Phineas F. Bresee

Bresee

Phineas Franklin Bresee (born December 31, 1838 , Franklin, New York , United States , † November 13, 1915 ) was the main founder of the Church of the Nazarene and founding president of Point Loma Nazarene University .

Life

Bresee was born on a farm near Franklin , New York . He spent his childhood and youth there and in nearby Davenport . He had a conversion experience at the Methodist Episcopal Church in Davenport in 1856 and began preaching that same year. He and his family moved to Iowa in 1857 and soon began serving in the Methodist Episcopal Ministry in Iowa. In 1860 he married Maria Hebbard , his childhood sweetheart from New York .

From 1857 to 1883 he was a pastor in Iowa, where he preached in various churches, for example in East Des Moines , Chariton , Wesley Chapel (Des Moines), Broadway Church in Council Bluffs , Red Oak and Creston . For a term he was also the "Presiding Elder" (District Superintendent) and delegate to the "General Conference" of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1872 in Brooklyn . In 1883 he moved to the west coast of the United States with his extended family (six children, his parents and a nephew) . There he was called as a preacher to the Fort Street Methodist Church (today: First United Methodist Church) in Los Angeles , then to Pasadena to the First and later to the Simpson Tabernacle (LA), to the Asbury ME Church (LA) and after Boyle Heights (LA). In California he again served as Presiding Elder and in 1892 as a delegate to the General Conference . He was also chairman of the Simpson College committee, overseeing fundraising for buildings such as College Hall, which is now the college's primary historic landmark and later served on the Board of Trustees for 16 years . In Los Angeles, he was a trustee of the University of Southern California and worked with JP Widney to get the College of Liberal Arts .

Church of the Nazarene

In 1894, Bresee retired from the Methodist Episcopal Church to devote himself entirely to a role with the Peniel Mission , then an independent ministry that specifically cared for the Los Angeles homeless. During the year, a rift developed between Bresee and the Mission's founder, Rev Theodore Pollock Ferguson, and his wife, Manie Payne Ferguson . Bresee developed a belief that the best service was to build strong churches that had affected families in mind. The Fergusons, on the other hand, wanted to take care of the "down and outer" people. In October 1895, Bresee and Dr. Joseph Pomeroy Widney , a senior Los Angeles physician and past president of the University of Southern California worked with others to start a new Church. Widney suggested the name "Church of the Nazarene" because he thought it would illustrate the commission that Jesus lived and died for the hardworking masses.

The new church grew quickly. By 1898 there were already two churches in the San Francisco area . Widney left the Church that year and briefly joined the Methodist Church before founding his own independent church. Despite a near-fatal accident involving an electric bus, the long-term effects of which weakened his health, Bresee developed a lively activity. From 1903 he promoted systematic church planting and by 1907 there were parishes all over the west coast.

In 1907, Bresee led the Church of the Nazarene into a union with another Wesleyan denomination, the Association of Pentecostal Churches of America , a similar group that originated in New England and which stretched from Nova Scotia through New England and the mid-Atlantic states and westward until Iowa had spread. In Chicago , the First General Assembly took place, in which the two churches formally announced their union and adopted the name Pentecostal Church of the Nazarene and elected two General Superintendents (bishops), one for the Western group and another for the Eastern group. Bresee was the first general superintendent . Soon after, HF Reynolds of Brooklyn was chosen second. The following year at the Second General Assembly in Pilot Point, Texas , the Holiness Church of Christ joined as the third, southern group . EP Ellyson of Texas became the third man on the Board of General Superintendents . Bresee served as Senior General Superintendent until his death in 1915.

Throughout these years, Bresee also pastored the Los Angeles First Church of the Nazarene until 1911 when he left that position. He also edited the Nazarene Messenger , a major weekly magazine, from 1898 to 1912 . With the help of this magazine, he reached his congregation members and forged strong family ties within the congregations. When a women's group in Los Angeles wanted to start a Bible School , Bresee, somewhat unwillingly, promised to support them and then became president of the college, which position he held until 1911. The school was known as Pasadena College until it moved to San Diego in 1973 . Since then it has been called Point Loma Nazarene College and Point Loma Nazarene University .

death

After the accident in 1900, his health deteriorated. Phineas F. Bresee died in 1915.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Donald P. Brickley: Wesley Center Online of Northwest Nazarene University . In: MAN OF THE MORNING . Nazarene Publishing House. 1960. Retrieved December 16, 2010.
2. ↑ "Why These Schools? Historical Perspectives on Nazarene Higher Education," by Stan Ingersol ( Memento of the original from June 24, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 

literature

• Carl Bangs: Phineas F. Bresee: His Life in Methodism, the Holiness Movement and the Church of the Nazarene . 1995 ISBN 0-8341-1621-9
• Donald P. Brickley: Man of the Morning: The Life and Works of Phineas F. Bresee . Kansas City, MO: Nazarene Publishing House 1960. [1]
• CT Corbett: Our Pioneer Nazarenes . Kansas City, MO .: Nazarene Publishing House 1958.
• EA Girvin: Phineas F. Bresee: A Prince in Israel . Kansas City, MO: Pentecostal Nazarene Publishing House 1916. [2]
• AM Hills: Phineas F. Bresee — A Life Sketch . Kansas City, MO: Nazarene Publishing House. [3]
• Emily Bush Moore: Phineas F. Bresee: Mr. Nazarene . Kansas City, MO: Nazarene Publishing House 1973. [4]
• Timothy L. Smith: Called Unto Holiness: The Story of the Nazarenes: The . Kansas City, MO: Nazarene Publishing House 1962. [5]

Web links

• Historical Statement of the Church of the Nazarene.
• Dorli Gschwandtner , biography of Dr. Bresee, Southern Nazarene University (English).