Howard G. McClain

Before the Beginning

The letter informing us about the beginning of Koinonia arrived in mid-summer of 1942. Barbara and I were at that time in Batesburg, South Carolina, where we were summer workers with the Reverend Maxie Collins, Jr. at the First Baptist Church. It was a mimeographed letter. It included an attractive brochure --which was the announcement that the families of Clarence and Florence Jordan and Martin and Mabel England had moved from the Louisville area to establish a cooperative Christian community near Americus, Georgia.

It was an unexpected announcement, for we had no idea that such a move was anticipated when we had left the Seminary in May. However, the information came as no great surprise, as Clarence had told me on numerous occasions of his dream: namely to return to Georgia, establish a Christian community and help the poor and exploited farmers (black and white) to improve their rural living and farming practices so that they could become more productive and achieve greater human welI-being.

We were pleased that our friends had so quickly obtained so much assistance and so soon were able to begin their Georgia experiment. For example, the Koinonia brochure, we learned, had been developed by Marjorie Moore (a native of Spartanburg, South Carolina and at that time Managing Editor of the Southern Baptist Convention foreign missions magazine) We were later informed that liberal financial assistance for the project had been provided by V.V. Cooke of Louisville.

The above indicates that my wife and I knew Clarence and Martin and their families. Clarence was one of the first "community-persons" I had met when I became a Southern Baptist Theological Seminary student in September 1939. (Clarence had received his Ph.D., majoring in Greek N. T., the previous spring.)

The Englands had been missionaries in Burma before World War II and had located near Taylorsville for the interim. We had met them soon after they arrived in Kentucky, and had the privilege of introducing Clarence and Martin to each other on an occasion when we were all attending a meeting at the Broadway Baptist Church (then in downtown Louisville).

I had met Clarence early in the fall of 1939. The occasion was a meeting he had called at the Baptist Fellowship Center, from which he directed the interracial program of the Long Run (Louisville) Baptist Association. Another student, Marion Young, had invited me to go along with him.

I did not know what to expect that night. We found that the Center, west of the downtown business district, was in a black ghetto. There we met Clarence and the others he had invited. These included a few black pastors and students from both the Baptist Seminary and the WMU Training School. After a brief get-acquainted period, Clarence presented his proposal: that the students do their practical field work in Black churches. The idea was that the students would align themselves with the Negro churches, attend regularly and assist the churches as they were requested.

In that first year, as I recall, there were some 12-15 students who participated in 7-8 churches. I was assigned to the Fifth Avenue Baptist Church, of which Dr. W. Augustus Jones was pastor. Also attending the same church were Ida Morris (Columbia, South Carolina), Marion Young (Greenwood, South Carolina and Jitsuo Marikawa (a Japanese student).

Clarence and Florence, several of the students working in the Association and in Negro churches, and Bob and Helen Herndon had begun by the fall of 1941 a discussion-sharing group. (Bob was a part-time Seminary student who had become director of the Baptist Fellowship Center when Clarence became the director of the Long Run Baptist Association.)

I remember the meeting one night in early 1942, which met in our apartment. Soon after our discussion began, Clarence "took the floor". Essentially, he said. "I have a name to suggest for our group--'Koinonia.' " He then proceeded to interpret Acts 2:44 in the light of his knowledge of the Greek New Testament and in regard to its application to our cooperative efforts.

And so it was when we "parted ways " at the end of the seminary year of 1942. Never again was the group to meet in Louisville. To the best of my knowledge that is the history of the "Koinonia" applied to a sharing group of which Clarence and Florence were a part.

On this memorable occasion I am pleased to acknowledge my friendship with the Jordans and Englands, to express again my appreciation for what they have meant to me and to recognize the deep and wide influences which they have had for the Kingdom of God in the twentieth century. We are grateful that God has so richly blessed their lives and the lives of those associated with them through the years, and has given success to the Koinonia enterprises.

Dr. Clarence Jordan at Ridgecrest, North Carolina, June, 1942. (photo by Rev. Nick Resovich)

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