Peniel Mission
[1] However, after three months they were forced to move to the basement of the Nadeau Hotel (opened 5 July 1886), located on the southwest corner of Spring and First Streets.
They invited former Methodist presiding elder Dr. Phineas Bresee to join them in their endeavour, and planned to construct a 900-seat auditorium and ministry centre at 227 South Main Street, Los Angeles.
In the initial issue of the Peniel Herald, the mission's official newspaper, it was announced "Our first work is to try to reach the unchurched.
It is also our work to preach and teach the gospel of full salvation; to show forth the blessed privilege of believers in Jesus Christ, to be made holy and thus perfect in love.
"[5] In October 1894 at the dedication of the Peniel Hall, Widney announced his intention to organize a Training Institute, in which Bible and practical nursing were to be the principal studies.
[6] By December 1894 Bresee had urged in the Peniel Herald the creation of an organization to screen out undesirable workers, and to create a group for "those that are being gathered in, who have no church affiliation, who need care and fellowship, and a place to find a home and work."
Bresee and the other three superintendents created a printed statement of belief to be required of all who wished to associate themselves with Peniel Hall.
It will be required that those who seek to become members of the Peniel Mission be sound in the faith on all the main points of Christian doctrine, which may be particularized as follows: "1.
Frankiel indicates: "At first Bresee joined with the Fergusons at the Peniel Mission in Los Angeles, where he tried to persuade them to open a school and organize to receive members like a church.
"[3] According to Smith, [t]he immediate cause for the organization of the Church of the Nazarene … is not so much to be found in Bresee's differences with the Methodists as in those which developed between him and the proprietors of Peniel Hall.
B. Simpson, leader of the Christian and Missionary Alliance and reportedly an extremist on divine healing, appeared as a special worker at the mission in May [1895].
Bresee on his part disagreed with Mr. and Mrs. Fergusons' insistence upon the use of young women in rescue work, and their growing interest in foreign missionary schemes.
[9]Another cause of disagreement was that Bresee became convinced that the best ministry for the urban poor was to create strong churches that ministered to entire families, whereas the Fergusons believed that the Peniel Mission should focus instead on the "down and outer" and remain non-denominational.
"With a United States membership destined never to exceed a thousand (in 1906 a government report said 703), the ministry…had an impact on the larger [holiness] movement far in excess of that implied by numbers.
On 9 April 1906 Lee received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues in his home when Seymour laid hands on him and prayed.
Upon the death of Manie Ferguson on 8 June 1932,[24] control of the Peniel Mission passed to an all-female self-perpetuating board.
Peniel Missions in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco and Oakland were closed and the buildings and small fixed assets were sold to the ministry of CityTeam in a transaction that allowed those being ministered to continue receiving the services they needed.
Missionaries Ashley and Justin Guest continue the work at Peniel Missions, Inc. at 1500 and 1508 S. Sutter Street, Stockton, California today.
"[26] According to Sandra Frankiel, "Together with his wife Manie, he offered street-corner meetings in the afternoons and evangelistic services nightly, with a meal afterwards.
