Kimberly (AL) Church of God collection

The Kimberly Church of God has a heritage that is deeply rooted in the “holiness movement” that swept the southeastern United States in the late 1800’s. The history of the church is one that places it at the forefront of American Pentecostalism as a pioneer Pentecostal church. There were four major social dynamics that were taking place during this time: the post-Civil War Reconstruction of the Southeastern United States in the late 1800’s; the beginning of the Industrial Revolution; the religious awakening created by the Holiness Movement; and a hunger for a deeper relationship with God that would be fulfilled in the revival fires of the Holy Ghost. These circumstances would collide in Kimberly, Alabama and give birth to the “Church of God at Kimberly” in 1902.

The story begins with a man named Martin Scott Haynes who was a skilled architect who constructed buildings for the Methodist Church including their new Birmingham Southern College that brought his family to Birmingham. M.S. Haynes was also hired by the Catholic Church to design and build St. Vincent Hospital in Birmingham. During the construction of these facilities, Haynes would become familiar with the community of Kimberly because its coal mines would supply Haynes with the coal he needed to run his equipment. Another dynamic that played a vital role in the formation of the Kimberly Church was Bethel Bible School in Topeka, Kansas, a Methodist-affiliated college. Students of this school experienced the baptism of the Holy Ghost during 1901 and 1902. Some of these same students would find summer work on the construction of Birmingham Southern College under the direction of M.S. Haynes. One afternoon in the summer of 1902, M.S. and Lula Haynes, along with his brother and sister-in-law Efford and Clyde Cotton Haynes heard the message of these students and all were baptized in the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in other tongues. After this experience, Haynes answered the call to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and he would be joined in the ministry by his wife, brothers Efford and Will, and by his sister-in-law Clyde Cotton Haynes. They would become Pentecostal pioneers that would preach the Gospel, evangelize, establish churches, and later become early leaders in the Church of God.

In the second half of 1902, M.S. Haynes went to Kimberly to preach the gospel and the message of the “tongues of fire.” One of the leaders in the town of Kimberly had requested that Haynes come set up a tent for a revival meeting on W.M. Doss’s property. This land remains the home of the Kimberly Church of God. Haynes preached the first message on Holy Ghost baptism in the first tent revival meeting in Kimberly in 1902. The revival meeting that week featured the Haynes family providing the music and preaching. Later that week the people attending the tent revival met for the first formal Sunday service in the Doss home under the direction of M.S. Haynes. During that service many of the congregation received the baptism of the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in tongues. Under the leadership of Haynes, the new church would call themselves “The Church of God at Kimberly” as referenced in 2 Corinthians 1:1. The records of 1905 show that this church was operating under the name “The Church of God at Kimberly” though not yet a congregation in the Church of God (Cleveland, TN).

January 1910 records show that Haynes had since become a bishop in the Church of God and that the congregation at Kimberly was then an organized church in the denomination making it the oldest continuing congregation that is a Church of God. For comparison, the North Cleveland (TN) Church of God began after the Kimberly church but prior to Kimberly entering the denomination making North Cleveland the oldest continuing Church of God.