"Although neglected in scholarly literature, the Latter Rain foreshadowed themes that emerged [in] the 1970s to the early 2000s.... Latter Rain participants - ousted by the Pentecostal denominations - became a diaspora of the Spirit" - The Cambridge Companion to Pentecostalism, 2014
don't miss a thing ...
scroll all the way to the bottom and see LARGE, hard-to-find photos of the Pembertons, Earl Lee, Mom Beall, and others!
In the videos above and down below, Sylvia Evans and John Miller remember those who have been leaders of Elim Bible Institute in Lima, New York.
In her video, Sylvia reminisces about Elim's founders, Ivan and Minnie Spencer. The Spencers
founded Elim in 1924 and it went on to be known for its passion for the Lord, the Spirit's power and gifts, worldwide missions, unity in the Body of Christ, and its summer camp meetings.
John Miller is an instructor at Elim and his video remembers several of Elim's leaders by taking a trip to Oak Ridge Cemetery.
In addition to Ivan, Minnie, Sylvia, and John, here are some of the other outstanding leaders who have served Elim:
The Latter Rain Movement of 1948 started in Saskatchewan, Canada. The next places it made dramatic impact were Edmonton, Alberta and Vancouver, British Columbia. But it gained its greatest fame in Detroit, Michigan at a church pastored by a woman; it was called the Bethesda Missionary Temple and it was egalitarian before egalitarian was cool.
The woman pastor was Myrtle Dorthea Beall (1894 - 1979). In most of the literature about her she is called M. D. Beall, but to those who loved the ministry of God through her she was known affectionately as Mom Beall.
She was also called Mom Beall because she was recognized as a mother of the Latter Rain Movement. Some even say she was the mother of the LRM. They mean by this that God had given her a sort of matriarchal care of the movement. While the churches that were affected by the revival were never federated in any formal way, many looked to M. D. Beall and her church for leadership and sometimes covering.
Mom Beall became a pastor in an uncommon way. First of all, she never had any formal theological training. She was simply a wife and a mother of three children who knelt down in her kitchen one day and was baptized in the Holy Spirit - that's right, speaking in tongues right there in the kitchen.
The original Sunday School building
When she innocently told others about this wonderful experience some were alarmed and more than once she was made to feel unwelcome in a church. So, she made arrangements to start a Sunday School for her children and others in the neighborhood in a building formerly used by a tire store. That was way back in 1934.
It is a long but interesting story how that Sunday School grew to be one of America's first megachurches. The Bethesda Missionary Temple was a megachurch before megachurches were cool. Someday I'll get around to telling that story but for right now I'll just tell you how Mom Beall's church became the most well known church in the Latter Rain Movement. (Mom Beall told the entire story in her memoir that was serialized in Bethesda's monthly magazine, the Latter Rain Evangel. The memoir can be read online here.)
With the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941 Bethesda began to pray both for the safety of the young men of their church who were enlisted in the war effort and for revival. God answered those prayers and not one Bethesda life was lost on the battlefields. And seven years to the month later, Bethesda's prayers for revival were answered in a most dramatic fashion.
In late November 1948 Mom Beall traveled to meetings at Glad Tidings Temple in Vancouver. The church was pastored by Reg Layzell and he had invited ministers from the Latter Rain outpouring in Saskatchewan for the special meetings. Historian Richard M. Riss continues the story:
"She travelled 2500 miles by car to attend the meetings in a trip that lasted six days. She wrote:
Mom Beall
"Everything we saw in the meetings was scriptural and beautiful. We left the meeting with a new touch of God upon our souls and ministry. We certainly feel transformed by the power of God. Never in our lives had we ever felt the power of God as we do now and we feel we are carrying something back to our assembly we never had before.
"December 5, 1948 was a turning point in the [life] of every Bethesdan. That Sunday morning everyone was gathered for church in the basement building. Opening the service, James Beall asked everyone to stand, and suddenly everyone in the building started singing praises to God in the Spirit .... this continued for about an hour. People were saved, filled with the Holy Spirit and healed in their bodies during this time. As the praise subsided a new song was born.
'This is the promise of the coming latter rain,
Lift up your eyes behold the ripening grain.
Many signs and wonders in His mighty name,
Drink, oh drink, My people for this is latter rain.'
"Two months after this, on February 13, 1949 the main sanctuary [seating about 1,800] was dedicated. When the doors opened, it was immediately filled and at least 1,700 people were turned away. Services were held night and day for the next three and one half years."
Just as Riss wrote, the happenings in Detroit drew people from all over the country - and eventually the world. Ivan and Minnie Spencer, who founded Elim Bible Institute, were two of the hundreds of Pentecostal ministers who went to Detroit to experience the revival for themselves. In her biography of Ivan Spencer, Marion Meloon tells the story like this:
The Spencers
"Ivan and Minnie had arrived in Detroit and were soon ushered into the basement sanctuary of Bethesda Temple. As they became aware of the hundreds of people on their faces crying out to God in humiliation and brokenness, they knew that God was in the place. Says Minnie, 'The Scripture, 'Break up your fallow ground,' was being enacted before our eyes.' They, too, fell on their faces, and the Spirit wrought a work in their hearts that was new, and made them new.
"In those days spent in the Temple, with little thought of meals and mundane duties, they witnessed marvelous depths of spiritual victory - manifest in conversions, baptisms, healings, deliverances, and impartations of gifts and ministries by the laying on of hands. Holy spontaneity replaced special programs, though there was much teaching. Prayer groups met as early as five in the morning, continuing into the afternoon. And it was easy to pray - one wanted to do nothing else.
"Yes, revival had come beginning in North America with Canada, then moving down the west coast to as far as Los Angeles. Across the country it came as a great toronado, touching down in many cities, but especially making Detroit its focal point. Why? For Minnie, it was exciting to hear Mrs. Beall, pastor of the Temple, describe their revival prayers and radio programming over the past seven years. Why, it was seven years ago that God had laid upon Minnie the ministry of travail for revival! Her heart leaped within her as she sensed she was hearing the cries of the newborn babe, now delivered." (Ivan Spencer: Willow in the Wind)
Riss writes of another prominent leader that came in contact with the Latter Rain Revival in Detroit and who approved of it as the Spencers had:
Stanley Frodsham
"Mrs. Beall wrote a letter to Stanley Frodsham, a pioneer of the early Pentecostal movement at the turn of the century, a leader of the Assemblies of God denomination, and the editor of the Pentecostal Evangel for twenty-eight years. In her letter, Mrs. Beall described what was happening in her church, and Frodsham decided to leave Springfield, Missouri to visit the church in Detroit. He arrived in January of 1949, and 'he was swept away by the revival taking place in Detroit.... He was moved deeply by scenes of people under great conviction of sin, making confession and finding peace.'" (A Survey of 20th-Century Revival Movements in North America)
However, not all Assemblies of God leaders shared Frodsham's opinion of the Latter Rain Revival. Peter Althouse explains what happened:
Relationship with the Assemblies of God also became untenable for Mom Beall and Bethesda and they ended their affiliation with the AOG. Assemblies of God historian Gary McGee provides some background:
"'The 'new order' Latter Rain Movement in reality is giving us nothing that is new in spite of the claims of its advocates,' wrote General Superintendent Ernest S. Williams. For Williams and his colleagues, Latter Rain practices pointed backward to problems that had once vexed the stability, unity, and spiritual integrity of the Pentecostal movement. Neither could the proper interpretation of Scripture justify the teachings of the new movement.
"Opinions on the revival's genuineness varied. The new teachings and the (at times harsh) reactions and counter-reactions revealed a growing gap between establishment Pentecostals and grassroots Pentecostals in some quarters. Although believers in the Latter Rain differed in their teachings to some extent, the General Council listed abuses in the movement and condemned them all in 1949. Latter Rain leaders cried foul. Like the historic churches' condemnations of earlier Pentecostals, so now the Assemblies of God had denounced fellow Pentecostals." (People of the Spirit: The Assemblies of God)
Of course, that is just one side of the story. Australian scholar Mark Hutchinson is a student of Pentecostal history and he writes much more favorably:
"Through people such as Reg Layzell in Vancouver, Myrtle Beall in Detroit, Ivan Spencer in Rhode Island {Spencer as noted above was actually from Lima, New York}, Thomas Wyatt in Oregon, and Earl Lee of Los Angeles, the revival spread all over North America. Wherever they went, the new amalgam of methodology, experience and teaching tapped into the lurking dissatisfaction with the class shift American pentecostalism had experienced under the Assemblies of God, and the memories of the 'Latter Rain' outpouring of power experienced at Azusa Street." (The Canadian Fire: Revivalist Links Between Canada and Australia)
Vinson Synan adds a description of the environment that fostered the spread of the Latter Rain Movement:
"The Pentecostal movement was at a low ebb in 1948, with a growing dryness and lack of charismatic gifts. Many who heard about the events in Canada believed that is was a new Azusa Street, with many healings, tongues and prophecies. A large center of the revival outside of Canada was the Bethesda Missionary Temple in Detroit, Michigan pastored by Myrtle Beale {her name is actually Beall}. From Detroit, the movement spread across the United States like a prairie wildfire." (An Eyewitness Remembers the Century of the Holy Spirit)
Since December of 1948 Bethesda has been known for, among other things, what Pentecostals and Charismatics call "singing in the Spirit". The beautiful, harmonious strains of a congregation with each member singing their own spontaneous song to the Lord came to be identified by some as sounding like a "heavenly choir".
For her part, Mom Beall's preaching was unique. It was unique for its brevity as she often spoke about 15 minutes (imagine that!) It was also unique for its riveting quality - she was a marvelous story teller. And most importantly it was memorable for its spiritual impact. I remember listening to her preach and at once wanting to cry and wanting to laugh for joy. I felt as though I wanted to burst as the anointing on her words dropped into my spirit like nuclear bombs.
Thousands who heard her preach would say the same. Even Peter Jenkins in his New York Times best-seller A Walk Across America tells about the impact of Mom Beall's preaching. His experience of hearing her preach at the Word of Faith Temple in New Orleans in November of 1975 is alone worth the price of the book. The story is lengthy so I won't share it here, but I must note his description of her:
"Although Mom was over eighty she now looked shot full of the most powerful energy in life."
She was, Peter, she was.
When Mom Beall left this earth in 1979 her son James took over as pastor of Bethesda. During his tenure Bethesda moved from its longtime home on Van Dyke and Nevada avenues in Detroit to the suburb of Sterling Heights. James' daughter Analee Dunn took over as pastor of Bethesda (which is now known as Bethesda Christian Church) in 2004. Bethesda's church plant, which includes a 3,000-seat sanctuary, sits on a 92-acre site. [Pastor Dunn retired on June 12, 2016 and turned over the senior pastorate to Patrick Visger.]
Mom's husband was Harry Lee Beall. Mr. Beall was not a preacher but was supportive of his wife's ministry. "Dad was the builder, mother the pastor," James Beall told the Detroit News in an interview after his mother's death.
Besides James, her children included Patricia Beall Gruits and Harry Monville Beall. Patricia, now 90, is the author of a very popular catechism called Understanding God, as well as the leader of a missions organization in Haiti called Rhema International. Harry was a preacher, soloist, and director of Bethesda's choir and orchestra.
In the video above Mom Beall is seen speaking at 1:46 ... Patricia Beall Gruits is seen at 3:08 ... James Beall speaks at 3:34 ... and Analee Dunn speaks at 7:29 ... Patrick Visger is seen at 5:33.
Sterling Heights sanctuary (photo by Elite Pro Audio, copyright 2016)
The momentous events that followed World War II were dizzying for their number and impact - Billy Graham's ministry was launched, a healing revival was sweeping the land, deeply spiritual revivals were occurring on evangelical college campuses, the State of Israel was born in 1948 ... and the Latter Rain Movement exploded onto the scene.
[Historian Richard Riss, a professor at Pillar University, has written books and articles about the revival events in the mid-twentieth century (two are featured in the right hand column of this blog). What follows here is a portion of an article he wrote forNew Wine magazine in October 1980 entitled, "The Latter Rain and Healing Revivals". The entire 36-page issue is available in .pdf format for free online.]
THE LATTER RAIN AND HEALING REVIVALS by Richard Riss
The Latter Rain and healing revivals constituted only two of many aspects of a widespread awakening occurring during the middle of this century. The healing revival was known for its emphasis upon healing, while the Latter Rain Movement was known for its use of the laying on of hands with prophecy. The healing revival precipitated the Latter Rain Movement, but both were really only two aspects of the same move of God.
The Post-war Awakening
In late 1949, revival broke out on the Island of Lewis and Harris, the largest of the Outer Hebridean group in Scotland. Indications of revival in the United States included the Forest Home College Briefing Conferences (which soon helped to bring about the formation of Campus Crusade for Christ) and the Pacific Palisades Conferences, at which scores of pastors and ministers of various denominations, only a few of whom were Pentecostal, gathered together several times a year for prayer and praise in an atmosphere of spiritual renewal.
Spontaneous revival was also breaking out on many college campuses. The revival at Wheaton College (February 5-12, 1950) received national publicity, appearing in the pages of Time and Life magazines. There were well over twenty other college revivals occurring at the same time.
The Healing Revival
Two or three years before these events, the healing revival had already begun to surface. Two of the
Branham, Roberts, Lindsay
earliest and most influential healing evangelists were William Branham and Oral Roberts. Other important figures included T. L. Osborn, Jack Coe, William Freeman, A. A. Allen, and David Nunn. Gordon Lindsay, who helped bring William Branham's ministry into widespread recognition, used his talent to supply the movement with a needed element of cohesiveness.
Branham's healing ministry began on May 7, 1946, when he had an angelic visitation in which he was told that he was to take the gift of divine healing to the people of the world. Within five weeks he was conducting healing revivals in St.Louis, and before long his meetings were attracting enormous crowds.
In 1947, Oral Roberts began his healing ministry. Branham testified that Roberts' "commanding power over demons, over disease and over sin was the most amazing thing he had ever seen in the work of God."
Many of the revivalists of the Healing Movement became associated with The Voice of Healingmagazine, published by Gordon Lindsay, the May 1952 issue of which had pictures on its cover of twenty healing evangelists. Two years previous to this time, as many as one thousand itinerant evangelists had attended a meeting sponsored by Lindsay in Kansas City.
The Latter Rain Movement
The Latter Rain Movement was catalyzed, in part, by Branham's campaigns in Vancouver, B. C. in the fall of 1947. His demonstrations of the gift of healing accompanied by knowledge of the illnesses of those present made a deep impression on the teachers of Sharon Bible School in North Battleford, Saskatchewan, Canada, who precipitated revival at their school after their return from the Branham meetings.
The Latter Rain Movement originated in the Sharon Orphanage and Schools as a spark igniting an explosion of revival among many Pentecostals. It spread quickly throughout North America and many places throughout the world, including the Middle East, India, Japan, Latin America, Africa, New Zealand, Australia, and Europe.
In the fall of 1947, George Hawtin, who had been president of a Bible School of the Pentecostal
George Hawtin
Assemblies of Canada, and P. G. Hunt, a former teacher of the same school, joined Herrick Holt of the North Battleford, Saskatchewan Church of the Foursquare Gospel in an independent work that Holt had already established. It was during this time that the students and faculty there began to gather to study the Word of God, earnestly praying and fasting, with fasts lasting many days, and in some cases, weeks. On February 12, 1948, according to George Hawtin's brother Ern, "God moved into our midst in this strange new manner." He continued as follows:
"Some students were under the power of God on the floor, others were kneeling in adoration and worship before the Lord. The anointing deepened until the awe of God was upon everyone. The Lord spoke to one of the brethren. 'Go and lay hands upon a certain student and pray for him.' While he was in doubt and contemplation one of the sisters who had been under the power of God went to the brother saying the same words, and naming the identical student he was to pray for. He went in obedience and a revelation was given concerning the student's life and future ministry. After this a long prophecy was given with minute details concerning the great things God was about to do. The pattern for the revival and many details concerning it were given."
After a day of searching the Scriptures, on February 14 "it seemed that all Heaven broke loose upon our souls, and heaven above came down to greet us." According to Ern Hawtin, "Soon a visible manifestation of gifts was received when candidates were prayed over, and many as a result began to be healed, as gifts of healing were received." This even was particularly significant in view of the scarcity of such manifestations since about 1935. As people became aware of these events, they flocked to North Battleford from all parts of North America and many parts of the world to the camp-meetings at Sharon publicized by The Sharon Star. Before long, these meetings became widely known, and the teachers from Sharon began receiving invitations to minister throughout North America.
in Detroit, Michigan travelled 2,500 miles by car to attend these meetings and returned to her church to spark revival there, attracting people from all parts of the country, including Ivan and Carlton Spencer (the founder of Elim Bible Institute and his son). They were at the Zion Evangelistic Fellowship in Providence, Rhode Island for a Pentecostal Prayer Fellowship gathering in December of 1948 when a latecomer to the gathering arrived and shared what he had heard of a visitation in Detroit. Ivan Spencer and his wife went to Detroit within a few days and returned to ignite revival at Elim Bible Institute.
By 1949, the North Battleford brethren were becoming less central to the movement, and leadership began to emerge in other circles, partly as a result of tendencies toward sectarianism among the North Battleford leaders. It was partly because of these tendencies that involvement in the Latter Rain soon became anathema among many denominational Pentecostals. However, such Pentecostal figures as Lewi Pethrus of Sweden continued to endorse the movement, and as leaders of the Apostolic Church, Elim Bible Institute in New York State and Bethesda Missionary Temple in Detroit, Michigan continued to move in revival, it progressed with lasting effects. Many of these ministries carried on and developed principles that had arisen in the Latter Rain Revival, becoming part of the Charismatic Movement of the 1960s and 1970s.
It seems universally true in Christian denominations and fellowships that those pastors who are gifted to gather large congregations around their ministries are among the most sought-after conference speakers.
In the Latter Rain Movement, that understandable model could be observed in the ministries of the Bealls from Detroit, Charles Green, Violet Kiteley, and Thomas Wyatt, to name a few.
But, it is also true that occasionally there are pastors with smaller churches that are recognized as having exceptional anointing, including insight into the Word and ability to communicate. Conference attendees are enriched by those ministers, as well.
The ministry of Winston Inskip Nunes (1912 - 1999) belonged to the second group. He pastored Broadview Faith Temple in Toronto from 1967 to 1999, but the number of congregants was never commensurate to the depth of his ministry.
Benny Hinn wrote in his autobiography, He Touched Me, that Nunes was "one of the most remarkable Spirit-led ministers whoever lived."
Hinn was a teenager living in Toronto when he heard Nunes speak many times.
He is not alone, of course, in such dramatic testimony to the impact of Nunes' ministry. Author John Loren Sandford, who mentions Nunes in not less than five of his books (!), wrote in Healing the Nations: A Call to Global Intercession,
In one weekend conference I drank in more from brother Winston Nunes from Canada - at that time more than forty years in the Spirit - than from many others over many years! I would trot out a favorite theory and try it out on Winston. He would answer with such grace and wisdom that it was as though my thoughts smashed against a wall and came tumbling down to dust - but comfortably. Then I would try out another idea on him. He would come back with an "innocuous" question that impaled error like a dart pinning a target for all to see - and it felt freeing!
When Sandford speaks of Nunes making his point with a question, it brings to mind another of his rhetorical devices. If you never heard Nunes purposefully misquote a verse, then pause so that his audience would hopefully recognize - and have underscored for them - the error, then you probably never heard the man speak more than 15 minutes.
He would say something like, "Now the works of the devil are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft ..." and then allow his voice to trail off from the recitation of the list from Galatians 5. As the audience would signal - vocally or non-vocally - that he had misquoted the verse, he would continue, "What? Your Bible doesn't say that? Surely those things are the works of the devil. What's that? Your Bible says they are works of the flesh? Oh, I see." In so doing, he had underscored for charismatic audiences in the 1970s, for instance, that not everything had to do with the devil and demons - "the flesh" is the source of a great many problems.
Nunes - circa 1990
Perhaps such rhetoric is not your cup of tea, not how you prefer to learn. Well, Nunes' style was effective enough that it kept him in the limelight throughout most of his ministry. David Mainse had him on the Canadian daily TV show 100 Huntley Street many times, and he was a speaker at events like the Greater Pittsburgh Charismatic Conference in 1973, Jesus '76 in Mercer, Pennsylvania, and the non-denominational segment of the Conference on Charismatic Renewal in the Christian Churches in Kansas City back in 1977 (in all three cases, he addressed thousands).
His inclusion in the Kansas City conference and his participation in what were known as the Glencoe leadership meetings are clear evidence that he was viewed as an elder statesman in the Charismatic Renewal. Because of serious tensions among leaders in the Charismatic Renewal, annual meetings were held for a couple of decades to provide a forum that would hopefully promote real unity among charismatic believers. The high-profile leaders who met - by invitation only, according to Vinson Synan - became known as the "Glencoe group" because the meetings were held a small retreat in Glencoe, Missouri. Synan says in his book, An Eyewitness Remembers the Century of the Holy Spirit, "All major streams of the renewal movement were ... represented in the Glencoe meetings," adding that independent Pentecostals were usually represented by "Winston Nunes and Maxwell Whyte."
Not too bad for a pastor who only spoke to a couple of hundred parishioners on Sunday mornings.
For many years, Nunes also hosted a pastors' conference at his church in Toronto. One year, the guest speaker Art Katz, who was famous for making provocative statements, made a remark that included crude language. He turned to Nunes and said, "You don't mind if I say [omitted for crudity] do you?" The veteran pastor replied calmly, "Yes, I do." Nunes had the stature to draw pastors to an annual conference and to withstand a famous speaker who stepped out of bounds. For Nunes, being a Pentecostal or Charismatic meant a lot more than the gifts of the Spirit, it also involved fruit of the Spirit - which speaks to the issue of character. Hence the name of his book, Driven by the Spirit: Living the Way of the Cross.
CONVERSION AND EARLY MINISTRY
Winston was born on the island of Trinidad in 1912. While he was yet a young boy, two missionaries from the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada (PAOC) - Ruth Pemberton and Clara Siemens - began to evangelize in the British West Indies. The Pentecostal Evangel published several articles about the pair preaching on Trinidad in the early 1920s.
At some point, Nunes came under the influence of their ministry because Gladys Asling writes of Pemberton and Siemens coming to her church in Peterborough, Ontario in the early 1930s "and with them came one of their converts, a young man by the name of Winston Nunes."
Whether before leaving Trinidad or perhaps upon a return, Nunes served for a time as the chaplain of Carrera Island Prison, located a short distance from Trinidad.
Winston and Hilda
The 1930s was a foundational decade for Nunes - he graduated from Bible college in Canada, was ordained by the PAOC, and got married to Hilda Klassen, an accomplished pianist from Saskatchewan (the Nunes would sometimes entertain folks by sitting next to each other on a piano bench and playing a duet).
The January 22, 1944 issue of the Pentecostal Evangel tells us not only what he was doing that year but what had transpired since the 1930s. Pastor A. B. Crabb from Puyallup, Washington wrote, "December 19 [1943] was the closing day of a 6-week evangelistic campaign with Brother and Sister Winston I. Nunes at the Pentecostal Assembly of God. Evangelist Nunes is from the Isle of Trinidad in the British West Indies, and for several years has been evangelizing throughout Canada."
THE LATTER RAIN OUTPOURING
Evangelizing is what he was doing when he first experienced what became known as the Latter Rain Revival. That Holy Spirit outpouring began at North Battleford, Saskatchewan in February 1948 at the Sharon Bible College, led by George Hawtin and others.
Impressed by what he had seen of the revival, Reg Layzell, the pastor of Glad Tidings Church in Vancouver, British Columbia, invited George Hawtin and his brother Ern to minister at his church in November of 1948. Hugh Layzell, Reg's son, writes,
Coincidentally, Evangelist Winston Nunes was preaching at Broadway [Pentecostal Church in Vancouver] when the revival meetings began at Glad Tidings. Possibly out of curiosity at first, but certainly with a desire to see God move again, in a fresh outpouring of His Spirit, Nunes began coming over to check out the revival meetings after he had preached at Broadway. Nine pm was just in time for the Word and the prophetic ministry, which continued until later every night (in Sons of His Purpose: the Interweaving of the Ministry of Reg Layzell and His Son Hugh During a Season of Revival).
It seems that Nunes headed to Oregon - empowered by what he experienced at Glad Tidings - and conducted meetings there because the February 1949 issue of the Sharon Star (the Hawtins' publication) noted, "we received word also today from Salem, Oregon of the wonderful blessing being spread by Brother W. I. Nunes since hands were laid on him and gifts began to operate in power."
Myrtle Beall
Myrtle Beall was another person who had the prophetic presbytery lay hands on her, and she was prophesied over by Ern Hawtin. When she returned to her church in Detroit, the revival broke out powerfully there December 5, 1948, and going forward Bethesda Missionary Temple became a major hub for the revival's activity.
Nunes and Myrtle Beall became closely aligned by their experience of revival, so much so, that Nunes traveled to Detroit for meetings and went on Beall's radio broadcast with her early in 1949 to talk about the revival.
Beginning February 13, 1949, at the dedication of Bethesda's brand new sanctuary seating 1,700, the revival's intensity required that services be held twice-a-day, six-days-a-week for the next 3 1/2 years. So many services require a lot of preaching (and preachers) and Nunes became a frequent guest speaker (somewhere during this period he also took on an interim pastorate at a church in Tacoma, Washington).
The Assemblies of God, which had recognized the ministries of both Myrtle Beall and Winston Nunes, was concerned about some of the practices and beliefs of those involved in the Latter Rain revival (despite the fact that the longtime Pentecostal Evangel editor Stanley Frodsham visited Bethesda in February 1949, and thereafter, joined in the revival himself). The laying on of hands, resulting in personal prophecy - one of the hallmarks of the Latter Rain revival - was a particular irritant. Eventually, fellowship with the Assemblies became untenable for Beall, Nunes, Frodsham, and many others.
Included in a March 24, 1951 letter from the executive office of the General Council of the Assemblies of God was a paragraph informing credential holders that the ministry of Winston I. Nunes was "not approved." The letter explained that on December 19, 1950, the AG's Executive Presbytery met with Nunes,
and after a long conference with him, it was the opinion of the Executive Presbyters that he had not materially changed his views concerning the teachings and practices of the so-called New Order Latter Rain. The Executive Presbytery was willing to give Brother Nunes every consideration possible, but at long last, felt compelled to take the position that his ministry be not approved for the Assemblies of God.
Despite the pain such ostracization would bring, Nunes was not left without friends. The revival had become international in scope. Thousands were flocking to Bethesda's daily experience of revival, as well as to places like the Dixie Camp Meeting in Houston, Texas in June of 1951. And he was still welcome at the World Conference of Pentecostal Churches in July 1952.
So, while not taking separation from his Assemblies of God brothers and sisters lightly, there was still much ministering to be done and many to fellowship with. But, down the road, there was more pain to come.
As rich and involved as his fellowship with the Bealls and Bethesda had been, it too would experience a rupture. I have seen - firsthand - written confirmation of that rupture (the document was written in the early 70s, but I do not know exactly when troubles first arose between Nunes and the Bealls). The frequent invitations to Bethesda's pulpit were curtailed. And while I have firsthand knowledge of the shutting down of fellowship between Nunes and Bethesda, I do not have firsthand knowledge of what caused it. I have been told secondhand information, but would not think to share it (it is the policy of this website to not publish any information that I cannot verify).
Their paths would still cross from time to time. For instance, Nunes and Myrtle Beall's son James were both speakers at the Greater Pittsburgh Charismatic Conference in 1973. Nunes and Bethesda had many mutual friends. But for years, the once close friends remained distant.
Thankfully, and seeming to occur suddenly, fellowship was restored in the final decade of Nunes' life. In a way that importantly modeled reconciliation to friends and followers of both parties, the friends behaved as friends once more. On a least two occasions, the elderly Nunes was warmly welcomed back into Bethesda's pulpit.
(And it is important to note that from about the mid-1980s the rift between many Latter Rain ministers and the Assemblies of God began to heal, as well, albeit slowly. God's people, so richly and thoroughly forgiven by him, were finding courage to forgive and be reconciled to one another.)
ELIM: A SUSTAINED FRIENDSHIP
While the ruptures in fellowship with the Assemblies of God and Bethesda Missionary Temple were painful experiences, Nunes always had one place, from 1949 on, that he could call 'home' - Elim Bible Institute in Lima, New York. It was a Pentecostal bible college founded by Ivan Q. Spencer in 1924.
Winston and leaders from Elim first connected at Bethesda in Detroit during the early days of revival there. Marion Meloon, Ivan Spencer's biographer, wrote about how Ivan and his wife Minnie, and then later, his son Carlton and his wife Elizabeth (and a group of others) traveled to Detroit to investigate reports of revival. They were thrilled to find that a revival had indeed broken out.
Meloon writes, "Ministering in apostolic authority were Winston Nunes, Paul Stutzman (both became close Elim friends and trustees), Elmer Frink (who later became a teacher at Elim), Stanley Frodsham (who became a close Elim associate), Mrs. Beall, and her son, Jim" (in Ivan Spencer: Willow in the Wind: A Spiritual Pilgrimmage).
She further reports that months later, at Elim's annual summer camp meeting, "the camp Bible teacher Winston Nunes, with Fred Poole, Paul Stutzman, and T. Arthur Lewis laid hands on Ivan and Minnie, setting him apart for apostleship and travel among the churches, across the nation and overseas. This was in confirmation to what God had been speaking in the depths of Ivan's heart, and Minnie's, concerning an expanded ministry to the whole Body of Christ" (in Willow in the Wind).
In subsequent years, Nunes would travel from his home in Toronto to minister in many Elim camp meetings and at other Elim events, as well. The decades of sustained fellowship must surely have been a stabilizing and nurturing tonic.
He was also able draw from his experiences in classical Pentecostalism and the Latter Rain Movement to give counsel to many Elim instructors and ministers who would, just as he did, go on to play significant roles in the Charismatic Renewal that began in the 1960s - women like Sylvia Evans, and men like Bob Mumford, Paul and Robert Johansson, Brian Bailey, Costa Deir, H. David Edwards, and Michael Cavanaugh.
So significant and so appreciated was Nunes' ministry at Elim over the years, that his memory will be perpetuated by an important initiative in the Elim Fellowship.
Named after the late Winston I. Nunes, an extremely influential Elim teacher and minister who had a role in shaping the lives of countless young ministers, the "Winston I. Nunes Growth Seminars" are Elim Fellowship's mentorship fast track for our emerging leaders. (from the W.I.N.G.S. website)
That is very appropriate given that Winston was well-experienced in the challenges of pastoring a small church, as most young ministers do; yet he also serves as one model for those in the Elim Fellowship whose ministries will have a wide-ranging scope - ministers who may themselves one day be considered elder stateswomen or statesmen of a revival in their generation.
[Winston Nunes preached the sermon below on September 26, 1967. It begins at the 3:05 minute mark.]
Nunes on the platform in Kansas City in 1977
Nunes is listed among the non-denominational speakers in KC in 1977
Easter 1952 - one of the many times Nunes was a guest speaker at Bethesda
Ivan Spencer's obituary · Wed, Aug 19, 1970 – Page 54 · Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, New York) · Newspapers.com
