Lee University Chancellor Paul Conn Congratulates Dixon Pentecostal Research Center

Lee University Chancellor Paul Conn congratulates the Dixon Pentecostal Research Center on their 50th Anniversary of ministry to the Church of God and Pentecostal/Charismatic Movements. The Dixon Pentecostal Research Center began on March 2, 1971, as a special collection in the Lee College Library. Library Director LeMoyne Swiger and her staff had assembled a collection of books by Church of God authors. When Charles W. Conn became president of Lee College in 1970, he saw the potential of developing a leading research library documenting the global Pentecostal movement.

President Conn was uniquely positioned to understand the value of a research collection. While he was serving as editor in chief of Church of God publications, denominational leaders commissioned him to write the movement’s history. “Like a Mighty Army” appeared in 1955 and established Conn as the denomination’s historian and an important voice in the Pentecostal Movement. Manuscripts and historical resources used to write “Like a Mighty Army” are among the research center’s valued collections.