Allen, Clifton Judson
Clifton Judson Allen was born November 7, 1901, in a small farming community in Latta, Dillon County, South Carolina. He was the last of seven children of William Benjamin Allen, a farmer, and Theodisia (Cox) Allen, a housewife. He attended local grammar schools and graduated from Oalcho High School in 1919. He graduated from Furman University with a B.A. degree in 1923, from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary with the Th.M. degree in 1928, followed by the Ph.D. degree in 1932. Allen was converted and baptized at the Catfish Creek Baptist Church in the Pee Dee Association and ordained by them in 1926. From 1923 to 1926, he was principal of Minturn High School in his hometown of Latta, South Carolina, and from 1928 to 1931, he was a tutor in the department of Greek New Testament at the Seminary. From 1926 to 1937, he was pastor of the McHenry Baptist Church, McHenry, Kentucky; Utica Baptist Church, Utica, Kentucky; First Baptist Church Fairmont, North Carolina; and the Western Avenue Baptist Church, Statesville, North Carolina.
In mid-1937, Allen accepted a position as Associate Editorial Secretary at the Baptist Sunday School Board in Nashville, Tennessee, where he served for 31 years until his retirement in 1968. Here he made the most significant contribution of his career to the cause of Sunday Schools and religious education. The Editorial Department, as it was called then, was responsible for preparing a style manual, which dictated the editorial style of all Board publications; securing copyrights on the Board’s printed materials and giving permission for their republication and use in other publications; and serving as editor for special projects like encyclopedias and commentaries and interpreting the Board’s ministry of Bible teaching and Christian education. In 1945, Allen was elected Editorial Secretary, following in the footsteps of Hight C. Moore and W. R. White, both able denominational statesmen. In these years, his ministry expanded to include a weekly radio program on WSM, teaching the Sunday School lesson, and writing and editing, for more than 20 years, Points for Emphasis. In his final 10 years with the Board, he made several trips abroad, visiting 16 countries with Southern Baptist career missionaries and others, speaking, teaching, and promoting the cause of Sunday Schools and religious education. He also found time to represent the Board on the Uniform Lessons Series Committee, Commission on Teaching, and Baptist World Alliance, as well as serving the Southern Baptist Convention as Recording Secretary. Allen wrote several books and contributed scores of articles to Baptist and other periodicals. After his retirement from the Board, Allen returned to live in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and serve as adjunct professor at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He died on May 5, 1986.
This oral history interview was conducted in Nashville, Tennessee, at the Sunday School Board, SBC, by Marian Keegan, Archivist with the Dargan-Carver Library in 1972. In the interview, Allen describes is growing up years near Latta, South Carolina, his call to ministry, education, pastorates in Kentucky and North Carolina, and his coming to the Sunday School Board in 1937. He gives his impressions of working alongside Hight C. Moore and his responsibilities at the Board. Allen discusses his work with the Uniform Lesson Committee and relationships with interdenominational groups, directing Bible and writing conferences at Ridgecrest and Glorieta, his involvement with the Commission on Bible Study and Membership Training of the Baptist World Alliance. He describes broadcasting the International Sunday School lessons on Saturdays on WSM radio in Nashville and lists what he considers some of his most significant writings including the books The Gospel According to Paul and I’d Like You to Meet My Friend, the major article on the Sunday School Board for the Encyclopedia of Southern Baptists, and being a major contributor to the wording of the Crisis Statement adopted by messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Houston, Texas, in 1968.
