G. T. Bustin


Green Tolbert Bustin was an American preacher, pastor, evangelist and missionary who served successively in the Church of the Nazarene, Pilgrim Holiness Church, and the Immanuel Missionary Church, before founding the Evangelical Bible Mission, a conservative holiness faith mission organization, in 1940. Bustin was a prolific author, credited with writing at least twenty books, including two autobiographies.

Early life

Green Tolbert Bustin was born on his paternal grandparents' farm in Hillsboro, a small village near Forest, Scott County, Mississippi on July 22, 1903 as the elder son of Oscar Percy Bustin, a farmer, and his first wife, Francis May "Fannie" Lyle Bustin. Soon after the birth of his only brother, Robert L. Bustin, his parents separated, with Fannie taking Robert with her.
By 1908 Oscar and Fannie had divorced, with Fannie marrying Elisha B. Davis, an insurance agent, with whom she had a daughter, Lotta "Lottie" May Davis. By April 1910 they resided in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
After the departure of his mother, Bustin had little contact with her and his brother. Bustin and his father lived with Bustin's paternal grandparents, Robert Hicks Bustin and his second wife, Mary A. on their farm in Hillsboro. Despite being an invalid, Mary Bustin, whom Bustin called "Mamma", was responsible for raising Bustin.
Bustin was educated in a one-room school house on Bustin Town Hill and was regarded as a good student. In 1920, at the age of 17, Bustin had left school, and worked for several months at his maternal greatuncle's farm in the panhandle of western Texas. While he was working in Texas, Bustin's grandmother died.
Soon after, during the winter of 1920-1921, Bustin left Texas to return home to Mississippi. However, not wanting to stay with his father, who had married Alma Myrtle Arthur and their infant daughter, Mary B. Bustin, Bustin accepted an invitation to stay with his estranged mother in Little River, in Mississippi County in the delta country of northeastern Arkansas.

Conversion and call to ministry

Unknown to Bustin, after her separation from Oscar, Fannie had become a "holiness" Christian, and attempted to lead Bustin into a relationship with Christ. In his first autobiography My First Fifty Years, Bustin indicated that he was raised to be godly by his grandmother, but that they believed that one could only ever hope to be one of the Lord's elect and thus could not know whether Christ had died for them and thus be saved. After the death of his grandmother, Bustin admitted that he had strayed from her teachings, even taking up card playing. Seeing Fannie as a "fanatic", Bustin refused to allow her to pray audibly for his conversion and call into the holiness ministry, and after several months left his mother to go "rambling". Several months later Bustin returned briefly to Fannie after promising to do so if God would heal him of a serious illness. In late 1921 Bustin returned home to discover that Fannie was critically ill. Soon after, Bustin was converted, writing in 1953:
In January 1922 Bustin was entirely sanctified and acknowledged a call to become a holiness preacher. Bustin wrote in 1953:

Education

After several months working, later in 1922 Bustin enrolled as a student at Trevecca College, a Bible Training college operate by the Church of the Nazarene in Nashville, Tennessee. Due to financial limitations, Bustin had to work half his way through school. Two months after Bustin enrolled at Trevecca, his mother died in a hospital in Memphis, Tennessee just before he was able to travel to visit. Just after Fannie's funeral at Lepanto, Arkansas, Bustin rededicated his life to serve God, writing in 1953:
While at Trevecca, Bustin participated each weekend in religious services. During the summer vacation of 1923 Bustin assisted a husband and wife evangelistic team, but due to their illness was given the responsibility of leading the services and preaching at the concluding evangelistic meetings at Salt Lick, Kentucky. Despite his inexperience, Bustin performed well in his first preaching services and won over many in the initially resistant audience.
During his second and final year at Trevecca College, Bustin continued to hold religious services and preach. After Thanksgiving 1923, Bustin convinced his stepfather to allow his daughter, Lottie May Davis, to enrol at Trevecca also but at Bustin's expense. During the summer of 1924 Bustin preached in services in Tennessee, Arkansas, and Mississippi, including for four weeks at Cookeville, Tennessee, where Bustin later recalled:

Ministry

After his summer of preaching, Bustin was offered the pastoral responsibilities for two churches by a district superintendent and a guaranteed salary of $100 a week, however Bustin decided to accept the pastorate at a newly organized church in Columbus, Mississippi with no guaranteed stipend.

Works

Autobiographies

  • 1953. . Intercession City, FL. Reprint: Holiness Data Ministry, 1996.
  • 1978. My First Seventy-five Years. Florala, AL.