Rex Humbard Biography

The Soul-Winning Century, 1906-2006 : The Humbard Family Legacy … One Hundred Years of Ministry, by Rex Humbard. Dallas, TX: Clarion Call Marketing, 2006.

Since almost the beginning of the twentieth century Pentecostal movement, members of the Humbard family have been engaging in earnest, energetic ministry to reach the lost for Christ. Rex Humbard, whose preaching has graced the airwaves for over 65 years, has now told his family’s story in his memoirs, The Soul-Winning Century.

While Rex Humbard became a household name through his groundbreaking television ministry, his father, Alpha E. Humbard also was an important pioneer preacher in his own right. Alpha Humbard, born in 1890 sixty miles north of Little Rock, Arkansas, had a rough childhood. Poverty, fights, liquor, and hard work dominated the world in which young Alpha was reared. However, he sensed God’s calling at a young age and overcame the odds to answer this call. Alpha was a practical, direct, no-nonsense kind of preacher whose compassion for people, according to this telling, overcame any deficit created by his lack of formal education. Perhaps it was this lack of haute couture – combined with a dependence upon God — that allowed him to touch the masses where they were at.

Alpha once recalled that a seminary-trained minister bitterly complained that, while he was a learned man with good diction and degrees, he could not draw the crowds like Alpha, whom he described as “an old farm boy, a clodhopper who can’t talk good English.” Alpha recalled that he recommended that the minister throw away his cigar, which he was smoking while complaining, and get on his knees and pray (p. 27). Alpha was not alone – his innovative, sometimes rough-and-tumble ways reflected a whole generation of early Pentecostal preachers.

The Sparkling Fountain

The Sparkling Fountain, by Fred T. Corum and Hazel E. Bakewell. Windsor, OH: Corum & Associates, Inc., 1989, c1983.

The Sparkling Fountain is a 278-page book with eyewitness accounts of the beginning of Pentecostalism in the Ozarks. The book was started by Fred T. Corum and his sister Hazel E. Bakewell. Then James and Kenneth Corum, sons of Fred Corum, helped to preserve this slice of history and see it through to production. First marketed in 1983, it is offered again on the 100th anniversary of Central Assembly in Springfield, Missouri.

The Azusa Street Mission story is recapped in beginning chapters, but for our purpose here the story begins in 1905 when Fred and Hazel moved to the Ozarks from Oklahoma with their parents, James and Lillie Harper Corum.

James and Lillie were never credentialed ministers but are considered the pioneers of Pentecost in Springfield — holding together a nucleus for several years until a church was set in order. I have an idea many other lay people throughout our history deserve special recognition for beginning and/or keeping local congregations together (including unfortunate splits) until a pastor assumed the leadership.

The Corums soon became active in a Baptist church where Mr. Corum served as Sunday school superintendent. But in the fall of 1906 they heard about the Pentecostal outpouring and became interested. Then in May 1907 they were introduced to this new experience which would dramatically put their lives on a new course.

Testimonies of Signs and Wonders

Testimonies of Signs and Wonders: Evangelistic Crusades of Maria Beulah Woodworth-Etter in Moline, Rock Island, Illinois and Davenport, Iowa in the Years 1902-1903-1907, or Redigging the Wells of Holy Spirit Renewal: Our Forgotten Heritage in the Quad Cities, compiled by Kenneth Richard Kline-Walczak. Revised version. Davenport, IA: The Author, 2006.

Maria Woodworth-Etter, among the most prominent of the healing evangelists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, became one of the best known Holiness preachers to embrace Pentecostalism. Her popularity was due in large part to her practice of faith healing and other charismatic gifts, which began occuring in her meetings in about 1885. Her ministry attracted large crowds, fierce detractors and fervent supporters, as well as widespread coverage in newspapers from coast to coast. Newspaper editors, who often deemed the excitement and large crowds sparked by the woman evangelist to be worthy of critique, helped to spread her fame. The standard biography of Woodworth-Etter, Maria Woodworth-Etter, For Such a Time as This (Bridge-Logos, 2005), was authored by former Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center Director Wayne E. Warner.

Now Kenneth Kline-Walczak has cataloged Woodworth-Etter’s influence in one corner of the world — the Quad Cities on the Iowa-Illinois border. His book consists largely of an impressive collection of articles (1884-1907) about Woodworth-Etter from regional newspapers, assembled in chronological order and reprinted for the purpose of introducing the region’s readers to its Pentecostal past. The compiler also includes a helpful guide to the people and places mentioned in the articles. Kline-Walczak’s detailed research will aid not only historians, but also people in the Quad Cities as they seek to recover the sacred stories of God’s work among them in previous generations.

Reviewed by Darrin Rodgers

Paperback, xxvi, 194 pages, illustrated. $20, plus $4.00 shipping. Order from: Griggs Music, c/o Ken Kline, 3849 Brady Street, Davenport, IA 52806 (email: woodworth65@yahoo.com ; phone: 563-210-3282).

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Uldine Utley: Why I am a Preacher

Uldine Utley: Why I am a Preacher, compiled by T. J. Lavigne. Kissimmee, FL: Cloud of Witnesses Publishing Co., 2006.

Ted Lavigne has developed a passion for discovering and researching child evangelists and their unique role in presenting the gospel. To my knowledge, this topic of child evangelists has never been discussed in a book or dissertation. This makes his research all the more important. It is significant that just as child preachers of yesteryear filled a vital role in communicating the gospel, there are still child evangelists today in the U.S. and abroad. You will be blessed by reading some of their stories.

In this volume, which is the opening text in a child and teen preacher series, he focuses on the life of a well-known girl evangelist, Uldine Utley. She preached in Madison Square Garden in 1926 at the age of 14 and ministered other places across the U.S. She was also featured in American Magazine, the Boston Sunday Post, the New York Times and many other publications.

Lavigne includes a timeline of significant events concerning her ministry, rare photographs, an extensive bibliography, and interesting bits of information about Utley and her family that previously were unpublished. This book includes excerpts from Uldine Utley’s book, Why I am a Preacher: A Plain Answer to an Oft-repeated Question (1931), and from her Petals from the Rose of Sharon newsletters, with related information about some key evangelists connected with her ministry.

The serious reader of church history will be delighted and inspired by the testimony of this girl evangelist and will look forward to additional volumes in this series.

Reviewed by Glenn Gohr

Paperback, 149 pages (8.5×11 in.), illustrated. $29.95, plus $6.00 shipping. Order from: Cloud of Witnesses Products.

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