J. Edgar Barrick: Pioneer Assemblies of God Pastor and Missionary to India

This Week in AG History — May 17, 1964

By Glenn W. Gohr
Originally published on AG News, 16 May 2024

The Assemblies of God celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1964. During that year, a number of pioneers of the faith shared their testimonies in the Pentecostal Evangel. One of these was J. Edgar Barrick (1894-1983), who served as a pastor and missionary with the Assemblies of God.

Jacob Edgar Barrick was born in Shaw, West Virginia. He attended school and spent his childhood in Cross, West Virginia. Although he was raised in the Methodist Church, he did not come into contact with any Spirit-filled or Pentecostal people until 1913. At that time a revival was taking place in the Methodist Church at Kitzmiller, Maryland. He was living in another town, two miles away. Many people were attending the meetings, where people were encouraged to come to the altar to be saved and sanctified. This was no ordinary revival. Soon three Methodist preachers were filled with the Holy Spirit, along with some of the members of the church.

Barrick decided to attend one of the meetings, and as he sat in the service, one of the ministers began speaking in a strange language. Sitting directly in front of him was a young man, who when he heard the tongues speaking, he began to laugh. One of the ministers on the platform said to him, “Young man, this is the moving of God, and this is no place to laugh.” Barrick waited until the service ended, and then he walked back to the boarding house where he was staying. He never went back to that revival.

At the close of that revival, the deacon board of the church decided not to accept the speaking in tongues. This meant that those who had been filled with the Holy Spirit were no longer welcome to worship in the church. The small group of Spirit-baptized believers then started cottage prayer meetings, and the Lord began to bless and add to their numbers.

One night during a prayer meeting, a neighbor lady heard them praying and called the police. She said, “These people are praying for the fire to fall, and I do not want the fire to burn my house.” The police came, arrested the men, and took them to jail, but allowed the women to finish the prayer meeting. The men sat in jail and prayed and sang praises to God all through the night. The next morning, they were released to await a court trial which ended with these Spirit-filled men winning the case.

In 1914, three ministers, A.B. Cox, R.A. McCauley, and D.R. Moreland, came to the town to hold a tent meeting. It was not long before the tent was filled with people every night, many of whom came out of curiosity. One evening a large group of young people, including Barrick, decided to go down to the tent meeting. They had heard that strange things were happening, so they stood outside the first night and listened. The second night they decided to go inside as the singing and testimonies had attracted their attention. It was not long before they were all under deep conviction.

In two weeks, 30 of the young people were saved and filled with the Holy Spirit. People came as far as 15 miles by horse and buggy to witness the outpouring of God’s Sprit. By the close of this tent revival, around 125 people had been saved, and many were filled with the Holy Spirit.

The night Edgar Barrick was baptized with the Holy Spirit at that meeting, he felt a call to preach the gospel. He tried to reason with God. He told Him he would be happy just to work in the church. But the burden continued, and in the fall of 1917, he answered the call by entering Beulah Heights Bible Training Institute in North Bergen, New Jersey, where he graduated in 1919.

One evening, three weeks after he entered school at Beulah Heights, he was praying with some other young men in the auditorium before going to their rooms to study, and the Lord spoke again to Barrick’s heart. At that time Barrick had a vision of the heathen villages of India, and he sensed God asking him if he would be willing to go. Having already made a commitment to attend Bible school, he was ready to say “Yes” to the call to the mission field.

Just a few days before graduation from Bible school, Barrick received a letter asking if he would pastor his home church in Kitzmiller, Maryland. He served his home church for over a year, and then he was called to pastor a church in Cumberland, Maryland.

About this time, Edgar Barrick married Virginia May Twigg on Sept. 25, 1918, at Cumberland, Maryland. Upon graduation from Bible school, Barrick received a preaching license from the Eastern District of the Assemblies of God in 1919, when Robert A. Brown was chairman. He later was ordained by the Potomac District on Jan. 29, 1920, while he was pastoring in Kitzmiller. His wife, Virginia, was licensed with the Potomac District in 1921.

Both of the Barricks felt called into missions to India. They were appointed as Assemblies of God missionaries to North India on Sept. 27, 1921. By April 16, 1922, Barrick, his wife, and their 2-year-old son were in India. Two more children were born while they were on the mission field.

Times in India were not easy. They both attended language school, and a few months after their arrival, Edgar came down with a fever which kept him bedridden for nine weeks. After much prayer, he recovered. They first worked with missionaries Almyra and Olga Aston at Bara Banki.

In a missionary report in April 1923, Barrick said, “Words cannot be found to express the need in the many villages as we see it from day to day. Hundreds of poor, starving, diseased children in each village, seemingly left to make their way through life the best they can.”

The native homes were made of mud with grass for a roof. The Barricks were determined to share the gospel in this needy mission field. “Yet through these conditions we are glad that the story of the Cross is listened to with interest, and we believe that some seed is falling into good ground,” he wrote.

By May of 1923, the Barricks had opened a new mission station at Rae Bareli, where they worked with missionary Paul Andreasen. Some of the hardships they faced included heavy sandstorms and the Bubonic Plague among the people they ministered to. They also endured flooding during the rainy season.

A 1924 report by the Barricks stated in part: “It takes much patience, labor, and wisdom to deal with these dear people. We were hindered in the beginning for several months on account of sickness, but we still feel encouraged to press on and do our best for Him.”

In June of 1925, Barrick reported that beginning in March he became sick with smallpox. He was dangerously ill and said, “This of course cast a heavy gloom over our home as our thought went back to our missionaries who have gone home to be with Jesus through this dreadful disease.”

Telegrams were sent out for the saints to pray. W.K. Norton responded to this call and secured a capable nurse from Lucknow to help with his care. The nurse said there was little hope of recovery, for he had a very severe form of the disease.

While his fever was raging, Barrick felt the Lord speak to his heart: “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God.” At one point Barrick was almost totally covered with smallpox, including his mouth and tongue. But around his eyes there were no pox. Otherwise, he might have suffered blindness.

Barrick said many of the townspeople prayed for him, including some Muslims and Hindus.

“One of the native men who came to see me asked if I wasn’t ready to curse India for putting this disease upon me,” Barrick recalled. He responded: “No, it only makes me love her more, and puts a deeper longing in my heart to see her people turn to a Christ who is able to save them from sin.” Miraculously, he recovered.

In 1933 Barrick reported that he had been ministering in Moghul Sarai, India. He wrote, “The Lord has blessed our efforts in this new field. Our congregation here at the station has increased from 12 people to nearly 50 in the five months we have been here.”

Another report in 1938 said that they had been sharing printed gospel tracts with many people who came to the train station. There were 36 passenger trains that would pass through the town every 24 hours. Many of the people were receptive to the gospel. After four and a half years at this mission station, his congregation in a little chapel building had grown to 65 people.

The Barricks spent 38 years as missionaries in India, and it all began when some men of God came to hold a Pentecostal tent meeting in Barrick’s hometown.

Barrick said, “I thank God for that night in 1914 when, at the age of 19, I was saved in that tent meeting.” Seven nights later he was baptized in the Holy Spirit in the dining room of the home where he was staying. Barrick said, “During that time, the Lord honored me by calling me to preach the gospel. No greater privilege can come to anyone.”

Read “I Remember,” by J. Edgar Barrick, on page 9 of the May 17, 1964, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel.

Also featured in this issue:

• “College and Christian Dynamics,” by J. Robert Ashcroft

• “Revival at Riverside,” by Alton C. Smith

And many more!

Click here to read this issue now.

Pentecostal Evangel archived editions courtesy of the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center.

Do you have Pentecostal historical materials that should be preserved? Please consider depositing these materials at the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center (FPHC). The FPHC, located in the Assemblies of God national offices, is the largest Pentecostal archive in the world. We would like to preserve and make your treasures accessible to those who write the history books.

Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center
1445 North Boonville Avenue
Springfield, Missouri 65802 USA
Phone: 417.862.1447 ext. 4400
Toll Free: 877.840.5200
Email: archives@ag.org
Website: https://ifphc.org/

“Mother” Alice Reynolds Flower: Lessons on Motherhood from an Assemblies of God Pioneer

This Week in AG History — May 11, 1952

By Glenn W. Gohr
Originally published on AG News, 09 May 2024

Alice Reynolds Flower (1890-1991), the wife of AG pioneer J. Roswell Flower, is a shining example of motherhood. Affectionately known as “Mother Flower,” she preached, taught Sunday School, led prayer meetings, wrote articles, penned poetry, authored books, and lived a godly example in front of her six children and everyone she came in contact with.

As Mother’s Day approaches, it is good to consider an article that Mother Flower wrote for the Pentecostal Evangel in May 1952. It was also made available in tract form through the Gospel Publishing House and was widely distributed.

In “The Business of Coat-Making,” Mother Flower talked about Hannah, the mother of Samuel in the Old Testament. Samuel’s mother prayed diligently to have a son, and when her first-born son arrived, she dedicated him to God’s service. As a young boy, he went to live with Eli the high priest. The Bible record says, “Moreover his mother made him a little coat, and brought it to him from year to year, when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice” (1 Samuel 2:19).

This verse held deep significance for Mother Flower. She liked to ponder how Samuel’s mother found a way to minister to her son, even though he was consecrated to service in the house of God. She imagined the joy Hannah had in every stitch of the garment she made each year. Mother Flower said, “To Hannah, making that coat was no ordinary bit of sewing; it was her one chance to express yearly in practical manner the love of her heart.” She continued, “And she did it faithfully, delivering each tiny garment personally to her Samuel there in the house of God.”

Mother Flower suggested that God never intended the business of coat-making to end with Hannah. She gave an example of her own mother, who provided spiritual “coats” for each of her daughters. First, she gave each of them a “coat of prayer.” Mother Flower shared her own testimony of her mother praying for her during her teen years, when she was struggling with a number of conflicts. Partly due to her mother’s prayers she surrendered her life to Christ and later was baptized in the Holy Spirit on Easter Sunday of 1907 at the age of 16.

Her mother also fashioned “coats of consistent living” for each of her children. She testified, “Her every walk before us stirred our hearts to follow God similarly.” Mother Flower said that fervor in the church is good, and laboring for others is commendable, but “making the coat of consistent living” is the most important task of a mother.

Another aspect of coat-making is the Word of God. Mother Flower gave a testimony that after her mother was miraculously raised from a deathbed experience and filled with the Holy Spirit, she started the family altar. Each morning the family gathered together to read God’s Word and pray, and her mother also helped the children to memorize Scripture. She compared her mother’s influence through the Word of God to Timothy in the New Testament whose faith was molded by his mother and grandmother.

The “coat of discipline” is also essential. She shared that, “No home is beautiful or happy without obedience, respect, honesty, and cooperation. The standard of righteous living as taught by the Word of God must be faithfully, constantly, consistently raised as a part of the family existence,” said Flower, “not a passing suggestion, but an essential detail of the family living, as is the eating, drinking, and sleeping.” Training up obedient, honest, respectful, and God-fearing children is vitally important.

One more coat that is essential is “Understanding Love.” She felt it imperative that a mother have occasional “heart-charts” and “seasons together before God” with each of her children. She said, a “mother must keep ever wisely stitching on this ‘coat of understanding’ if she would successfully fulfill her highest ministry in the home.”

Mother Flower’s admonition is for more mothers to pray diligently for their children on a daily basis, live a consistent Christian life, study the Word of God, offer guidance and training, and hem all of this in love and understanding.

Read more in “The Business of Coat-Making” on pages 3-4, 22 of the May 11, 1952, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel.

Also featured in this issue:

• “Visions in the Night,” by Frank M. Boyd

• “Healed Through Mother’s Prayers,” by Allen Bowman

And many more!

Click here to read this issue now.

Pentecostal Evangel archived editions courtesy of the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center.

Do you have Pentecostal historical materials that should be preserved? Please consider depositing these materials at the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center (FPHC). The FPHC, located in the Assemblies of God national offices, is the largest Pentecostal archive in the world. We would like to preserve and make your treasures accessible to those who write the history books.

Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center
1445 North Boonville Avenue
Springfield, Missouri 65802 USA
Phone: 417.862.1447 ext. 4400
Toll Free: 877.840.5200
Email: archives@ag.org
Website: https://ifphc.org/

Dr. Howard Thomas: The Remarkable Deliverance of a Tennessee Physician from Drug Addiction

This Week in AG History — May 3, 1970

By Darrin J. Rodgers
Originally published on AG-News, 02 May 2024

Dr. Howard Thomas (1927-2016) had a promising career as a physician, but a drug addiction almost destroyed his marriage and professional life in the early 1960s. After hitting rock bottom and ending up in a private sanatorium for treatment, he turned to Christ and experienced a radical transformation. Against all odds, Thomas was allowed to keep his medical license. He became a dedicated member of the Assemblies of God and frequently shared his testimony of his deliverance from addiction to drugs. The May 3, 1970, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel published his remarkable story. 

Thomas was raised in a rural Tennessee community where alcohol was a way of life and where religious influences were minimal. Recreational activities always seemed to include liquor bottles. Thomas partied hard, but he also worked hard. He married, attended college, studied diligently, and graduated from the University of Tennessee College of Medicine in 1954. 

Thomas and another doctor purchased a clinic in Henderson, Tennessee. Thomas and his wife, Ann, seemed to be living the American dream. They were respected members of their community, and their future was bright. 

However, the Thomases’ lifestyle of partying led them into trouble. They began attending private parties hosted by local professionals. Drug use and sexual sin were commonplace. 

Dr. Thomas recounted: “Practically all the people at these parties were church people. The parties got worse and worse. I would have to describe them as vile and vulgar. Yet on Sunday morning you could see these same people in the pews and teaching Sunday School classes and serving the churches.” 

The Thomases joined in the hypocrisy. They maintained a veneer of respectability, even while they adopted destructive lifestyles. Their hearts were far from God. Dr. Thomas later said, “Our morals got lower and lower.” 

Family and work pressures took their toll, and Thomas began taking pills to help him stay awake. He learned to depend on stimulants and began injecting amphetamine. He soon moved on to harder drugs, including Demerol and morphine. When Ann was feeling ill, he gave her a shot of Demerol. Soon, she was also addicted. 

Life was spinning out of control. They tried to escape their problems by leaving Henderson and moving to Arizona, where he accepted a position as a company doctor. Their drug habit, however, was not solved by distance. Dr. Thomas, increasingly, was unable to focus sufficiently to perform surgeries, and Ann became mentally disturbed and could not be home alone. 

Ann’s condition deteriorated, and her parents came from Tennessee to help with the children. The family decided to move back to Tennessee, where Thomas opened up another practice. He thought he could “snap out of it” and that everything would be all right.  

However, Thomas could not kick his drug habit and things got worse. He developed festering abscesses on his hips and shoulders, and he had difficulty hiding his addictions. Ultimately, his parents had him committed at a neuropsychiatric hospital in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. He escaped from the hospital. He went on to hold a series of failed short-term positions as a doctor, until he deteriorated to the point of being unable to function. He slept in his car in the woods or in a gravel pit, and patients never knew where to find him. 

Dr. Thomas was recommitted at the Murfreesboro hospital, this time behind locked steel doors. He was devastated. He was confined for seven weeks, where he went through withdrawal. However, he still had cravings for drugs. He knew that he would return to his former lifestyle once he was free. In the meantime, Ann had filed for divorce. 

One day, in July 1965, a truck driver asked Thomas to attend a men’s religious retreat. Thomas tried to say “no,” but the truck driver was persistent. Thomas went, and the services were unlike anything he had ever seen.

The men were not trying to impress anyone. They were not playing church. They testified how God delivered them from lives of sin, they prayed, and they called on God in prayer. Thomas came to realize that these men had something that he desperately needed – he needed God’s power in his life.  

A Spirit-filled Methodist electrician and plumber led Thomas to the Lord at the meeting. Thomas later recalled, “I felt clean. I felt the same way as the other men. I was full of praise. I wanted to testify. My first thought was to go to Ann and tell her about Jesus. I knew she was lost.” 

Thomas returned from the retreat and told Ann that he accepted Jesus and was a new man. She was skeptical. Her mother warned her to not go back to him. He had promised for years that he would kick his addictions, but never did. 

Thomas began attending a local Methodist church, where the pastor invited him to share his testimony. Word spread throughout the region of Dr. Thomas’ remarkable deliverance from drugs, and he began to receive invitations to speak at schools and churches. He also reconciled with his wife, Ann. 

After accepting Christ, Thomas began reading the Bible. He became convinced from the Bible that Christ provided an experience subsequent to salvation – baptism in the Holy Spirit – that provided empowerment for daily living. He had heard some of the men at the retreat talking about the experience. He knew that he needed God’s power in his life. 

The Thomases met Ralph Duncan, an Assemblies of God pastor in Rutherford, Tennessee, and invited him to hold special services in Saltillo, the small town where they were living. Ann received the baptism in the Holy Spirit in those meetings, and she became a different person. She said, “Honey, it’s real. It’s real!” Dr. Thomas was likewise baptized in the Holy Spirit a short time later. 

Meanwhile, the Board of Medical Examiners had started the process of revoking Thomas’ license to practice medicine. Dr. Thomas made a full written confession of his addictions and misdeeds, and the board had no intention of giving him a second chance, based on his dismal record. 

At Dr. Thomas’ hearing, the board grilled the Thomases and their parents for two hours. The board asked Ann, “How can you be so sure that he won’t go back on drugs?” She replied, “You don’t know the power of God.”  

Stating it was against its better judgement, the board decided to permit Thomas to continue to practice medicine, on the condition that Ann write the board a letter every month assuring the board that everything is fine. 

Dr. Howard Thomas went to on to be a successful physician and a longtime Assemblies of God member. He frequently shared his testimony, including on television and radio. A widely-distributed booklet, Drugs, Despair, Deliverance: The Story of Dr. Howard Thomas, was written by C.M. Ward, the host of the Assemblies of God’s Revivaltime radio broadcast. In 1975, David Mainse interviewed Thomas for the Assemblies of God’s Turning Point television program. Thomas had so many ministry opportunities that he became credentialed as an Assemblies of God minister from 1975 to 1981. 

When Thomas went to be with the Lord in 2016, he and Ann had been married almost 70 years. While the first 20 years of their marriage was marked by addictions and destructive patterns, they spent their last 50 years as devoted Christians active in Assemblies of God churches. 

Thomas’ testimony provides insight into the problem of drug addiction. From personal experience, Thomas understood that institutional care is not the answer to the drug problem. He wrote, “A man can be taken off drugs, but as soon as he is returned to society, and the same pressures set in, that man will return to drugs.” 

Thomas also understood that psychiatry is limited in its ability to treat addiction. Psychiatrists recognized and analyzed Thomas’ addiction, but they could not cure the addiction. A cure required a change of heart. Addiction, Thomas came to realize, was a spiritual problem. He spent years attempting to treat his own addiction. However, Thomas found deliverance only after he placed his faith in Christ and allowed his heart and desires to be changed by the power of the Holy Spirit. 

Read “I Was Hooked on Drugs,” by Howard W. Thomas, on pages 2-3 and 13 of the May 3, 1970, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel.

Also featured in this issue:

• “Marriages Can Be Mended,” by C.M. Ward

• “From Black Magic to Christ,” by Armand Helou

And many more!

Click here to read this issue now.

Pentecostal Evangel archived editions courtesy of the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center.

Do you have Pentecostal historical materials that should be preserved? Please consider depositing these materials at the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center (FPHC). The FPHC, located in the Assemblies of God national offices, is the largest Pentecostal archive in the world. We would like to preserve and make your treasures accessible to those who write the history books.

Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center
1445 North Boonville Avenue
Springfield, Missouri 65802 USA
Phone: 417.862.1447 ext. 4400
Toll Free: 877.840.5200
Email: archives@ag.org
Website: https://ifphc.org/

Elmer F. Muir: A Baptist Pastor Discovers the Power of the Holy Spirit in the 1920s

This Week in AG History — April 25, 1925

By Darrin J. Rodgers
Originally published on AG-News, 25 April 2024

A Pentecostal revival in the 1920s touched numerous Baptist ministers and churches, resulting in the cross-pollination of the two traditions. High-profile Baptists who became Pentecostal included Mae Eleanor Frey, an evangelist and author ordained by the National Baptist Convention in 1905, and William Keeney Towner, pastor of First Baptist Church in San Jose, California.

Many lesser-known Baptist ministers also embraced the Pentecostal movement, but their stories have been largely forgotten. Among these was Elmer F. Muir, a pastor who had experienced great discouragement in his ministry. He was spiritually refreshed by the winds of Pentecostal revival. He received the baptism in the Holy Spirit and testified that he experienced “the deep things of God.” Muir’s testimony was published in the April 25, 1925, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel.

Elmer Ferguson Muir (1890-1947), the son of Scottish immigrants, was born in Dubuque, Iowa. He received a call to the ministry at age 21 while attending a revival campaign held by legendary evangelist Billy Sunday. Muir quickly discovered that the road to the ministry would be challenging. Muir had dropped out of high school, but his Presbyterian denomination required that ministers have a college degree. He enrolled at Coe College, a Presbyterian school in Iowa, where he recalled “burning the candle at both ends” both day and night for five years. He graduated from Coe College in 1917 and became a Baptist pastor.

Muir served as pastor of the Baptist church in Arkansas City, Kansas, in the early 1920s. He sometimes found the work of the ministry overwhelming. He described a revival campaign at his church: “It was one that was worked up instead of prayed down.” The experience wore him out. He wrote, “I never want to go through one again, it was dental work from beginning to end.”

Muir received a fine theological education. However, he came to realize that he needed more than mere knowledge “to bring about this great, wonderful program of God.” What did he need? He was uncertain. He recalled, “But how [the program of God] was to be brought about I had no conception.”

To add to his problems, a lady in Muir’s congregation kept asking him if he had been baptized in the Holy Spirit. He was not sure how to answer. At first, he responded that the experience was only for the early church. She kept pestering Muir for over two years until he relented. Finally, he agreed to preach one Wednesday night on the subject of the baptism in the Holy Spirit. He titled the sermon, “Has the Church Lost Its Power?” But as Muir studied the Word of God, he came to realize that the lady in his congregation had been right — the baptism in the Holy Spirit was for him, and it could empower him in ministry.

Muir and his wife both sought and received the baptism in the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues. At first, Muir was hesitant to tell his congregation. What would people say? Ultimately, he shared his Pentecostal testimony and was forced to resign from the church. He transferred his ministerial credentials to the Assemblies of God in 1925 and started a small congregation (now known as First Assembly of God, Arkansas City, Kansas). In 1927, he moved to San Diego, California, where he pastored Full Gospel Tabernacle. He also edited a book of articles by Pentecostal missionary Cornelia Nuzum, The Life of Faith. The book, originally published by Gospel Publishing House in 1928, remains in print 96 years later.

Elmer F. Muir decided to transfer his credentials back to the Baptist church in 1929. He resigned from the Assemblies of God in good standing and spent the rest of his ministry in Baptist churches. Muir’s ministry in the Assemblies of God lasted only four years, but it demonstrates the porous borders between the Assemblies of God and other evangelical denominations. The Pentecostal movement has helped to refresh many ministers and laypersons from other denominations, some of whom ultimately returned to their former churches. This cross-pollination between the Assemblies of God and other churches helped to build bridges across the denominational divides, laying the foundation for future generations who would be more concerned with building the kingdom of God rather than a particular denomination.

Read Elmer F. Muir’s powerful testimony, “Why I Am No Longer a Baptist Preacher,” on pages 2 and 3 of the April 25, 1925, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel.

Also featured in this issue:

• “Our Great Equipment,” by A.H. Argue

• “A Notable Miracle,” by Amelia De Franchi

• “Healed of Paralysis,” by G.E. Wolfe

And many more!

Click here to read this issue now.

Click here to order a copy of Cornelia Nuzum’s classic book, The Life of Faith, which was edited by Elmer F. Muir.

Pentecostal Evangel archived editions courtesy of the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center.

Do you have Pentecostal historical materials that should be preserved? Please consider depositing these materials at the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center (FPHC). The FPHC, located in the Assemblies of God national offices, is the largest Pentecostal archive in the world. We would like to preserve and make your treasures accessible to those who write the history books.

Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center
1445 North Boonville Avenue
Springfield, Missouri 65802 USA
Phone: 417.862.1447 ext. 4400
Toll Free: 877.840.5200
Email: archives@ag.org
Website: https://ifphc.org/

Mary Weems Chapman, First Assemblies of God Missionary to South India: Called to the Prostitutes and Untouchables

Mary Weems Chapman’s passport photo, 1921.

This Week in AG History — April 18, 1925

By Darrin J. Rodgers
Originally published on AG-News, 18 March 2024

When veteran missionary Mary Weems Chapman (1857-1927) felt God’s call to return to India, her family told her she was too old. But she persevered and became the first Assemblies of God missionary to South India. A veteran Free Methodist missionary before identifying with the Pentecostal movement, Mary was well-known in Holiness circles for her preaching, teaching, and writing. But she was perhaps best known for her advocacy of ministry to girl prostitutes and the “untouchables” — members of India’s lowest social caste.

Mary and her husband, George, were pioneer leaders in the Pentecost Bands, a Free Methodist missions organization known for promoting both holiness and social ministry. They founded the Free Methodist work in Monrovia, Liberia, in 1889. They returned to America in 1893.

Mary was a prolific author. She edited a volume of writings by Holiness advocate Eunice Parsons Cobb, Mother Cobb, or Sixty Years with God (1896). She also served a one-year stint (1898) as founding editor of Missionary Tidings, published by the General Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society of the Free Methodist Church.

George seemingly disappeared from Mary’s writings in the 1890s. Whether he died or something else happened is unknown. But she continued in ministry as a single woman. She moved to India in about 1900, where she worked at a Pentecostal Rescue Home that plucked young girls out of prostitution and provided education and spiritual help.

Single and aging, in about 1909 she returned to America. But she could not shake the sense that God wanted her to help the suffering girls of India. By 1911 she surfaced in Pentecostal periodicals, writing gut-wrenching articles about the great need to rescue girls in India who had been sold into sexual slavery.

Feeling a holy restlessness, Mary decided to return to India. She was approaching 60 years old. Her family tried to dissuade her, telling her she was too old to endure the rigors of missionary work. But her mind was made up. She told her family, “If young people are not able to go, old people must go.”

Mary arrived in India in 1915 and established her first missionary base in Doddaballapur, near Bangalore. She conducted evangelistic meeting in numerous parts of South India. In 1917, she affiliated with the Assemblies of God and became the Fellowship’s first missionary in South India.

Mary’s extensive writing and editing skills proved useful in her missions work. She was concerned by the poor discipleship of new converts and by the vast amount of anti-Christian and anti-Pentecostal literature that was causing confusion. To help remedy these problems, in 1925 she co-founded a magazine called Penthecosthu Kahalam (Pentecostal Trumpet) in the Malayalam language. She also wrote over 50 articles and letters published in the Pentecostal Evangel from 1913 to 1927.

In one of those letters, published in the April 18, 1925, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel, Mary described the plight of the Dalits, also called the “untouchables” because of their low social position. She described the joy of the Dalits who accepted Christ and were “adopted in the family of heaven.” She noted that her missionary colleagues started a school to educate young converts, because Dalits were not permitted to attend school with people from other classes in Indian society.

After 10 years of ministry under the Assemblies of God banner, Mary Weems Chapman died on November 27, 1927. She was 70 years old.

Samuel Jabarethnan, Chapman’s interpreter for the last eight years of her life, wrote the following tribute: “I found Sister Chapman to be a most devoted and spiritual missionary. She stood not just for the Pentecostal experience, but emphasized the need for a deep spiritual, sanctified life . . . Sister Chapman was never satisfied with shallow, superficial things, either in a worker, a Christian, or an assembly. She demanded reality and set the example in her own life . . . Sister Chapman loved to spend much of her time in prayer. She never allowed the duties or responsibilities of her work to interfere with her prayer life. She labored and groaned in deep intercessory prayer for the souls of men to be saved, and as a result the Lord richly blessed her ministry.”

Read Mary Chapman’s article, “Ministering to the Untouchables,” on page 11 of the April 18, 1925, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel.

Also featured in this issue:

• “Faith in the Invisible,” by Ernest S. Williams

• “Gleanings from the Book of Ruth,” by A.G. Ward

• “Denying Self,” by Alice Rowlands Frodsham

And many more!

Click here to read this issue now.

Pentecostal Evangel archived editions courtesy of the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center.

Do you have Pentecostal historical materials that should be preserved? Please consider depositing these materials at the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center (FPHC). The FPHC, located in the Assemblies of God national offices, is the largest Pentecostal archive in the world. We would like to preserve and make your treasures accessible to those who write the history books.

Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center
1445 North Boonville Avenue
Springfield, Missouri 65802 USA
Phone: 417.862.1447 ext. 4400
Toll Free: 877.840.5200
Email: archives@ag.org
Website: https://ifphc.org/

John and Ella Franklin: Pioneer Assemblies of God Missionaries to Guatemala

This Week in AG History–April 11, 1942

By Ruthie Edgerly Oberg
Originally published on AG News, 11 April 2024

John L. Franklin (1910-1999) was orphaned shortly after birth by the death of his mother, and he spent the majority of his young life in an orphanage. Yet even as a young boy he felt that God had laid His hand on him for a greater work — that of missionary service.

While attending Southern California College (now Vanguard University) in the early 1930s, this call grew ever stronger. Franklin believed he needed more of God’s power if he were to attempt such an undertaking. He began to seek for the infilling of the Holy Spirit. After a time of prayer and fasting, he traveled to a mountain top overlooking the city of Pasadena. There he committed to give himself fully to God for the cities of the world. The next morning in the college chapel service, Franklin started to praise the Lord in his usual manner when he found himself speaking in a language he did not know. He was consumed with a burden of prayer for nation after nation.

Franklin soon became involved with evangelistic efforts on the Mexican border. From this experience he believed God was sending him to Guatemala in answer to the request from a small group of Pentecostal believers who were looking for help with discipleship and in reaching their neighbors. Assemblies of God missionaries Christopher and Inez Hines went to Guatemala in 1916 and stayed until 1925. No others had been sent in the interim to minister to their converts. Franklin and his new wife, Ella, responded to the call.

Bringing along their possessions — consisting of a mattress, an accordion, a typewriter, and a barrel of household items — they arrived in Jutiapa in April 1937. Securing a mule to ride out into the countryside, they located the five small congregations scattered among the mountains. These believers had prayed fervently for someone to come and lead them. They knew the Pentecostal message, but few had received the experience of the baptism in the Holy Spirit. The Franklins stayed with each group, in turn, sleeping in hammocks, bathing in mountain streams, drinking unsafe water, and eating many meals of beans and tortillas. They struggled with illness in growing accustomed to the new way of living, but were very happy to see God working in the lives of their new friends.

By early 1938, 300 people gathered together to form the first council of the Assemblies of God in Guatemala. John Franklin was named the first superintendent and Socorro Ramirez as secretary.

In 1941, Franklin opened a church in Guatemala City holding services every day for five months. The attendance was mostly children. On Good Friday of that year, God moved in a special way and seven people were filled with the Holy Spirit. This service sparked a revival, and the meeting room was always full after this. Soon a large evangelistic center was established in Guatemala City.

In a report in the April 11, 1942, Pentecostal Evangel, Franklin wrote of several healings and expressed thanks for the gift of a 1938 Chevrolet “in splendid condition and undoubtedly good for many years of service if Jesus tarries.” Even though the roads were primitive and, in many places, nonexistent, the car enabled them to carry abundant supplies and provisions. Franklin explained, “You cannot imagine how much easier it is than traveling by mule back.” (This was before the advent of the Assemblies of God Speed the Light program which purchases transportation for missionaries.)

Franklin also shared in the article the system of church planting they were using. “Each pastor is made to feel responsible for the villages surrounding the assembly of his charge … he is encouraged to evangelize and seek to bring other assemblies into being. In this effort he is assisted by his congregation which accompanies him on preaching trips to the new fields. Thus every pastor become an evangelist, and every member a pioneer worker.”

Church planting was not easy for the young Pentecostal movement in Guatemala. Franklin describes, “There is hardship entailed — hunger, fatigue, inconvenience of every kind. It means miles and miles of walking … intolerable heat at noonday and the chill of mountain heights because of scanty clothing or lack of sufficient covers at night. It means hours of torture because of insufferable plagues of mosquitoes or fleas. At times every effort to do good is repulsed and the works are reviled or threatened. Some have been stoned, others cruelly mistreated… it seems that a price must be paid for every victory gained — but how can we expect it otherwise? Our Lord paid a tremendous price for our salvation.” Franklin believed that there was no price too high for him or the believers he discipled to pay for the salvation of the people of Guatemala.

In 1977, 40 years after arriving in Guatemala, the Franklins retired from full-time ministry, returning to the United States. They made numerous short-term trips back to Guatemala to rejoice with the people who had become their family. From the five small groups of believers they found in 1937, God had blessed them with 600 established churches, 700 licensed ministers, and 55,000 Assemblies of God believers.

Read more of Franklin’s report, “A Harvest That Rewards the Sacrifice,” on pages 6-7 of the April 11, 1942, Pentecostal Evangel.

Also featured in this issue:

• “A Plea for Wholehearted Service,” by P.C. Nelson

• “Shut Out – the Fate of the Foolish Virgins,” by James Salter

• “Portions for Whom Nothing is Prepared,” by Margaret Ann Bass

And many more!

Click here to read this issue now.

Pentecostal Evangel archived editions courtesy of the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center.

Do you have Pentecostal historical materials that should be preserved? Please consider depositing these materials at the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center (FPHC). The FPHC, located in the Assemblies of God national offices, is the largest Pentecostal archive in the world. We would like to preserve and make your treasures accessible to those who write the history books.

Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center
1445 North Boonville Avenue
Springfield, Missouri 65802 USA
Phone: 417.862.1447 ext. 4400
Toll Free: 877.840.5200
Email: archives@ag.org
Website: https://ifphc.org/

Frederick Martin Lehman: Pioneer Holiness and Assemblies of God Hymn Writer

This Week in AG History–April 5, 1953

By Ruthie Edgerly Oberg
Originally published on AG News, 04 April 2024

Frederick Martin Lehman (1868-1953) was a German-born hymn writer, pastor, and publisher who accepted the message of the Pentecostal movement after many years as a holiness preacher. His songs encouraged congregations to press in to holiness and consecration. One of them, “The Love of God,” is consistently listed as one of the great sacred songs of the 20th century and has been published in hundreds of hymnals and translated into scores of languages, yet his Pentecostal connections are little known.

Born in Schwerin, Germany, his family emigrated to the United States when he was just 4 years old. They settled in Iowa where Frederick grew up among other German immigrant farmers. At the age of 11, he had a deep experience with God that impacted the direction of his life. He enrolled at Northwestern College in Illinois to study for ministry with the newly formed Church of the Nazarene. He later pastored in Iowa, Indiana, and Kansas City, Missouri. It was while he was pastoring in Kansas City that he helped to found the Nazarene Publishing House in that city.

When Lehman was 23, he married Emma Lou Dermeyer, in a process he poetically described thusly: “I wooed and wed one of the loveliest maidens outside the gates of Eden.” They were married for 61 years and had nine children, many of whom also followed in Christian service.

During his ministry, Lehman did editorial work for several religious magazines and wrote a number of books, but his real knack was for poetry, which he often set to music. He wrote his first song in 1898 while pastoring in Kingsley, Iowa, and followed it with hundreds more. Many were published in 1919 in his first collection, Songs That Are Different. It was this collection that included the first publication of “No Disappointment in Heaven,” “The Royal Telephone,” and “The Love of God.”

At some point between 1912 and 1927, Lehman left the Church of the Nazarene, which had rejected the Pentecostal message of baptism in the Holy Spirit as evidenced by speaking in tongues. In the Sept. 24, 1927, issue of the Assemblies of God paper, The Pentecostal Evangel, Lehman wrote an article on “Self and Grace” in poetic form telling of this change in his life and experience:

“Once the ‘Second Blessing Movement’ moved and did exploits a few. God knocked at this Wesleyan portal, saying, “I have more for you. You are fitted best to carry news of this great latter rain — but they closed the door in blindness, hence the Master pled in vain. So He left that once-blest Movement and the boasted talent there; poured His Spirit on the simple and the unlearned everywhere … Yes, the latter rain is falling all around this sin-sick world. And recruits that number millions march beneath this flag unfurled … Savior mine and great Baptizer, Healer, and my coming King! Unto Thee ascribe we honor! Unto Thee we praises sing!”

Many of the songs he wrote as a Nazarene preacher spoke of the Pentecostal blessing, as it was a term used to describe the experience of sanctification in the holiness churches. These holiness songs were picked up by early Pentecostals. The first known recording of a Lehman song was by a female African American Pentecostal store-front preacher in Memphis, Mary M. Nelson, who released “The Royal Telephone” on an album in 1927, including these lyrics:

“If your line is ‘grounded,’ and connection true
Has been lost with Je¬sus, tell you what to do:
Prayer and faith and promise mend the broken wire,
’Till your soul is burning with the Pentecostal fire.”

As evidenced by Nelson’s early recording and the publication of songbooks, early Pentecostals adopted much of the music of the holiness churches from which many of them came. A few of the songwriters associated with these churches accepted the Pentecostal message and provided songs for the fledgling movement, among them Thoro Harris, R.E. Winsett, and Herbert Buffum.

Lehman wrote the music for “Loyal Christ’s Ambassadors,” the 1935 song for the Assemblies of God youth ministry, Christ’s Ambassadors. However, he became well-known in the broader church world because of songs such as “The Love of God,” which has been sung in churches of all denominations:

“The love of God is greater far than tongue or pen can ever tell;
It goes beyond the highest star, and reaches to the lowest hell;
The guilty pair, bowed down with care, God gave His Son to win;
His erring child He reconciled, and pardoned from his sin.

Could we with ink the ocean fill, or were the sky of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill, and every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole, though stretched from sky to sky.

Oh, love of God, how rich and pure! How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure — the saints’ and angels’ song.”

When Lehman died in 1953, he was a member of Trinity Assembly of God in Pasadena, California, and the Pentecostal Evangel published a notice honoring him in the April 5, 1953, issue. In 1955, the Men’s Ministry department of the Assemblies of God published an article in its TEAM publication stating that “F.M. Lehman forever laid down his pen … America lost a great song writer, and the Assemblies of God its greatest.”

Read the announcement of Lehman’s death on page 13 of the April 5, 1953, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel.

Also featured in this issue

• “The Empty Sepulcher,” by Alice Reynolds Flower

• “Channels of Resurrection Power,” by Robert Cummings

And many more!

Click here to read this issue now.

Pentecostal Evangel archived editions courtesy of the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center.

Do you have Pentecostal historical materials that should be preserved? Please consider depositing these materials at the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center (FPHC). The FPHC, located in the Assemblies of God national offices, is the largest Pentecostal archive in the world. We would like to preserve and make your treasures accessible to those who write the history books.

Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center
1445 North Boonville Avenue
Springfield, Missouri 65802 USA
Phone: 417.862.1447 ext. 4400
Toll Free: 877.840.5200
Email: archives@ag.org
Website: https://ifphc.org/

Clement Le Cossec: The French Pentecostal Pastor Who Became an Apostle to the Roma (Gypsies)

This Week in AG History–March 30, 1969

By Ruthie Edgerly Oberg
Originally published on AG News, 28 March 2024

When Clement Le Cossec (1921-2001) was growing up in Brittany, a province in northwest France, his mother warned him, “Be careful! If you are not good, the [Roma, formerly known as] Gypsies will come and steal you away!” Frightened, Le Cossec promised his mother he would be good, so that he would never have to live with the Roma. Yet, God had a plan for him, and when this French pastor died in 2001, more than 2,000 Roma from across Europe attended his funeral, mourning the loss of the man who came to be known as “The Apostle to the Gypsies (Roma).” 

The March 30, 1969, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel shared the fascinating story of Le Cossec and his ministry to the Roma. 

In 1952, while pastoring a church in Rennes, France, Le Cossec held a preaching campaign in Brest, near Normandy. At the end of one of the meetings a strongly built, dark man approached him and asked if the pastor would visit “us” at an encampment in the hedges alongside the road leading into town. When Le Cossec arrived, he found a caravan of trailers and a group of people with a story to tell. 

Two years earlier, one of the young men, Zino, had been given a terminal diagnosis. A traveling Pentecostal preacher prayed for him and he experienced healing. Upon hearing what had happened to Zino, his brother, Mandz, determined to tell the story of how God had power to heal in the name of Jesus. Since that time, many of the Roma in this caravan had come to faith in Christ, but they had a serious problem. They heard that to be obedient to Christ they must be baptized. Mandz had gone from pastor to pastor asking for someone to come and baptize them but none were willing. 

Le Cossec invited them to come to a prayer meeting in a church member’s home. He opened the meeting by saying, “We are going to change the form of the meeting. We are not tied to a routine. We want to be sensitive to the direction of the Spirit. We are going to pray with our [Roma] brothers and sisters to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit.” After a brief meditation, the Roma knelt on the earthen floor and began to praise the Lord with all their hearts. Mandz suddenly lay on the floor, with his face down, and started to speak tongues. Many others shared his same experience. Le Cossec announced to the group, “The baptisms will be next week!” 

After the baptismal service, the police made the Roma caravan move from the area, and Le Cossec returned to his church in Rennes. One year later, in 1953, both Le Cossec and the Roma returned to Brest for a meeting. After the baptisms of the previous year, more than 100 Roma had come to know Christ, but Le Cossec could see that they were troubled. They shared with him, “Brother, on the road we have no one to lead meetings with us. Each evening when we stop, we light a fire and we gather around to sing and pray. If there is someone in the group, even a child, who knows how to read we ask him to read from the Bible. We need a servant of God.” Le Cossec replied, “That is impossible. There are no servants of God in Brittany who are free” to travel with you. 

Le Cossec felt he must help the Roma in some way. When the caravans came close to his church he would hold reading and Bible classes. But by 1958, more than 3,000 Roma had been converted, and Le Cossec could no longer be indifferent to this flock of sheep without a shepherd. A decision had to be made. He had a house and an assured salary and eight children who depended on him. The church in Rennes was doing well. Wouldn’t it be folly to leave a secure position and join his family to a caravan of traveling Roma? “There was a battle in my heart … but putting all my trust in the Lord, and refusing to count the cost, I threw myself into an adventure of faith … how very meaningful Christ’s words: ‘Go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in that my house may be filled.’” 

Eleven years later, in the 1969 Pentecostal Evangel article, Le Cossec shared with American readers how more than 20,000 Roma were serving the Lord. He told of their meetings in caravan conferences across Europe, including in Germany, where Hitler’s Nazi regime had exterminated tens of thousands of Roma in concentration camps. 

Le Cossec and his family traveled with the Roma through France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and India. By his death at age 80, Le Cossec had traveled in more than 40 countries sharing the message that the Roma, who had been “a rejected community,” have instead become “an elect community” in the Lord. On his tombstone, his friends and family engraved the words of Luke 14:22: “The servant said, ‘Master, what you have commanded has been done.’” 

Read more about Le Cossec’s Roma conference in Germany in, “One People from Many Nations,” on page 16 of the March 30, 1969, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel. 

Also featured in this issue:

• “Gifts of Healing,” by Howard Carter

• “How Can I Know God’s Will,” by J.W. Jepson

• “The Balm of Gratitude,” by Mel De Vries

And many more! 

Click here read this issue now. 

Photo caption: Roma musicians with Clement Le Cossec, back row center.

Pentecostal Evangel archived editions courtesy of the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center.

Do you have Pentecostal historical materials that should be preserved? Please consider depositing these materials at the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center (FPHC). The FPHC, located in the Assemblies of God national offices, is the largest Pentecostal archive in the world. We would like to preserve and make your treasures accessible to those who write the history books.

Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center
1445 North Boonville Avenue
Springfield, Missouri 65802 USA
Phone: 417.862.1447 ext. 4400
Toll Free: 877.840.5200
Email: archives@ag.org
Website: https://ifphc.org/

Amanda Benedict: Pioneer Pentecostal Prayer Warrior in Springfield, Missouri

This Week in AG History — March 19, 1927

By Glenn W. Gohr
Originally published on AG News, 21 March 2024

Amanda Benedict (1851-1925) is remembered as a fervent prayer warrior and one of the early participants in the Pentecostal movement in Springfield, Missouri. When she died, Assemblies of God leaders credited her prayers for the success of the local congregation and national ministries located in the city.

When Benedict moved to Springfield around 1910, she was 60 years old and had already served the Lord with distinction in a rescue home for girls in Chicago and in a faith home for children in Iowa.

Soon after moving to Springfield, while working as a door-to-door salesperson, Benedict met Lillie Corum. The two ladies got acquainted and, in conversation, Corum shared about her experience of the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Corum had been baptized in the Spirit on June 1, 1907, under the ministry of her sister, Rachel Sizelove, who had brought the Pentecostal message from Azusa Street.

Benedict expressed interest in receiving this blessing and began seeking it. The two ladies began praying together regularly, and soon Amanda herself was filled with the Spirit. Corum, Benedict, Birdie Hoy, and a few others prayed fervently and helped with the beginnings of what became Central Assembly of God.

With a burden for lost souls, Benedict prayed and interceded for days on end, until she felt the burden lift or victory came. She often prayed all night in a grove of trees near the corner of Campbell Avenue and Calhoun Street, which later became the site of Central Assembly of God. She prayed many times for Springfield to make a spiritual impact on the world, and that God’s blessings would flow through Springfield to the ends of the earth. At one point, she felt led to fast and pray for Springfield for one entire year — living only on bread and water.

In 1915, Benedict moved to Aurora, Missouri, where she started a Pentecostal church that became affiliated with the Assemblies of God. After pastoring in Aurora for almost a decade, she died in 1925 at the age of 74. At her funeral service at Central Assembly of God in Springfield, church members, Bible school students, and others gave inspiring testimonies of her life.

Stanley Frodsham, the editor of the Pentecostal Evangel, reported that Benedict helped to launch a tent meeting in the early days of revival in Springfield and “spent whole nights praying under the canvas.” Among other things, “She prayed for a Pentecostal Assembly in Springfield.” And on the very site where she prayed, the first building for Central Assembly was erected. Frodsham and others believed that Central Assembly of God, Central Bible College, and the Assemblies of God national office, all located in Springfield, resulted largely from Benedict’s fervent, effectual prayers.

Benedict was buried without a grave marker in Eastlawn Cemetery in Springfield. In 2007, 82 years after her death, a marker was finally placed on her grave. The marker features a fitting tribute: “She prayed and fasted for the city of Springfield.” On the back is a Scripture verse: “Pray without ceasing” 1 Thessalonians 5:17.

Frodsham published a sermon by Benedict, titled, “Abundance for All,” a couple of years after her death. The sermon compared the blessings of the baptism in the Holy Spirit to a multitude of savory items held in a locked bakery. She said, “I would fail to satisfy a vigorous physical appetite to look through the windows of a locked bakery.” She continued: “Just so it is unsatisfying to a healthy spiritual appetite to see what Pentecost meant in the years that are past, and yet not partake of it now in this present day.” She felt that the baptism in the Holy Spirit was necessary to receive all the blessings of God. She said, “Pentecost means appetite and a free table loaded with solid food and with dainties hitherto unknown.”

She exhorted the reader to depend on God and ask Him for this blessing: “If you are a seeker of the baptism of the Holy Ghost, see to it that you receive with the God-appointed sign, promised by Christ himself (Mark 16:17), that the disciples received when they were first filled with the Spirit (Acts 2:4).”

Read “Abundance for All,” by Amanda Benedict on page 5 of the March 19, 1927, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel.

Also featured in this issue:

• “Holy Ground,” by James H. McConkey

• “Judgments of God and Revival Fires in Poland,” by Gustave H. Schmidt

• “Job,” by Ernest S. Williams

Click here to read this issue now.

Pentecostal Evangel archived editions courtesy of the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center.

Do you have Pentecostal historical materials that should be preserved? Please consider depositing these materials at the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center (FPHC). The FPHC, located in the Assemblies of God national offices, is the largest Pentecostal archive in the world. We would like to preserve and make your treasures accessible to those who write the history books.

Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center
1445 North Boonville Avenue
Springfield, Missouri 65802 USA
Phone: 417.862.1447 ext. 4400
Toll Free: 877.840.5200
Email: archives@ag.org
Website: https://ifphc.org/

Raymond Hudson: From Ministry in Texas and New Mexico to Assemblies of God General Treasurer

This Week in AG History — March 10, 1974

By Glenn W. Gohr
Originally published on AG News, 14 March 2024

Raymond H. Hudson (1918-2010) is remembered as a faithful pastor, evangelist, district officer, and Assemblies of God National Office executive. His final appointment was general treasurer of the Assemblies of God. He was highly esteemed by his colleagues. General Secretary Joseph R. Flower said, “Brother Hudson’s gentle demeanor and infectious wit and sense of humor, combined with a depth of spirituality, have made inroads into the hearts of all with whom he has had contact.”

Hudson was born in Celina, Texas, and grew up as the son of a sharecropper in McKinney and Limestone County, Texas. At age four or five, he was already sensing the call of God on his life. He remembered standing at the top of the stairs in his home with a little New Testament and preaching to an imaginary congregation. That urgency to preach never left him.

“I can never think of a time when I didn’t want to be a preacher,” Hudson said.

Life was simple and hard. There was no electricity in their home. Hudson liked to tell the story that they had running water: “I ran to the well and back with the water bucket.” That was the running water. There were also cows to milk every day. Hudson learned to pick cotton in his boyhood years. By the age 13, he was the fastest cotton picker in the area. No one could equal his speed and agility.

In 1926, A.E. Davis first brought the full gospel message to the nearby community of Thornton, Texas. It was during his ministry that a miracle happened in the Hudson household. Raymond’s mother, Lessie May, became critically ill with diabetes. She had reached the last stages of the disease when she requested special prayer. She could hardly make it onto the platform, but when she was prayed for, she received an instant healing.

Hudson said, “She threw her hands in the air, shouted, and ran across the platform.” This experience affirmed to young Raymond that God answers prayer.

Although he had long sensed the call of God on his life, he did not fully surrender to Christ until he was 14. Two years later, he received the baptism in the Holy Spirit in a prayer meeting, and two years after that, at age 18, he accepted his first pastorate in Thornton, Texas, in 1936. It was there that he met Onie Marie Stewart, who later became his wife.

After three years of pastoring, he felt a need for a greater understanding of God’s Word. So he resigned his church to attend Shield of Faith Bible Institute in Fort Worth (now Nelson University). Onie Marie was also attending the Bible school, and their friendship blossomed. He graduated in 1943. During his last year of school, he began pastoring the Assembly of God in Perrin, Texas. While pastoring at Perrin, he married Onie Marie Stewart on Oct. 15, 1943. Hudson was ordained by the Texas District Council of the AG on June 9, 1944, and his wife also became an AG minister.

Following his ministry in Perrin, Hudson pastored a short time in Aubrey, Texas, before accepting an invitation in 1946 from First Assembly in Hobbs, New Mexico, where he pastored for nine years. During his tenure there, Hudson helped the church to grow from 40 to over 300, and a new church facility was constructed.

In April 1955, Hudson was elected superintendent of the New Mexico district, where he served for 13 years (1955-1968). During that period, he oversaw the building of new district offices and established a home missions program to reach out to both the Anglo and the Native American people of New Mexico. He also set up a Church Builders Plan in New Mexico which served as a working model for the Church Loan Department at the AG National Office for many years.

After a brief period pastoring First Assembly in Carlsbad, New Mexico, and a short time working at Southwestern Bible College in the area of development, Hudson was invited to head the Stewardship Department at the AG National Office. The Hudsons moved to Springfield, Missouri, in 1969. He traveled extensively with estate planning and stewardship seminars. Then in 1972, Hudson was appointed as church loan officer. In that capacity, he set up the Church Builders Plan on a national level, which provided low-cost debt retirement loans to churches. He headed the Church Loan Department until October 1973.

Because of his years of service in church finance, Hudson was nominated and elected to serve as general treasurer (1973-1988). In that position, he had oversight of several departments — Audit, Benevolences, Central Mail, Church Loan, Finance, Stewardship, and Deferred Giving and Trusts. He was chairman of the board for Hillcrest Children’s Home and Highlands Child Placement Services. He oversaw Aged Ministers Assistance and Disaster Relief for the Assemblies of God. He also served on boards for Evangel College (now University) and Maranatha Village.

After 15 years as general treasurer, Hudson and his wife retired and moved to Hobbs, New Mexico, where he had time to enjoy fishing and other pastimes.

Looking back on his life of ministry, Hudson shared a pearl of wisdom: “Every person needs to recognize that life and all its resources and the responsibilities that come with our jobs constitute a trust given by the Lord. We need to sharpen our skills to the finest degree and ask the Lord to help us do our very best.”

Read one of Raymond Hudson’s sermons, “Entertaining a Royal Guest,” on pages 4-5 of the March 10, 1974, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel.

Also featured in this issue:

• “It’s Just the Beginning,” by Paul Radke

• “New Life Singers in Japan,” by Jim Braddy

And many more!

Click here to read this issue now.

Pentecostal Evangel archived editions courtesy of the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center.

Do you have Pentecostal historical materials that should be preserved? Please consider depositing these materials at the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center (FPHC). The FPHC, located in the Assemblies of God national offices, is the largest Pentecostal archive in the world. We would like to preserve and make your treasures accessible to those who write the history books.

Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center
1445 North Boonville Avenue
Springfield, Missouri 65802 USA
Phone: 417.862.1447 ext. 4400
Toll Free: 877.840.5200
Email: archives@ag.org
Website: https://ifphc.org/