Joseph Smale: God's 'Moses' for Pentecostalism

2013

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

Introduction

Pastor Joseph Smale, described by Frank Bartleman as the ‘Moses’ of Pentecostalism, immediately caught my attention with the discovery that he had also trained at Spurgeon’s College, London, albeit 100 years before me! Therefore, my exploration into the life and ministry of Smale is unashamedly from a similar Baptist background which has undoubtedly shaped many of my presuppositions within the spheres of research undertaken. Being aware that any qualitative investigation requires recognition of ‘a cacophony of voices speaking with various agendas’,1 it is imperative that my personal experiences and feelings are considered as valid as any of the multiple ‘voices’ under consideration.

My initial assumptions were based on the recognition that present-day British Baptists were, and predominantly still are, ignorant of Smale’s past existence, ministry and involvement as an early pioneer of Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity. This is particularly surprising given the subsequent prolific growth of the Pentecostal movement globally throughout the twentieth and into the twenty-first centuries. Such omissions can best be interpreted because of the following three factors.

Firstly, Smale’s catalytic role in the chain of events leading to the Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles in 1906 naturally forms part of the Pentecostal storyline and, therefore, by definition, is located outside the domain of Baptist historiography. Secondly, as far as the Baptist archives at Spurgeon’s College, London, and Regent’s Park College, Oxford, were aware Joseph Smale had left Britain in 1893 for ministry in Arizona, and then his subsequent churches were listed up until 1913, but with nothing else recorded about his life and ministry thereafter. Whereas former pastors usually have their obituary printed in the official Baptist Union of Great Britain handbook the year after death, the fact that Smale had left his home country and later the Baptist denomination offers sufficient explanation why such an omission occurred in his case.2 Thirdly, the late Douglas McBain, a leading proponent of Charismatic Renewal within the Baptist denomination in Britain over the past forty years, unwittingly made a similar omission concerning Joseph Smale in his detailed account of the history of renewal among British Baptists. When charting the early days of the modern Pentecostal movement at Azusa Street McBain makes no mention of Smale or First Baptist Church Los Angeles, simply because he was not aware of Joseph Smale’s existence.3

Even Spurgeon’s College, which historically since inception4 has maintained a vibrant interest in equipping students to minister in the power of the word and the Holy Spirit, has not registered the fact that Joseph Smale was one of their former students from 1887–90, before going on to accomplish this significant ‘Moses’ pioneering role towards the ‘Promised Land’ referred to in the context of this book as Pentecostalism. Within spheres of academic and ministerial formation at such institutions as Spurgeon’s College, where a keen interest in revival movements of Charismatic and Pentecostal Christianity is regarded as a necessity in the modern milieu, Smale’s story deserves to be discovered.

Significantly, just as the research for this book commenced in 2002, so Baptist historian Ian Randall wrote a chapter about ‘Baptists and the Shaping of Pentecostalism’,5 in which Joseph Smale and his pivotal role in Los Angeles was succinctly described in a paragraph.6 Although brief, Randall’s reference to Smale signified an important growing Baptist awareness, from a British perspective at least, of the early days of Pentecostalism and the impact of a Baptist heritage for at least ten of the forty-five Pentecostal leaders who joined the movement before 1914.7 Douglas Jacobsen accordingly notes how each participant in the Pentecostal movement, Baptist or otherwise, was important because they ‘brought his or her own set of perceptions and theological insights to the work of theologically making sense of Pentecostalism’.8

Inevitably the Baptistic roots of Pentecostalism that have gained most prominent attention are the early North American Pentecostal leaders E.N. Bell (1866–1923), who became the first general chairman of the Assemblies of God, and C.H. Mason (1866–1961), co-founder and long time leader of the Church of God in Christ. Both attended Baptist theological institutions; Bell the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary from 1900–02, and Mason the Arkansas Baptist College in 1893. Another early Pentecostal leader with Baptist roots was Charles Price Jones (1865–1949), latterly ‘Senior Bishop’ of the Church of Christ (Holiness), USA. Having established a network with C.H. Mason in revivals and church planting that arose from a convention held at the Mt. Helm Baptist Church, Jackson, Mississippi, in 1897, Jones was later to accompany Mason to Azusa Street for his Holy Spirit baptism.9

While Baptist historians may be excused for not realising the significance of Pastor Joseph Smale, Pentecostal historiography has for over a century included Smale in their storyline, even though superficially. From the emergence of Pentecostalism in Los Angeles, Smale has been recognised as one of many catalysts involved in the chain of events that led up to the 1906 Azusa Street Revival. However, an in-depth biographical assessment of Smale’s unique contribution has, to date, never been attempted. In defence of Pentecostal scholars, the primary reason why Smale has escaped the attention allotted to characters such as Bell, Mason and C.P. Jones is probably integrally linked to his peculiar ‘Moses’ role and designation. Given that, although Smale initially anticipated the fullness of Pentecostal blessing in a localised revival that would ripple out to encompass the world, he very quickly withdrew himself and his First New Testament Church from the expressions of Pentecostalism that were emerging at Azusa Street and elsewhere. The consequence of such disaffection with the Pentecostal movement by late 1906 caused Smale to recalibrate his theological and ecclesiological position as an independent non-denominational pastor and church. Consequently, although he still viewed himself as an exponent of Evangelical and Pentecostal Christianity, he consciously disassociated himself from the radical Pentecostals of the Apostolic Faith. Reasons such as these, therefore, explain why Smale has not previously been identified by Pentecostals as one worthy of scholarly attention.

Significance for Pentecostal and Baptist History

The underpinning contribution of this study is that in spite of his premature withdrawal from Pentecostalism, Joseph Smale participated in some quite remarkable phenomena which contain pertinent factual data that merits inclusion as integral background to the Azusa Street Revival. Furthermore, the accumulative practical and theological criteria which ultimately prompted Smale’s decision to extricate himself from the movement have remained a neglected aspect of study, to the detriment of Pentecostal research. These can best be summarized within the following three categories.

Accuracy of Facts

The historical challenge is, as ever, to dig beneath the surface of all documentary materials available in order to be able critically to expand the paradigms of previous narratives, namely those standardized accounts of the events leading up to the Azusa Street Revival as published by the ‘official’ Pentecostal historians, such as Frank Bartleman,10 B.F. Lawrence,11 C.W. Shumway,12 and others.

The importance of this original research is that most subsequent Pentecostal histories have tended simply to concentrate upon the following five aspects of Smale’s life and ministry, as initially recorded by Pentecostal journalist Frank Bartleman. First, news of the 1904 Welsh Revival caught the interest of Joseph Smale resulting in his visit to meet Evan Roberts and witness the revival firsthand. Secondly, returning to Los Angeles, Smale communicated accounts of the Welsh outpouring and prophesied that Los Angeles would soon be shaken by a similar mighty Pentecost. Thirdly, in anticipation Smale initiated home prayer meetings and nineteen weeks13 of daily prayer meetings seeking the revival to come to LA. Such was Smale’s openness to the work of the Holy Spirit. Fourthly, the board of Smale’s own church (First Baptist Los Angeles) complained, and so Smale resigned his pastorate and established the First New Testament Church Los Angeles. Finally, Smale’s new church witnessed speaking in tongues for the first time on Easter Sunday 1906, spoken by Jennie Moore, who later married William Seymour.

Pentecostal historiography is indebted to Bartleman for his legacy in recording the early days of the Azusa Street Revival, in his work How ‘Pentecost’ Came to Los Angeles.14 The surprise, however, is that little has been added to Bartleman’s portrayal of Smale over subsequent years, other than a repetition of these five core details. Therefore, apart from Bartleman’s classic text, Smale typically occupies, on average, just one page of the Azusa Street history as retold by scholars of Pentecostalism, including R.M. Anderson,15 Vinson Synan,16 Walter Hollenweger,17 and Edith Blumhofer.18 These details have been consistently handed down, seemingly with minimal critical investigation or challenge. Their concurrent view being that the Welsh Revival was the catalyst for raising expectations in Los Angeles for a similar outpouring of God’s Spirit. Blumhofer regards Smale’s response as ‘representative of the reactions of many American evangelicals who saw in Wales an event that they believe confirmed the restoration in their day of New Testament experience’.19 The practical outworking of Smale’s response back in Los Angeles received further recognition a decade later when, in an article printed in Confidence, Bartleman referred to the prayer meetings Smale had started as having a formative effect on the events at Azusa Street.20

Besides Bartleman’s account, a more recent article by Cecil Robeck also demands specific reference as it has informed numerous enquiries and writing concerning Smale, as a respected first-stop for information within The New International Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements.21 However, the tendency for some naively to transfer erroneous details from generation to generation can be illustrated in the 2004 CD production of The Apostolic Faith papers.22 In addition to the thirteen original Azusa Street papers, the producer Tony Cauchi has included six ‘short biographies of the principal participants’ at Azusa Street; namely, Frank Bartleman, Florence Crawford, William Durham, Lucy Farrow, Charles Parham, and Joseph Smale. According to Cauchi’s research, which relies heavily upon Bartleman and Robeck’s ‘Smale’ article, these six facts presented in Smale’s résumé are simply incorrect; some, of course, more vital to Pentecostal history than others.

First, Cauchi states that ‘At 21 years of age he entered the Baptist ministry’ – whereas Smale was twenty. He claims that ‘In 1895 Smale moved to the Los Angeles area, where he became pastor of First Baptist Church’, but actually it was in 1897. Thirdly, ‘When news of the Welsh revival reached California Smale was so hungry for revival that he travelled to Wales in 1905 to see the revival firsthand’. However, this study will demonstrate the truth that Smale was burnt out, and travelled to Wales only at the end of a long sabbatical trip to the Holy Land amidst circumstances that appear far more providential. According to Cauchi, ‘The highlight of the trip was a personal meeting with Evan Roberts’, and while Roberts did correspond with Bartleman, there is no evidence that Evan Roberts and Smale ever met other than Bartleman’s ambiguous reference that Smale ‘had been in touch with the [Welsh] revival and Evan Roberts’.23 Cauchi maintains that ‘Smale began 19 weeks of protracted meetings in anticipation of a similar outpouring of the Holy Spirit’ – Faupel quotes this as a ‘16 week revival in his church’24 – but these comments contradict the church records and newspaper accounts that the meetings lasted for a fifteen week period. Finally, that ‘Smale was confronted by the church board [at First Baptist] but refused to lay down his passion for revival’ is also inaccurate as only one church deacon opposed Smale! The interview with Smale in the Los Angeles Times25 illustrates the problem with the impression that has been perpetuated by Bartleman’s history that the whole diaconate reacted against him, resulting in his forced resignation and the establishment of First New Testament Church.

Another detail to be reinterpreted is the statement that ‘Smale was married to Esther Isabelle.’ Simply stated like this in any summary is misleading, because actually Smale did not marry Esther Isabel until 1911, and she was, in fact, his third wife. Of impact historically to Smale’s ministry at First Baptist was the fact that he remained separated from his second wife all through the decade 1900–10. That personal detail may appear surplus to requirement within a Pentecostal history, except for its contributory factor to much of the conflict within the First Baptist Church and subsequent developments.

However, even within the brief schema outlined above there are numerous inaccuracies that have inadvertently been perpetuated by scholars over the century. Nigel Scotland’s historic overview identifying the origins of the Charismatic Movement at least succeeds where McBain had earlier failed,26 in that he recognises Smale as the catalyst linking the Welsh and Los Angeles Revivals. However, Scotland’s error in recording 1904 as the year that Smale returned with the Pentecostal fire is then incorrectly quoted by Keith J. Hacking, who in turn propagates further inaccuracies with a presumptive reference to Smale being ‘an American Baptist minister’.27

Similarly, Noel Gibbard’s work on the rippling impact of the Welsh Revival provides details pertaining to Smale’s pivotal influence, yet without any critical evaluation of Bartleman’s account on which Gibbard draws heavily for his primary evidence. This in turn illustrates how compelling Bartleman’s account has been in perpetuating a number of generalizations as well as some wholly flawed notions. For instance, according to Gibbard, ‘it was not until the Azusa Street meetings that Joseph Smale spoke in tongues’.28 Included in synopses such as Gibbard’s portrayal, mythologies surrounding Joseph Smale have been allowed to develop unchallenged. This study aims to correct such errors by providing a critical account of Smale’s life and theology.

The one exception to these criticisms of literature regarding Joseph Smale is Cecil Robeck’s recent publication, The Azusa Street Mission and Revival.29 Unanimously appreciated by other Pentecostal scholars as the world’s leading authority on Azusa Street, Robeck has provided the first and most comprehensive account of Smale’s involvement leading up to, and during, the revival in Los Angeles in 1906. The timing of Robeck’s 2006 work, along with his personal encouragement in 2004 that I should pursue the Smale-Trail30 to discover the actual facts behind the Smale persona, has been immensely influential. Consequently, many of the paradigms for Smale’s ministry connections with early Pentecostalism and the Los Angeles Church Federation are indebted to Robeck’s innovative research in this field.

The Spurgeonic Roots of Pentecostalism

A unique theme surfaced while pursuing the background to Smale’s ministerial formation and earlier pastorates. Intrinsically embedded in his teaching prior to Azusa Street is a root of Pentecostalism previously unidentified, let alone analysed; namely, the influence of the nineteenth-century Baptist preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon on Joseph Smale.

Spurgeon’s pneumatology pervaded the training of young pastors at his College in South London through college lectures and published sermons.31 It charts a dominant influence that can be traced back to Smale’s own formation at the College and beyond. For through both the Pastors’ College and Spurgeon’s personal acquaintance with Smale, Spurgeon created a hunger for Holy Spirit power as the prerequisite for the fulfilment of Acts 2:17-21. Helpfully, there are numerous sermons by Spurgeon which enable analysis of these non-Wesleyan roots of Pentecostalism, for what both Spurgeon and Smale anticipated would herald ‘a season of glorious disorder’.32

Therefore, this study argues that Smale’s role was more pivotal than simply the fact that he told his people about the Welsh Revival and encouraged them to pray for a Pentecost of their own. As important as these steps were, important precursors must be recognised given that Smale was preaching and encouraging prayer for a move of the Spirit ever since he began his pastorate at First Baptist Church Los Angeles in 1897.33 The significance of this analysis will consequently extend beyond a biographical portrayal of Smale, identifying the Spurgeonic factors that shaped his pneumatology before and after Azusa Street. Given that much of his teaching in subsequent years focused on the interrelationship between earthly and heavenly aspects of Christian experience, there are some conclusions which are equally applicable to both historical research and to contemporary Baptist-Pentecostal-Charismatic discussions.

‘Organisation’ versus ‘Freedom’

It is instructive to observe how similar tensions which overshadowed Smale’s life and ministry, as he sought a more Pentecostal form of ministry, were also familiar to other Baptists who likewise had to undergo a metamorphosis from old structures of organisational and denominational life into new forms of Pentecostal freedom. This can be seen prior to Smale’s revival experiences, where from 1898 C.P. Jones’ promotion of holiness doctrines met with increased resistance with Baptists in the Southern United States, as Jones sought to untangle Baptist denominational identity from the sanctifying work of the Spirit to realize the unity of the church.34 Drawing together some of the transatlantic Baptist-holiness strands, Jones noted in a short article dated around 1907 that

As we now stand we might be called ‘Higher Life Baptists,’ our doctrine differing very little from that advocated by A.J. Gordon, F.B. Meyer, Evangelist Torrey, Chas. H. Spurgeon and others. Only like the Christians … we believe that we ought to HONOR THE NAME of Christ as it is honored in the New Testament and not put human nicknames on Christ’s bride, since there is only one name by which we may be saved.35

Another significant example comes from Sweden and shows that former Baptist pastor Lewi Pethrus had to face similar issues having become a Pentecostal in 1907. David Bundy comments how ‘in 1913 the Swedish Baptist Convention expelled Pethrus and his entire congregation from the convention because they practiced open communion but in reality because of their Pentecostal theology and liturgy’.36 Significantly, Pethrus attempted to contact Smale during the Swedish denominational debacle,37 presumably because Smale represented someone who possessed valuable insights following his earlier experiences in Los Angeles. The evidence of such Pentecostal-Charismatic church history over the past century indicates that ‘organization’ versus ‘freedom’ issues very quickly become highly charged matters of debate and schism, irrespective of geography or denomination.

Emerging from the Smale primary materials discovered are clear insights into the ‘organized-freedom’ patterns he established during the inception of First New Testament Church. There is a clarity attached to these plans and convictions as Smale was starting a church from scratch, with the sole purpose of creating an organisation in which the Holy Spirit was encouraged to exercise perfect freedom. Although discredited by Bartleman and others, Smale’s model can be regarded as a via media by which he sought to construct a model of church life and practice based upon firm ecclesiological convictions.38 This was a significant church model based around prayer, global mission and preaching, revealing patterns for all who continue to attempt mediation between Reformed and Pentecostal-Charismatic constituencies, such as evidenced within the World Alliance of Reformed Churches’ dialogue with Classic Pentecostal Churches, 1996–2000.39 Furthermore, recent indications suggest that these themes are prompting ongoing academic research and comment, as exampled by Calvin College’s Professor James K.A. Smith’s recent article exploring the experiential and theological embodiment of being ‘Reformed-Charismatic’ and ‘Pentecostal Calvinist’.40

Methodologies

The central aim of this study has been to accumulate all extant sources pertaining to the life and ministry of Joseph Smale to enable an accurate analysis of his life and ministry. Given the superficial knowledge of Smale’s background and decisions, as outlined above, the priority was initially to discover whether or not any primary materials had actually survived, especially in the form of sermons, church magazines/bulletins, church records, journals, newspaper reports, and the like.

Then, because the theoretical and methodological questions that underpin investigation into characters of history requires more than a simple retelling of biographical facts, the challenge has been to detect something of the subject’s ‘voice’, his reasoning, motives, and behaviour, which may have been lost over the passage of time, if ever recorded properly at all. Also, as modern historiography encourages any medium possible that can help to unlock the past and enhance historical understanding, the discovery of some photographs has informed the narrative further by providing images of people and locations which have, up until now, simply been names in the story.41

In order to achieve a more accurate reconstruction of Smale’s life and influence in a way which enables his own theological insights to permeate the details of his life, it was deemed necessary to discover answers to basic questions such as: who in particular was influencing Smale? What was he reading? With whom did he associate, looking both at his time in England as well as North America? Which meetings and conferences did he organise and attend, and to what effect? All such queries were incorporated in this one overarching research question: what were the contributory factors in Joseph Smale’s life that caused him to find significance as God’s ‘Moses’ for Pentecostalism? These questions then controlled investigation for original data covering every phase of Smale’s life and ministry. This search was appropriately organized in five directions, with the following results.

Smale Relatives

The first initiative was to locate any surviving relatives of Joseph Smale, whether in the United Kingdom or North America, who might possess valuable oral history and the tantalising possibility that some documentary sources may have survived in family archives. After searching for six months, with the assistance of George Fogelson,42 contact was eventually made with one of Smale’s relatives, namely his grandson, George Wood, based in California.43 A call with George confirmed a number of important details that Smale’s daughter, Esther Grace, had in fact died in September 2000, leaving two sons from her first marriage, Stanley and George Wood. Unfortunately for research purposes it became apparent that the majority of family Smale memorabilia, including sermons, pamphlets and personal items had not survived.

However, an assorted collection of preserved papers and photographs have generously been made available to me by George and Stan, including some photographs, a journal of Smale’s trip to China in 1907 to establish the China New Testament Church, and bulletins that Smale wrote during his years at First New Testament Church Los Angeles. These include three copies of a periodical that Smale self-published, entitled Truth: Earthly & Heavenly, which provide valuable insights into his developing dispensational notions after 1909. George Wood also recorded an interview with his mother in the last decade of her life, quizzing her on early recollections of her father. But given that Smale died in 1926 when she was still a child has meant that only the briefest of memories have been passed on orally. Nonetheless, these possess valuable biographical importance in piecing together as much of the narrative of Smale’s life as possible. Family details that would never be known otherwise have been preserved orally, such as Smale’s musical ability to sing solos, particularly as C.H. Spurgeon’s soloist, and the fact that Joseph and Esther Smale had a son while pastoring Unity Chapel in Bristol, England (1914), although this son tragically died at birth. The support of the Smale family to this research enterprise cannot be underestimated; especially the inherent benefit that Smale’s grandsons have both obtained doctorates and each has extensive experience of Christian ministry and mission. Consequently they have both understood the nature of this research.

Baptist Archives

With Smale’s life and ministry encompassing significant phases either side of the Atlantic, it was necessary to search for primary materials at all the various college and church archives to which he was connected. Starting in Britain, where Joseph Smale sat under the tutelage of Spurgeon, it was vital to discover what College records from 1887–90 still existed. As noted already, the Spurgeon’s College librarian, Judy Powles, acknowledged that their records for that era are minimal,44 but she confirmed that Smale started at the College in 1887, coming from Spurgeon’s church, the Metropolitan Tabernacle. It lists his pastorates up to 1913 and then his date of death. But, as already mentioned, no obituary was printed in the Baptist Union Handbook the following year. Delving deeper within the College Heritage Room archives has since revealed a number of references to Smale’s training and assessment, as well as two photographs of him as a young student (see Figures 5 and 6).

Similarly, The Angus Library at Regent’s Park College, Oxford, has only the briefest record, listing Smale’s different churches, but again with no memoirs held for him as they are for some other Baptist ministers. This realised, and finding no reference to Smale in any old British Baptist magazines of the Metropolitan Tabernacle or Baptist Times and Freeman newspapers during his time in Britain before emigrating in 1893, the value of The Angus Library to this study has been primarily in the wealth of writings by Spurgeon providing the opportunity for analysis of Spurgeon’s pneumatological emphases that permeated his ministerial students, among them Joseph Smale. Chapter 2 utilises these archives, with illustrations of the distinct Spurgeonic influence that impacted Smale so significantly, supporting the view, as David Bundy comments, that Smale contributed a distinctive ‘Spurgeon-Baptist’ analysis that was not typical of Southern Baptists in the at the beginning of the twentieth century.45

With regards to Baptist archives in the USA, the bulk of documentary evidence involving Joseph Smale has been located through The American Baptist Historical Society.46 Discovered here was a mixture of Arizona Baptist Association Minutes, Los Angeles Baptist Association Minutes, church records, annual reports, and copies of The Pacific Baptist magazine containing two of Smale’s published sermons.47 Each item has provided part of the emerging larger picture, clarifying the critical stages between his pastorates in Arizona and California, and demonstrating Smale’s developing network with widening aspects of ministry pre-1906.

First Baptist Church Prescott possesses no remaining documents from Smale’s time in Arizona, presumably because these were the early days of the town, as well as the church. However, the bulk of Smale’s life and ministry surrounding the 1905–06 revival in Los Angeles has been located in the First Baptist Church Los Angeles archives. Thanks to the help of their church archivist, Ernestine Rotcher, the most significant finds are contained within the church records minute books. These hand-written accounts dating from 1900 to 1906 provide detailed descriptions of all the background troubles within First Baptist Church life that ultimately proved so definitive for Smale and the emerging revival movement. The church clerks who penned the records during these turbulent years, R.G. Haskell and H.S. Keyes, were both very supportive of Smale, even amid the troubles, and wrote with a bias that must be weighed against other accounts discovered in the secular press. Recognising this tension, they have still provided a valuable mix of factual information and useful descriptions of Smale’s personality and the atmosphere at various key points of church life which provide useful background to chapters 3 and 4.

In addition to the written documentary evidence, the discoveries of three previously unpublished photographs from the First Baptist Church Los Angeles archives are valuable additions in their own right. Robeck has included one portrait of Smale in his recent work,48 but the other photographs have yet to be seen by a wider audience. Their particular importance show Smale with his board of deacons around 1900, and Smale standing on the platform of First Baptist Church Los Angeles revealing the internal features of the sanctuary which was the venue for the fifteen weeks of protracted prayer gatherings for revival.

Secular Newspapers

The supply of materials has ultimately determined the extent to which various periods of Smale’s ministry can be adequately examined. Following numerous research visits to the Isle of Wight, Prescott, and Los Angeles, over 150 newspaper accounts concerning Smale have been discovered, assisting the presentation of a more accurate biographical framework for Smale’s life and ministry. However, it should be noted that the degree of publicity Smale received in local papers varied across the phases of his life in accordance with his public standing in each community and the interest generated by the churches he served. So, for instance, the Isle of Wight news was conveyed by two main newspapers, the Isle of Wight Observer and the Isle of Wight County Press, and in Prescott, Arizona, again by two papers, the Arizona Weekly Journal-Miner and The Arizona Republican.

Los Angeles was served by at least eight daily newspapers at the time when Smale and his ministry had reached the greatest prominence. A plethora of information has been located especially within the Los Angeles Times, thanks to regular columns reporting news from the local church scene. Included weekly was a section entitled ‘At the Churches Yesterday’. Herein were frequently printed synopses of Smale’s sermons from the previous day, along with those of other leading churchmen in the city, all of which has boosted the opportunities for accurate qualitative analysis in identifying themes and developments in his preaching.

Besides these regular reports, Smale was a high profile figure in Los Angeles society amidst a prestigious membership at First Baptist Church. Therefore, for the period this book is particularly focusing on where pertinent background to the 1905–06 Revival is required, there are plenty of accounts in the secular press containing all the church business, including church squabbles, decisions taken, and Smale’s responses. Indeed, such journalistic attention to detail has proven essential corroboration to the documentary evidence available in the church records. Numerous examples are given in chapter 3 illustrating how every stage and participant in the proceedings at First Baptist Church tallies precisely with the church minutes in question.

Interestingly, by the later phases of Smale’s ministry in England and then upon his return to the USA, the secular press attention in local church life per se had noticeably declined. Whether this was a feature of increased attention to First World War matters and ground shifts in society diminishing the impact of the Christian church is not analysed within the parameters of this work. The point at stake is the tangible reduction in material available concerning Joseph Smale from secular sources in Britain and the USA for the years 1911 to his death in 1926. The resulting conclusion is that Smale’s public profile, therefore, decreased over his later years, enabling a knowledge of where he was serving via the occasional advertisement or notice, but no more than that. Hence, during these latter years, a greater proportion of the Smale narrative is only obtainable from church source materials. Inevitably this appraisal concurs with the ‘Moses’ motif that somehow Smale stopped short of reaching greater success as a Pentecostal pioneer, although the other church documents discovered reveal that Smale was still serving his church and mission enterprises long after they were established, right up until his death.

Pentecostal Documents

Having already stated that Pentecostal archives possess limited documentary material pertaining to Smale, it is necessary to add one caveat in order to highlight where a small number of papers are located, and the generous spirit in which these materials have been willingly shared to aid this study. Asbury Theological Seminary obtained a small collection of Smale papers, including eleven Sunday bulletins for First New Testament Church (dated between 1906 and 1908), and copies of two sermons preached by Smale.49

While indicating the scarcity of such source documents connected with Smale, reference must be made once again to the importance of Cecil Robeck’s personal collection of Azusa Street primary materials. His willingness to share some of his information regarding Joseph Smale50 was a vital catalyst enabling my search to head off in fruitful directions. However, while many of Robeck’s insights regarding Smale are now in the public domain with his 2006 publication, the fact that this book has been intentionally printed without footnotes or endnote references inevitably precludes the sources being located. Further patience is required while awaiting the publication of Robeck’s Azusa Street magnum opus, which hopefully will be complete with references. Meantime this study identifies all the Smale sources discovered throughout the research for this project, providing additional original material.

The Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center has also contributed to this research, initially with a handful of newspaper pieces about Smale’s involvement in Los Angeles, including the famous ‘Rolling on Floor in Smale’s Church’ article.51 However, in November 2007 the greatest surprise occurred with an email from the Director of the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center, Darrin J. Rodgers, informing me that he had just obtained a copy of Smale’s published sermons, The Pentecostal Blessing.52 The timing of this find was impeccable. While I had been aware of the book’s existence through advertisements in First New Testament Church bulletins, it had been an on-going frustration not to be able to trace a copy.

Other Sources

The trawl for materials has obviously necessitated approaching numerous institutions and personnel, many of whose names and contributions are noted in the acknowledgements. Photographic collections held in the Los Angeles Public Library, as well as the California Historical Society, yielded some important finds, a few of which appear in this book. Yale Divinity School possess a copy of Smale’s 1907 booklet, Apostolic Journey in the 20th Century: Relating to the facts that led the First New Testament Church of Los Angeles to establish a Gospel Mission in Southwest China, recording his pioneering visit to China. This, along with the copy of Smale’s handwritten journal, kindly provided by Stan Wood, provide numerous insights into Smale’s objectives and experiences as he attempted to deploy a Chinese and Pentecostal extension of their home church in Los Angeles.

Limited space prevents accounting for every discovery and helpful source along the Smale-Trail. Needless to say, much biographical data has been obtained through extensive searches online and via public records offices in Britain and the USA. Other church and mission information has been gleaned from significant individuals, such as British Pentecostal archivist Desmond Cartwright, who on numerous occasions has pointed me in the right direction. His expertise as a conduit of so much useful information helped in making the links between Smale and the founding of the Spanish Gospel Mission, the role of G.H. Lang in Bristol, and Lewi Pethrus’ connection with Smale acknowledged above.

Narrative Analysis Using Data Triangulation

Finally, a statement about how all this data has been processed is important in view of checking the validity of methods adopted. In order to adequately respond to the ‘realism’ versus ‘constructionism’ debate raised by sociologists engaging in biographical research,53 the following methods have been selected in this study for their pragmatic qualities.

a) All biographical data has been consistently presented in chronological order, thus at one level allowing the facts of the Smale story to be constructed within a coherent narrative.

b) The authenticity of all primary materials sourced from the various contexts outlined above is checked with caution, acknowledging that implicit agendas are present in all narrative forms.

c) To formulate as accurate a portrayal as possible, the basic framework originally available in Frank Bartleman’s account of Azusa Street (as the principal narrative) is triangulated with, and against, all available ‘church records’ and ‘secular newspaper’ accounts discovered. Such ‘data triangulation’54 provides