Benevolence

Although the Church of God did not establish a comprehensive Department of Benevolence until 1974, caring for the needy has always been a natural characteristic of holiness, Spirit-filled people. Tomlinson provided food and clothing for the students attending school in his home in 1900. In a letter printed in the first issue of The Evening Light and Church of God Evangel, W. F. Bryant revealed his custom of taking clothing to the barefooted needy in the Tellico Mountains of eastern Tennessee. In 1902 Tomlinson attempted to establish an orphanage in Culberson, and in Cleveland Bryant followed suit in 1911. In 1910, missionary Lillian Trasher went to Egypt and founded an orphanage in Assiout. Writing about the meager resources available, Trasher wrote to Church of God Evangel readers, "I now have 51 little orphans, many of whom are saved, and the rest are babies which I believe God will save as they grow older." Unfortunately the Church of God was unable to provide adequate resources and lost its connection with Trasher and her ministry. In another effort, Eustis, Florida, was the home of an orphanage established by Bishops J. H. Curry and N. S. Marcelle in 1920. It survived only a few years due to a shortage of funds, however.

With the outbreak of an international influenza epidemic in 1918, many of the world's children were left without mothers, fathers or both. Tomlinson challenged the 1919 Assembly to respond to the needs of these children, and Orphanage No. 1 was opened in Cleveland on December 17,1920. Mrs. Lillian Kinsey was the first matron, and four children soon called the modest, frame house their home. Orphanage No. 2 and Orphanage No. 3 opened their doors in the two succeeding years. Today the campus of the Church of God Home for Children occupies sixty-four acres in Sevierville, Tennessee, near the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Since the Home for Children board was reorganized as the Department of Benevolence under Director W. J. Brown, it has undertaken a significant expansion of its ministries. In 1987, the department opened both Covenant Place, a home for unmarried pregnant teenagers, and the Crowley Center for Abused Children in Sevierville. New River Ranch, a West Virginia ministry for troubled teens, opened the following year. Additionally, the department instituted the Heart of Florida Youth Ranch in 1990 and launched Operation Compassion in 1994. Operation Compassion focuses on ministry to the elderly and the hungry.