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DAVID DU PLESSIS ARCHIVE |
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The Joseph Mattsson-Boze Collection |
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The papers of Joseph Mattsson-Boze were donated to the Archive in 1987 by his son Winston. That the Mattsson-Boze papers would come to rest in the David du Plessis Archive was the wish of Du Plessis, an old friend of Mattsson-Boze's who first met him at the Pentecostal World Fellowship in 1947. Mattsson-Boze's papers were moved to McAlister Library from the Philadelphia Church in Chicago. The current arrangement of the materials is the work of Martha Nelson, Joseph Mattsson-Boze's long-time secretary. Additional material on Mattsson-Boze can be found in the Lewi Pethrus Archives in Sweden and issues of the Dagen newspaper.
Joseph Mattsson-Boze Collection In 1933, at the behest of the Philadelphia Church in Gothenburg, Sweden Joseph Mattsson-Boze (1905-1988) emigrated to Chicago, Illinois to serve as pastor to a growing congregation of Swedish immigrants. Two years later he traveled back to Sweden, married, and returned to Chicago with his bride. For 18 of the next 22 years, with a hiatus from 1939-1943 during which he pastored the Rock Church in New York, Mattsson-Boze served as pastor to Chicago's Philadelphia Church. When he resigned as pastor in 1958 Mattsson-Boze launched the Herald of Faith (Independent Pentecostal) mission to East Africa and later South America (Argentina.) During his years as a pastor and for 13 years as a missionary, Mattsson-Boze also edited the Herald of Faith journal. He figured prominently in the Independent Pentecostal Fellowship and had strong ties to William Branham's ministry. His papers, housed in the David du Plessis Archive, chronicle his life. Letters written during his tenure as pastor range in topic from the everyday problems of the pastor of a large congregation to detailed opinions on church organization and doctrine. They also include letters to and from the mission fields written in the early 1940s. While pastor of Rock Church, Mattsson-Boze helped carry the burden of financing independent missionaries during the war. The correspondence from these years, which was conducted in English, Swedish, and an English/Swedish patois, contrasts the dire economic and physical struggles faced by missionaries with their complete conviction in their call to evangelize. Furthermore, it reveals how remote the war could be for those who felt called to ministry instead of to arms. The Archive contains nearly complete runs of the Swedish and English versions of the Herald of Faith magazine, which succeeded the Swedish publications Sanningens Vittnen and Trons Harold. The Herald of Faith served as a fellowship magazine for the Independent Assemblies of God until about 1958. Through its articles, letters, and stories the publication offered support for independent local churches. It promoted a model of church government, patterned on the one developed by Lewi Pethrus for the Swedish Filadelfia Church, which stressed group leadership through elders. When Mattsson-Boze left the Philadelphia Church in 1958 he took with him the Herald of Faith magazine. He continued to publish the magazine until 1971, at which time he turned the journal over to Dan Malachuk of Logos International, who changed its name to the Logos Journal. In turn the journal was moved to Charisma where it is published as Charisma Journal. Papers related to the publication of the Herald of Faith include materials from Mattsson-Boze's years in Africa, especially photographs, newsletters, and memorabilia. These papers along with his correspondence from that time loosely trace the development of the East African Revival mission. Mattsson-Boze's letters written as an Executive Committee Member at the First World Pentecostal Conference address the organization's composition and doctrinal differences as well as reflect Mattsson-Boze's hopes and concerns for the Pentecostal fellowship world-wide at mid-century. One highlight of the conference for Mattsson-Boze was the agreement he authored with David du Plessis that allowed "independents," including Lewi Pethrus and the Swedish churches, to cooperate with the Pentecostal movement. The friendship initiated between Du Plessis and Mattsson-Boze lasted the rest of their lives, and upon the establishment of the David Du Plessis Archives, Du Plessis requested Mattsson-Boze's papers be housed with his. The Mattsson-Boze papers stand as a rich resource, too, for studies of William Branham, another close friend of Mattsson-Boze's about whom Mattsson-Boze published monthly articles from 1955 until Branham's death in 1965. The Collection was donated to the Archives by Joseph Mattsson-Boze's son Winston, who now directs the Herald of Faith Mission. Mattsson-Boze's papers were moved to McAlister Library in 1987 from the Philadelphia Church in Chicago. The current arrangement of the materials is the work of Martha Nelson, Joseph Mattsson-Boze's long-time secretary. Additional material on Mattsson-Boze can be found in the Lewi Pethrus Archives in Sweden and the Dagen newspaper. Among Mattsson-Boze's Swedish publications are three books entitled Aventyr pa trons Vag, Gyllene Tempel och Gyllene Tillfalle, Tro som Forflyttar Berg.
The correspondence is arranged chronologically. Letters are classified further alphabetically. All of the letters for 1947, for example, sent to Mattsson-Boze by persons whose last names begin with an A are arranged alphabetically in the same folder with all of the letters from Mattsson-Boze to people whose last names begin with an A. The majority of the correspondence covers the period from 1938-1958, with occasional correspondence from earlier and later years. Approximately three-fourths of the letters are in English with the remainder in Swedish. The correspondence is extensive, filling 23 boxes. Themes found among the letters include independent Pentecostal church organization, the Latter Rain Movement, mission fields, independent ministers and their problems with more organized Pentecostal brethren, and the daily running of a church. As pastor of a large, predominantly Swedish, and strongly missiological church, Mattsson-Boze wore many hats. His correspondence details the roles he played as preacher, editor, theologian (? what I mean here is one who wrote doctrine) public relations man, fund-raiser, import-export businessman, immigrant sponsor, and missionary. The collection includes a handful of typed sermons composed by Mattsson-Boze and Lewi Pethrus. Almost all of the photographs pertain to the latter years of Mattsson-Boze's Herald of Faith magazine (1933-1970) and his Herald of Faith Ministry begun in 1959. For the most part they depict East Africa but there are a few images from such places as the United States and Sweden. Various tracts and reprints related primarily to the Latter Rain and doctrinal issues important to the independent assemblies are located in the Archive as is a small uneven collection of Spoken Word reprints of William Branham's sermons. Sermons the Archive has copies of are:
Donated along with his personal papers, were copies of most numbers of the journals Mattsson-Boze edited, Herald of Faith, Trons Herald and Sanningens Vittnen. Less substantial is the collection of Conviction he also donated. Herald of Faith was the English version of the Swedish Trons Herald, which was first published in the early 1930s. In 1952 the journal merged with FIND OUT NAME OF JOURNAL and in 1969 with Harvest Time. Finally, in 1972 the journal was turned over to Dan Malachuk who renamed it Logos Journal and continues to publish it today. For much of the1930s the journal was published in Duluth, MN, but sometime before 1942 the place of publication changed to 5437 North Clark Street, Chicago, IL. From 1939-1942, editing responsibilities for the journal were shared with A.J. Rasmussen, who then served as Pastor to the Philadelphia Church, while Mattsson-Boze led the Rock Church in New York. The collection housed in the Archive is substantial but not complete. The publication was one of many unofficial organs of the independent Pentecostal churches in the United States. As well as articles on church organization and doctrine and letters from missionaries, the journal carried advertisements for healing conventions and itinerant evangelists. The Herald of Faith also frequently contained reprints of articles from other Christian, usually Pentecostal, magazines and newspapers. Much of its distinct appeal and popularity, however, can be traced to William Branham's prophetic visions, which were featured regularly. The publication was disseminated by traveling evangelists and local church members, recipients of a small commission, who collected subscriptions for the magazine. The focus of the journal changed when Mattsson-Boze left Philadelphia Church to minister in East Africa. Management of the journal is much-discussed in Mattsson-Boze's letters, which document the difficulties, especially those of time and money, attendant to its publishing. Issues usually came out monthly but were sometimes combined when lack of money or material demanded. For example in 1951 and 52 certain numbers of Herald of Faith and Sanningens Vitten Trons Herald were published together along with the regular Herald Faith numbers. Minor idiosyncrasies in publication include a volume change in 1954 when volume 19 (9), September, is followed by volume 21 (10), October, and a missing volume, 28, which should have come out in 1961. The following bound editions of the Herald of Faith are housed in the Archive: March 1941 - December 1942, Volume 6(3) - 7(12); January 1943 - December 1944, Volume 8(1) - 9(12); and January 1945 - August 1946, Volume 10(1) - 11(7). The Archive also has bound editions of the Trons Herald for January 1936 through June 1938, Volume 5(1) - 7(6). The Archive houses the following loose issues of Herald of Faith & Trons Herald: Herald of Faith Issues of Conviction from 1963-1980 also comprise the Mattsson-Boze collection. Published by Fellowship Press in Los Angeles, CA the monthly journal was introduced in July of 1963. In 1979 with Vol. 17(3) the publication address changed from Los Angeles to Seattle, WA. Click here to a listing of periodical issues the archive currently has available.
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