Rev. Howard A. Goss

Howard Goss took the Bible literally as his way of life. Brought to the Lord from atheism, for his first two years as a Christian, he soaked his mind in Scripture, reading nothing else. This laid the foundation for the wise and loving leader throughout his sixty years of ministry.

In his last Scofield Bible, many key verses in Paul’s epistles are heavily marked, underlined with his favorite red ink, especially those about God’s grace. Maybe because he came right out of atheism, falling fresh into God’s love and grace, he was kept from having any taint of old or inherited religious attitudes or unscriptural doctrinal biases. He was born again, into the liberty in Christ, right from the beginning.

Texas was where his early ministry years began, and he held many tent revivals in Galveston, Alvin, Houston, and other southern Texas towns.

Although he chose Texas as his adopted state, he loved to travel on trains. He was personally acquainted with almost all the Pullman porters across the country. Those were the days when the clergy had discounted tickets on all trains. He seldom ate in the dining cars though, carrying his lunches in his suitcase: RyeKrisp crackers, cheeses, salami, and canned Vienna sausages, along with his favorite fruit: apples. His favorite beverage was water, and sometimes milk.

The passage of Scripture he most often chose as a charge to young ministers who were being ordained into ministry was II Timothy 2:24-25, a portion of which states, “the servant of the Lord must not strive.” His own obedience to these verses was well known but often misunderstood by a few, more aggressive colleagues who enjoyed argument and debate.

He was never a stingy person but was always giving and compassionate whenever he saw a need with which he could help. Brother and Sister Goss held open house for guests during most of their ministry and married years, since he believed that a bishop must be given to hospitality. More often than not, there would be one or more guests at the dinner table, often occupying the large guest room when the Glasses lived in Toronto.

Biography of Howard Archibald Goss (1883-1964)

by J. L. Hall

Howard A. Goss was the first general superintendent of the United Pentecostal Church (UPC). Converted in 1903, under the ministry of Charles F. Parham, Goss attended Parham’s short-term Bible school in Houston, Texas, in 1905. While riding a train with other Pentecostals in 1906, he received the baptism of the Holy Ghost. In the same year, Parham appointed him to be field supervisor of the Apostolic Faith Movement in Texas.

After moral charges were brought against Parham in 1907, Goss separated from Parham and evangelized in Texas, Arkansas, Kansas, Iowa, Illinois, and Missouri, establishing several Pentecostal churches. Goss and E. N. Bell were chiefly responsible for organizing the Assemblies of God (AG) in 1914, and Goss was elected to serve on the first executive presbytery and as the person issuing credentials to ministers in the South and West. E. N. Bell rebaptized Goss in the name of Jesus Christ in 1915.

After the division of the Oneness ministers from the AG in 1916, Goss served on the credentials committee of the General Assembly of the Apostolic Assemblies. In 1919 he moved to Canada and established a church in Toronto, Ontario, serving as its pastor until 1937. In the US, Goss was a member of the organizing board of presbyters for the Pentecostal Ministerial Alliance and served as the first chairman of this organization from 1925 to 1932. In 1939 he became the general superintendent of the Pentecostal Church, Incorporated. At the merger that formed the UPC in 1945, Goss became the first general superintendent of the new organization and served until 1951. With his wife, Ethel, Goss wrote The Winds of God (1958), a history of the early years of the Pentecostal revival.

He passed from this life on July 13, 1964.