Every time I look at a picture of John Winebrenner I see red. No, the sight of our founder doesn't make me mad. Rather, when I see one of his black and white portraits, I remember that in his early years he was described as having chestnut or red hair. Then I try to imagine how he would look in "living technicolor." For some reason, knowing this one simple fact makes Winebrenner seem more human to me.

      I must freely admit that for years I had trouble relating to the "human" side of Winebrenner, even though I knew the "historic" Winebrenner. Those of you who have studied his theological writings and sermons in depth may know what I mean. His writings are often given to complicated outlines, exhaustive arguments and rambling reasoning. They are typical of the logical approach to life so prevalent in the nineteenth century, when it was assumed you had to win one's mind before you could win his heart. It is writing that was standard in an age dominated by rationalism, but a style that seems stuffy in an age of television.

      In other words, the reader of Winebrenner's works is more acquainted with his ideas than with the human events of his everyday life. One certainly agrees with his conclusions and is excited by his unique interpretation of God's Word, but one develops little feelings of warmth toward Winebrenner the man. One experiences Winebrenner as an abstraction: a person of historic importance who is precise in his thoughts, sure of what he believes and ever ready to defend his positions. We admire what he stands for, but we know little of his personal life.

      The portraits of Winebrenner only tend to accentuate these attitudes. He is shown in a stiff pose, unsmiling--the kind of figure you would respect but not warm up to.

      Yet, Winebrenner does have another side--a side you discover when you read his personal letters. Some five volumes of his letters have survived and are preserved in the Winebrenner Theological Seminary Library. I share with you some of the information found in them, with the hope that you might discover the "human side" of John Winebrenner. It is my desire that these new facts will show you that he was more than a man of ideas, but a person who had problems, aspirations and feelings just like you and me.

As Parent and Husband

      Winebrenner ruled his home, as he did his church, by a set code of discipline. He was often away on short trips in Pennsylvania and Maryland, or on longer trips to the Midwest. His letters are filled with orders for his wife and constant reminders of the obligations of the children. The children were expected to help with the chores. They were admonished to help with the housework, mind younger siblings, pull weeds, move manure piles and feed the silkworms. At the same time they were constantly instructed to mind their studies, "to be regular and industrious in school."

      Despite his external sternness, Winebrenner showed a genuine affection for each of his two wives and his six surviving children. He missed his family when away from home and often sent them tender greetings. He especially doted upon the smaller children, sending them special messages and promising to bring presents if they were good. He evidently kept these promises, for he would report to his wife that he had "collected some small boons" for the children, or enclose small silver coins with his letters.

      Special messages of love and concern were often sent to his wife. It is evident that he missed her companionship, especially on long trips. Like many other letter writers, he frequently wasted a significant portion of the letter complaining because his family had not written him, or making excuses why he hadn't written them.

      His letters also reveal some of the special problems of the wife of John Winebrenner. On one occasion he writes to inform Mary, his second wife, that the house money he had promised had not been forwarded. He closes by saying "I here enclose three dollars, which I hope will suffice till I come home."

      Then there is the July 8th letter from Mt. Carroll, Illinois, informing her that due to a number of new engagements he will not be home until the first of October. (He had left in May.) [8]

      While John was away his wife not only had to perform her usual tasks of cleaning, cooking, gardening and raising the children, but also had to look after the several Winebrenner enterprises. The letters to her are filled with instructions to contact people owing money, to order and distribute books, to send medicine or seed wheat to interested parties, or to pass on instructions to the editors of the denominational paper.

      Another interesting episode finds Mary visiting Winebrenner relatives in Wooster, Ohio. John writes to tell her that business prevents him from coming to get her as planned. (He finally makes it a month later.) In the meantime, she and infant son Marshall are to "make yourselves useful and happy among the friends and brethren in Ohio." Mary must have been a patient and resourceful person!

      As his girls grew older they were given increasing responsibility. Indeed, they seem to have been at home helping John in Harrisburg while Mary was in Wooster. His three girls all married and eventually left home. Ellen, the oldest, married the minister James Colder and left with him for the Methodist mission field in China. One of Winebrenner's most poignant letters was a long epistle he wrote her about the meaning of marriage and the burden of the mission field. (See p. 2 for a portion of the letter.)

Financial Difficulties

      John Winebrenner was plagued throughout most of his adult life with financial problems. He seldom held a pastorate after the early 1830's, but served as an evangelist-at-large and as a publisher and/or editor of the church periodicals.

      It was Winebrenner's firm conviction that a church periodical was important to the growth of the Church of God movement. However, The Gospel Publisher and its successor The Church Advocate usually operated in the red. Even though the church was supposed to be underwriting the periodicals, calls for financial aid chronically fell short and Winebrenner ended up paying creditors out of his own pocket.

      To make ends meet he carried on a number of enterprises. He sold patent medicines, farm machinery, fruit trees, seeds and books. He even made a brief attempt at growing silkworms. His most successful publishing efforts were a revised edition of I. D. Rupp's An Original History of the Religious Denominations at Present Existing in the United States and his own A Prayer Meeting and Revival Hymnbook.

      Unfortunately, many of the people who subscribed to his periodicals, took his books on assignment, and bought his other items were often delinquent in their payments. As a result Winebrenner frequently had a serious cash flow problem. Twice in letters to his wife he told her to ask for an extension on his rent payment until he could collect some of his outstanding accounts. Imagine the founder of the Churches of God not being able to pay his rent!

      In a February 1835 letter we find another surprising thing. Winebrenner had written his father, asking for money. While his father was reluctant to send money then, he later forwarded it in April. In the letter to his father, John laments: "I cannot think of giving up preaching. This I believe is my calling and this I intend to follow as long as I can . . . It is my duty, I know, to provide for my own. And I hope I shall have both the means and the pleasure of assisting my children, as you have had."

      In February 1839 John again wanted to borrow money from his father, this time $1,000 for a period of eight months. That was a significant sum of money in a time when a laborer made only a few dollars a week. Besides, these were risky times, the nation was just recovering from the severe depression known as the "Panic of 1837." Later that year the United States Bank at Philadelphia would fail.

      Winebrenner was often touchy about his financial situation. In 1841 an effort was made to help Winebrenner by having the denomination buy the plates and copyrights of the Gospel Publisher. The committee collecting the money said:

      "Withhold not your aid . . . if you wish the cause of God and the Press well, and desire to see Brother Winebrenner get out of his temporal business and again into the Gospel field to labour for God and the good of souls as of old."

      John reacted angrily to this statement. He reminded the editor of the Gospel Publisher that he had never deserted the "Gospel field" nor his concern for souls. He asserted that the reason for selling the plates was to enable him to get out of debt and "render every man his due."

Personal Tragedies

      Like all human beings Winebrenner was touched by personal tragedies, especially the death of loved ones. The death of his first wife Charlotte was the culmination of a series of tragic events in John's life. According to several sources Charlotte bore six children; only two survived. Harriet died at eight months and Louisa died September 20, 1834, ten days short of being one year old. We know nothing of the names or fates of the other two children of Charlotte.

      Charlotte died May 20, 1834 after a seven month illness of "consumption of the lungs." She was but one of four wives in the Winebrenner clan to die in a short period of time. In writing his father, who had lost his wife in 1831, he confesses in anguish, "Why it is, that the Lord has made you and your three sons widowers in so short a time, I confess is a mystery to me."

      Left with two small daughters, Ellen and Mary Jane, and a quarter interest in the drug store run by Charlotte's father, John Winebrenner went about his and the Church of God's business. In the summer of 1835 he launched the Gospel Publisher as a periodical for the Church of God and as a "Journal of Useful Knowledge." The second issue, June 12, contained the funeral sermon given by Pastor James Mackey for Charlotte a year earlier. In November 1837 John Winebrenner wed his second wife, Mary Hamilton Mitchell. [9]

      The declining health of his father, Philip Winebrenner, remained a great concern of the letters of John. But of even a greater concern was his father's spiritual health. On numerous occasions he implores his father to "come to Christ." We have no record if his father ever heeded his pleas. While conducting a revival in the fall of 1841, John rushed to join his two brothers at the death bed of his eighty-two-year-old father.

      One of the most painful tragedies was his disagreement with his son-in-law James Colder, the husband of his oldest daughter Ellen, who at first was one of his favorites. John sold Colder the Church Advocate in 1857. Ellen died in 1858. A split occurred in the Harrisburg Church under Colder's leadership. At the time of Winebrenner's death in 1860 litigation over ownership of the building prevented Winebrenner from having his funeral services in the very church he had helped organize.

Conclusion

      There are many other relevant items to be gleaned from Winebrenner's personal letters, but I hope enough examples have been given to show that he had a personality and a life more complex and interesting than one might suppose from reading his theological writings. Knowing the "human side" of John Winebrenner will hopefully make you more appreciative of the founder of the Churches of God.

This represents portions of a letter from John Winebrenner to his daughter Mrs. Ellen C. Colder, a missionary to China.

Harrisburg      
Nov. 27, 1851      

My Dear Daughter Ellen C. Colder:

      This being our annual Thanksgiving day I have concluded to employ a part of it by writing to you. It was in my mind to write you, during your sojourn at New York, last March but for various reasons, I did not get it accomplished.

      After we heard that you had set sail I concluded to wait until you would arrive and we would hear from you. About the time we received your first letters in the beginning of Sept, I happened to be from home on a trip to Maryland; and after my return and since then have had no time to write you until now. In the meantime however I sent you several packages of papers which I hope you have duly received. Will you then excuse me for not writing sooner? I know you will.

      During the time of your voyage whilst tossing amid the ocean waves and perils, many anxious thoughts flitted through my mind, and many ardent prayers for your health and safety were addressed to Him whose voice the winds and waves obey.

      The emotions felt and the impressions made at the time of our parting on the morning of the first of March when we gave you the parting hand and commended you to God and bade you an affectionate adieu, will not soon nor easily be forgotten. Your grateful remembrance of my parting words "God bless you my child! Farewell" are not more fondly cherished by you than your deep emotions, your tender look, your soft hand, and your sweet, warm lips in giving the parting kiss are and shall be by me . . .

      But in the next place I would give you piece of my mind on another and more important subject, the subject of Missions. It differs much in many respects from the Home Mission cause, chiefly because of the great desparity in the moral condition of the people and the tedious inaccessibility to foreigners on account of their language. Missionaries in foreign lands have to toil for years to acquire a knowledge of the language of the people to whom they are sent and then often still longer time before they see any fruit of their labors. Judson labored thus for ten years, others for periods more or less. Here then is the faith and patience of the saints who are missionaries! However, in some Foreign Missions great and glorious reformations have taken place. Among the Sandwich Islanders, God wrought wonders and got to himself a great name. In the Karen mission 1500 were converted in one revival and more than 1000 in another.

      Now that your time and toils may not be spent in vain you must lay yourself out to do good by word and deed to all men as you may have opportunity. There is as you know a luxury in doing good. It has a glorious reflex action upon our hearts and souls. We usually feel good in the same ratio we do good. And in a general way we are useful and happy in proportion to the degree and manner of our consecration to God and His cause.

      There are, however, many ways of doing good, but the principal and best way for missionaries is to propagate the doctrines and duties of Christianity. This can be done in different ways, but the original the easiest, and the cheapest method is by example and precept. These two ways God has joined together, one therefore without the other will be inefficient and powerless. "The grace of God or gospel, which worldly lusts and to live soberly, righteously and goodly in this present world." Paul says, "The Gospel is the power of God to salvation." Hence, therefore, the power of Godliness Exemplified, and the power of truth proclaimed, must convert the world and establish the Holy Catholic Church of the Bible; which is the ground and pillar of truth, mark it. The teachings of the Bible exemplified by the faith and practice of the true church is the testimony of Jesus. Let this pure testimony, then, be your only creed and rule of life. Peter and John Paul and Barnabas and all the primitive disciples had none else. You and I, and every one else, need no better Church standard any surer and safer guide to show us the way to heaven.

      Be sure therefore, never to be ashamed or afraid to make your religious principles a stand point and to insure them against the perils, and scoffs, and frowns, of unprincipled wit and ridicule. Disdain not the idea to differ from the times, and the specious dogmas and humanized usages of a sectarianized Christendom. Avow to all by word and deed that your heart is fixed and that you are both bound and ready to bury the truth and sell it not. Carry these heaven born principles with you unchanged and untravelled throughout the journey of life. Bind them for ornament as chains of gold about your neck. Transcribe them in your daily walk, disseminate them in China, and wherever else you may go. Scatter them if you can, broadcast among the nations of the earth, and especially among the people of that densely populated and mighty empire where you are appointed to labor for ten years; believing that God will make them work like leaven in meal and will be converted from pagan idolatry and superstition to the saving light and knowledge of true religion. If you cannot save them or do them good by force and virtue of this "Armor of righteousness," then be content to leave them to their fate and take consolation from the thought that like Mary of old, you have done what you could.

(Here follows home news)

      Now dear Ellen, don't forget to write often for your letters are very welcome and gladening to us all. I would be very much pleased if you and Mr. Colder would both write occasionally for the Church Advocate. Then your friends who are anxious to hear from you could read your letters for themselves; otherwise we have to read them over so often to different ones that they nearly get worn out. Ma and the little ones join in sending their love to you and Mr. Colder with many prayers for your health happiness and prosperity I subscribe myself.

[Church Advocate, March 1982, pp. 2-3, 8-10.]

      The electronic version of J. Harvey Gossard's article "The Human Side of John Winebrenner" and the excerpt from Winebrenner's letter to his daughter have been transcribed from a copy of the Church Advocate, vol. 146 (March 1982), pp. 2-3, 8-10. Thanks to Jean Leathers, Archivist of the Churches of God Historical Society, for lending a copy of that issue of the periodical.

      Pagination has been represented by placing the page number in brackets following the last complete word on the printed page. Emendations are as follows:

            Printed Text [ Electronic Text
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
 p. 8:      Nineteenth century [ nineteenth century
            like you and I. [ like you and me.
            the midwest [ the Midwest
 p. 2:      unprinciples wit [ unprincipled wit
 

      Addenda and corrigenda are earnestly solicited.

Ernie Stefanik
Derry, PA

Created 18 September 1997.
Updated 14 July 2003.