How Faith Temple Church Started

  Article by Steve Crain

  Preacher Simpson A. Merritt shepherded Gum Springs Pentecostal-Holiness Church, Taylors, S.C., for about eight years, before the Rev. James H. (“Jimmy”) Thompson became the church’s pastor in the early 1950s. 

My late Uncle Fred E. Crain said Mr. Lawrence Thompson, Jimmy’s father, belonged to Double Springs Baptist Church but occasionally visited Gum Springs PH Church. 

“Mr. Lawrence Thompson had a dairy farm and was on the school board of trustees,” Fred said. “He helped hire teachers. His wife Esther was a teacher. He helped hire her and then married her. I believe that’s the way it was.” 

Pastor Jimmy Thompson graduated from Holmes Bible College and enrolled at Furman University. 

“A professor at Furman called Jimmy into his office and tried to discourage his belief in the Baptism of the Holy Spirit,” Fred said. “Jimmy told him, ‘I’m sorry. You got to me too late.’ 

“I liked Jimmy,” Fred said. “He was kind and gentle and spoke nice things to people. He was clean-cut and dressed nice. Every hair had to be right in place. He was three grades behind me in school. I’d seen him for a long time but never talked to him, back then.” 

While serving as pastor at Gum Springs, Jimmy married Miss Joanne Upton of Greer on April 22, 1955. 

“Jimmy and Joanne came to our house one night,” Fred said. “I was going to show Joanne some chords on the guitar. We moved into the living room, and Jimmy sat talking at the kitchen table with Frances. During their talk, Jimmy mentioned to Frances that it was usually better if husband and wife went to the same church. After that, Frances went to Gum Springs all the time.” 

Fred, who recalled that Pastor Jimmy had a front vestibule built onto the sanctuary at Gum Springs, said, “Jimmy had learned to fly a plane, and he flew over while the men of the church were working on the building. He cut off his engine and yelled down to them.” 

The Full Gospel Businessmen’s Fellowship International became popular in those days. The group promoted to all denominations the message of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, an experience often associated with only Pentecostal groups. 

Fred and Frances recalled that Jimmy invited a Pentecostal Presbyterian from Charlotte, N.C., to speak at Gum Springs. The man didn’t belong to the Pentecostal-Holiness denomination, and some preachers in the Pentecostal Holiness denomination complained to conference leaders.

The South Carolina P.H. denomination leaders asked Jimmy to leave the conference. About two-thirds of the Gum Springs PH Church soon asked Pastor Jimmy to organize an interdenominational church. That church, that first met on Sunday morning, December 16, 1956, in a small, weathered building once used as a country store, became known as Faith Temple Church of Taylors, S.C.