R. G. Spurling (Spurling variant)

Variant spelling: this person bears the related surname Spurling, not Spurlin.

Richard Green Spurling (July 28, 1858 – May 24, 1935) was an American Christian minister and one of the founders of the Church of God.^[1] Wikipedia's article on the Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee) gives his birth year as 1857.^[2]

Founding the Christian Union

According to Wikipedia, Spurling was born in Monroe County, Tennessee. His father, Richard Spurling (1810–1891), was an ordained Baptist elder.^[1] His Find a Grave memorial differs on both points: it gives his birthplace as Columbia, Maury County, Tennessee, and names his parents as Richard Greene Spurling Sr. (1812–1886) and Nancy Jane Norman Spurling.^[3] Father and son objected to Landmarkism, the view held by many Baptists in their area that only churches descended from Baptist churches belonged to the true church. R. G. Spurling argued that Christians should be united by love rather than divided by creeds.^[2]

On August 19, 1886, Spurling and eight others organized a new congregation, the Christian Union, in Monroe County. Wikipedia's article on Spurling places the meeting at the family's grist mill. Its article on the Church of God places it at the Barney Creek Meeting House.^[1][2] The elder Spurling presided, and in September 1886 the son was ordained as the congregation's pastor.^[1][4] The Tennessee Encyclopedia also dates the first congregation to 1886 at Barney Creek Meeting House, but it calls the first pastor "Richard G. Spurling Sr." Sources name the father and son differently.^[5][3] Between 1889 and 1895 Spurling organized three more Christian Union congregations. The Church of God dates its origins to the 1886 meeting.^[2]

Camp Creek and the Church of God

In 1896 a revival at the Shearer Schoolhouse near Camp Creek, Cherokee County, North Carolina, led some participants to speak in tongues. The Church of God article credits the revival to three Tennessee evangelists, William Martin, Joe M. Tipton and Milton McNabb. Wikipedia's article on Spurling links it to the Christian Union and says it "may be seen as the start of the Pentecostal Movement," nearly a decade before the Azusa Street Revival.^[1][2] The worshippers were led by William F. Bryant. Spurling often worshipped with them and was the driving force behind their 1902 decision to organize as the Holiness Church at Camp Creek.^[2] The Church of God of Prophecy's history says Spurling was elected pastor of that church and Bryant was ordained a deacon.^[4]

Ambrose Jessup Tomlinson joined the church at Camp Creek on June 13, 1903, and soon became its leader.^[4] The Tennessee Encyclopedia says leaders of the four churches then in the group chose the name Church of God in 1906, and that Tomlinson was appointed general overseer in 1907. Wikipedia's article on Spurling dates the name change to 1907.^[5][1] Six Church of God bodies based in Cleveland, Tennessee, trace their origins to the Camp Creek congregation. They include the Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee) and the Church of God of Prophecy.^[4][2]

Death and burial

Spurling died on 24 May 1935 at Turtletown, Polk County, Tennessee, and is buried in the Spurling Cemetery there.^[3][6] His Find a Grave memorial names his wife as Barbra Melinda Hamby Spurling (1858–1939).^[3]