Dr. Tony Moon, Professor of Christian Ministries at Emmanuel College in Franklin Springs, Georgia, has just published From Plowboy to Pentecostal Bishop, a comprehensive biography of longtime Franklin Springs, Georgia, resident Joseph Hillery King, a.k.a. Bishop King, as part of the Asbury Theological Seminary Series in World Christian Revitalization which today numbers more than 75 volumes. The author, himself a Franklin Springs resident, has served on the Emmanuel College faculty over thirty-three years.
The biography begins with King’s birth to tenant farmer parents in the Rock Mills Township of Anderson County, South Carolina, and follows his rise to the leadership of the international Pentecostal Holiness Church where he served until his death. The son of hardscrabble farmers, King early on learned to guide a mule-drawn plow all the time nursing a growing spiritual sensitivity and hunger for learning. The hit and miss formal education of the farm boy along with determined self-education was nevertheless sufficient to win him admittance into a three-year seminary education.
King’s ministry began as many did in the nineteenth century as an associate or “Junior Pastor” and eventually a Methodist circuit pastor serving four churches. The young minister finally became part of the Pentecostal movement where he did most of his ministerial and administrative work.
The man who emerges from the pages of Moon’s biography was not a stogy, aloft figure, as some apparently described him, but a lively hardworking minister, administrator, husband, and father. The author describes King’s faults and achievements. On the one hand, King led the Pentecostal Holiness Church steadfastly even when there were contrary winds; one the other hand, he was occasionally discouraged, sometimes wracked by doubt, showed occasional flashes of anger, and could be doctrinaire. In contemporary terms, King was probably a workaholic who would be away from home months at a time, but his wife and children never felt unloved or abandoned. From Moon’s biography, one can see a man who, to use a hackneyed phrase, practiced what he preached.
For the popular reader, this biography is interesting because much of the story takes place in Franklin County, Georgia. In fact, the headquarters for the Pentecostal Holiness Church was in Franklin Springs many years. And woven into the story is the organization’s commitment to education beginning with an elementary school that eventually led to the founding of the present Emmanuel College.
Readers interested in the story of American religion will find plenty to explore. Much of the author’s story focuses on the developing theology for the Pentecostal Holiness Church. This is not dry, abstract ideology; Moon skillfully explores these issues and keeps them understandable. As one example, Bishop King and his colleagues wrestle with the issue of whether a Christian “living by faith” should use medicine or consult physicians.
The academic reader will find a goldmine in the voluminous pages of Moon’s notations, which are at the end of each chapter so they do not intrude into the narrative. There may be a stray letter or agenda relative to King’s life somewhere that Moon missed, but probably not. The author invested over ten years in researching and writing this valuable contribution to the story of America’s religious history.
Moon, Tony. From Plowboy to Pentecostal Bishop: The Life of J.H. King. Lexington, Kentucky: Emeth Press, 2017. ISBN-10: 1609471091
The biography begins with King’s birth to tenant farmer parents in the Rock Mills Township of Anderson County, South Carolina, and follows his rise to the leadership of the international Pentecostal Holiness Church where he served until his death. The son of hardscrabble farmers, King early on learned to guide a mule-drawn plow all the time nursing a growing spiritual sensitivity and hunger for learning. The hit and miss formal education of the farm boy along with determined self-education was nevertheless sufficient to win him admittance into a three-year seminary education.
King’s ministry began as many did in the nineteenth century as an associate or “Junior Pastor” and eventually a Methodist circuit pastor serving four churches. The young minister finally became part of the Pentecostal movement where he did most of his ministerial and administrative work.
The man who emerges from the pages of Moon’s biography was not a stogy, aloft figure, as some apparently described him, but a lively hardworking minister, administrator, husband, and father. The author describes King’s faults and achievements. On the one hand, King led the Pentecostal Holiness Church steadfastly even when there were contrary winds; one the other hand, he was occasionally discouraged, sometimes wracked by doubt, showed occasional flashes of anger, and could be doctrinaire. In contemporary terms, King was probably a workaholic who would be away from home months at a time, but his wife and children never felt unloved or abandoned. From Moon’s biography, one can see a man who, to use a hackneyed phrase, practiced what he preached.
For the popular reader, this biography is interesting because much of the story takes place in Franklin County, Georgia. In fact, the headquarters for the Pentecostal Holiness Church was in Franklin Springs many years. And woven into the story is the organization’s commitment to education beginning with an elementary school that eventually led to the founding of the present Emmanuel College.
Readers interested in the story of American religion will find plenty to explore. Much of the author’s story focuses on the developing theology for the Pentecostal Holiness Church. This is not dry, abstract ideology; Moon skillfully explores these issues and keeps them understandable. As one example, Bishop King and his colleagues wrestle with the issue of whether a Christian “living by faith” should use medicine or consult physicians.
The academic reader will find a goldmine in the voluminous pages of Moon’s notations, which are at the end of each chapter so they do not intrude into the narrative. There may be a stray letter or agenda relative to King’s life somewhere that Moon missed, but probably not. The author invested over ten years in researching and writing this valuable contribution to the story of America’s religious history.
Moon, Tony. From Plowboy to Pentecostal Bishop: The Life of J.H. King. Lexington, Kentucky: Emeth Press, 2017. ISBN-10: 1609471091