Welcome to the Iowa Holiness Association!

A Message from the IHA President Brady Hunter

On behalf of the Iowa Holiness Association (IHA), I welcome you to the official website of the association. Since its inception in 1879, the IHA has promoted the tenets of the Wesleyan-Arminian theological tradition.

2009 Camp Meeting, June 14-19!

This year marks the 130^th anniversary of our first camp meeting.  Once again, we will gather in our tabernacle on the campus of Vennard College.

Dr. Stephen Flick of Flowood, Mississippi, will serve as the evangelist and will preach at each of the evening services (June 14-19).  He will also bring messages at 10:30 am on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings.  Nathan Hunter will serve as the song evangelist throughout Camp Meeting.  He and his wife, Becky, currently reside in Madison, South Dakota.  Rev. Jerome VanKuiken, from Oskaloosa, Iowa, will serve as the Bible Teacher at each of the afternoon sessions (2:30 pm).  Our missionaries for the week will be Brad and Kristy Weinert with World Gospel Mission.  The Weinerts serve in Argentina.  Rev. Del Rittgers, who lives in Cedar Falls, Iowa, will serve as the youth evangelist for the week.  Rev. Cyril and Jan McKay will once again serve as the children’s ministers.  They reside in Fremont, Iowa.

More information about this year’s camp meeting is now available at this link.  Plan to join us for a week of blessing in God’s presence!

Messages from 2008 and 2007—Free Downloads

The messages from our 2008 camp meeting are avaiable as free downloads from our site in MP3 file format, as are the messages from the 2007 camp meeting.  As you prepare your hearts for this year’s annual encampment, let your spirits be stirred as you listen again to the Word of God from summers past.  Better still, pass these messages on to non-IHA friends as a way of inviting them to this summer’s meetings. 

Our History

The IHA has its roots in a camp meeting held at Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in June 1873. The purpose of the camp was to promote entire sanctification. At that camp, Rev. John Inskip made clear the need to be born again, then cleansed from all sin. One man who received a pure heart in those meetings was Rev. Isaiah Reid, who soon began publishing a holiness periodical, The Highway. Reid’s paper kept interest growing through the following years.

Early in 1879 Reid drew up a constitution for a proposed interdenom­inational state holiness association, and he published it in The Highway. All who wished to form an association were urged to send in their names. To further promote the cause of holiness and to advance the idea of an association, Reid and friend Oliver Hambleton made a 250-mile evangelistic trip around central and southern Iowa by horse and buggy, holding over twenty services. Excitement about the association concept grew.

In July 1879 a permanent organization known as the Iowa Holiness Association was formed at the first IHA Camp Meeting.  Held in Greene County, Iowa, on the old Centennial campground (near Jefferson), the gathering sparked a great spiritual awakening, with many returning to their homes determined to promote scriptural holiness.  The annual camp met in different Iowa locations over the years, until it was moved to Des Moines in 1888, and then to its present home in University Park, Iowa in 1907.  By this time, rallies were being held each month in many Iowa counties to promote the holiness message of the IHA camp.  Over the years the preaching of such men as Seth Rees, Joseph H. Smith, C.W. Butler, Harry Blackburn, Quinton Everst, and Gene Phillips has been a blessing to many.

For further reading (on another web site): A helpful article, An Overview of the Life of Rev. Isaiah Reid, details some of the key events and milestones in the life of the Iowa Holiness Association’s founder. Appended to the overview are Numerous messages and articles by Isaiah Reid.  In addition, Isaiah Reid’s full story of the events leading up to The Founding of the Iowa Holiness Association is available.