When evangelist Watson Sorrow and Hugh Bowling disagreed with the PHC on this and other issues, they were forced to leave the PHC in 1920. They — along with a handful of other ministers and churches — organized the CHC in High Shoals, Georgia in 1921. The CHC was organized along congregational lines, differing from the PHC’s episcopal polity, in an attempt to democratize church governance.

The CHC has grown from 12 churches in 1921 to over 5,200 churches in 12 states and 19 countries in 2007. The CHC’s growth reflects the growing importance of the emerging Pentecostal movement in non-Western contexts. Like the Assemblies of God, fewer than five percent of CHC churches and members are located in the United States. The CHC claims 25,000 adherents in 225 churches in the U.S. and almost one million adherents in about 5,000 churches outside the U.S. (primarily in Central and South America).

Grandview Church, Elk City, Oklahoma

From Boom to Bust and Back: The Story of Elk City, Oklahoma and Grandview Church, by Bob Burke and Marcia Shottenkirk with Mark Little. Oklahoma City, OK: Commonwealth Press, 2006.

Times were great in Elk City in 1982, when the oil and gas flowed freely, as did the prosperity in this western Oklahoma town. God was at work, creating a church called Grandview Assembly of God, bringing hundreds of believers into His flock. But, by the winter of 1983, the good times were gone. The oil and gas boom went bust — decimating the town’s economy and crushing the spirits of its people. This story, of how the faith of Grandview’s staff and members was tested during this difficult time, is an inspiring one — full of trial and triumph and the power of God’s faithfulness and grace. Featuring dozens of testimonies of transformed lives — including Pastor Mark Little and members of Grandview Assembly who, through God’s grace, overcame addictions, poverty, sickness, and loneliness — this book shows that God does truly offer hope in today’s complex world.

–Adapted from cover

Paperback, 206 pages, illustrated. $10.00. Order from: Mark Little Ministries, P.O. Box 1145, Elk City, OK 73648.
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Rex Humbard Biography

The Soul-Winning Century, 1906-2006 : The Humbard Family Legacy … One Hundred Years of Ministry, by Rex Humbard. Dallas, TX: Clarion Call Marketing, 2006.

Since almost the beginning of the twentieth century Pentecostal movement, members of the Humbard family have been engaging in earnest, energetic ministry to reach the lost for Christ. Rex Humbard, whose preaching has graced the airwaves for over 65 years, has now told his family’s story in his memoirs, The Soul-Winning Century.

While Rex Humbard became a household name through his groundbreaking television ministry, his father, Alpha E. Humbard also was an important pioneer preacher in his own right. Alpha Humbard, born in 1890 sixty miles north of Little Rock, Arkansas, had a rough childhood. Poverty, fights, liquor, and hard work dominated the world in which young Alpha was reared. However, he sensed God’s calling at a young age and overcame the odds to answer this call. Alpha was a practical, direct, no-nonsense kind of preacher whose compassion for people, according to this telling, overcame any deficit created by his lack of formal education. Perhaps it was this lack of haute couture – combined with a dependence upon God — that allowed him to touch the masses where they were at.

Alpha once recalled that a seminary-trained minister bitterly complained that, while he was a learned man with good diction and degrees, he could not draw the crowds like Alpha, whom he described as “an old farm boy, a clodhopper who can’t talk good English.” Alpha recalled that he recommended that the minister throw away his cigar, which he was smoking while complaining, and get on his knees and pray (p. 27). Alpha was not alone – his innovative, sometimes rough-and-tumble ways reflected a whole generation of early Pentecostal preachers.

The Sparkling Fountain

The Sparkling Fountain, by Fred T. Corum and Hazel E. Bakewell. Windsor, OH: Corum & Associates, Inc., 1989, c1983.

The Sparkling Fountain is a 278-page book with eyewitness accounts of the beginning of Pentecostalism in the Ozarks. The book was started by Fred T. Corum and his sister Hazel E. Bakewell. Then James and Kenneth Corum, sons of Fred Corum, helped to preserve this slice of history and see it through to production. First marketed in 1983, it is offered again on the 100th anniversary of Central Assembly in Springfield, Missouri.

The Azusa Street Mission story is recapped in beginning chapters, but for our purpose here the story begins in 1905 when Fred and Hazel moved to the Ozarks from Oklahoma with their parents, James and Lillie Harper Corum.

James and Lillie were never credentialed ministers but are considered the pioneers of Pentecost in Springfield — holding together a nucleus for several years until a church was set in order. I have an idea many other lay people throughout our history deserve special recognition for beginning and/or keeping local congregations together (including unfortunate splits) until a pastor assumed the leadership.

The Corums soon became active in a Baptist church where Mr. Corum served as Sunday school superintendent. But in the fall of 1906 they heard about the Pentecostal outpouring and became interested. Then in May 1907 they were introduced to this new experience which would dramatically put their lives on a new course.

Prosperity Gospel in Norway

Det guddommeliggjorte menneske og den menneskeliggjorte Gud (The Deification of Humanity and the Humanization of Deity), by Kjell Olav Sannes. Oslo, Norway: REFLEKS-Publishing, 2005.

Den nye reformasjonen (The New Reformation), by Lars Olav Gjøra. Oslo, Norway: REFLEKS-Publishing, 2006.

While positive confession theology (also known by the monikers “prosperity gospel” or “word-faith”) originated in America, it has made significant inroads into many segments of the worldwide Christian church. Numerous American authors have attempted theological and historical assessments of this phenomenon. Now, two new books by Norwegian scholars offer critiques of the theologies and personalities involved in the prosperity gospel movement in their own context.

Kjell Olav Sannes, a professor at the Norwegian Lutheran School of Theology in Oslo, Norway, presents and discusses the views of Kenneth E. Hagin in his book, Det guddommeliggjorte menneske og den menneskeliggjorte Gud. Sannes offers a critical theological analysis of the interrelationship between humanity and God in the writings of Kenneth E. Hagin. The title, which in English translates as “The Deification of Humanity and the Humanization of Deity,” reflects the theological issue at hand. The volume’s central thesis is that Hagin “deifies” humanity and “humanizes” God. This confusion of identities, the author avers, leads to two errors: (1) humanity, in particular the “born again believer,” is given status, authority and possibilities which, according to scripture, are reserved for God; and (2) God is viewed as limited in His power and authority in a way that reflects humanity’s own limitations. Hagin’s God looks a lot like Hagin. Ironically, something similar happened when the Jesus Seminar, a group of liberal scholars, determined that Jesus was essentially a twentieth-century western liberal.

To India with Love

To India with Love, by Mabel Hicok Snyder and compiled and edited by Jean Snyder. Springfield, MO: Jean Snyder, 2007.

Mabel Hicok Snyder has witnessed the growth of the worldwide Pentecostal movement firsthand. Her family began attending a Pentecostal church in the Detroit, Michigan area in the early 1920s. Soon after her Spirit baptism in 1924 at age 16, she felt a calling to serve as a missionary to India. After graduating from T. K. Leonard’s West Park Bible School in Findlay, Ohio, she set sail for India in November 1929. She and her husband Emery — whom she married in 1936 — spent the next four decades as Assemblies of God missionaries to India, working primarily in Kurebhar.

Now 99 years old, Snyder — with the help of her daughter-in-law — has written her memoirs. To India with Love is a careful retelling of the story of the lives and ministries of one missionary family. Readers will appreciate the numerous faith-building missionary stories, such as the rescue of a girl who was raised by wolves. Approximately 45 of the book’s 60 richly-illustrated pages detail the Snyders’ work in India. This book will be of interest to those who counted the Snyders as family and friends, and also to those who wish to better understand the development of the Assemblies of God in India.

Reviewed by Darrin Rodgers

Paperback, 60 pages, illustrated. $10, plus $2 shipping. Order from: Jean Snyder, 1415 E. Buena Vista St., Springfield, MO 65804 (phone: 417-887-0345)

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