Rev. Lowell H. Benson

Born the youngest of three children, Lowell Howard Benson arrived November 1, 1915, in Della Plain, Arkansas, to Jim and Pearl Benson. Lowell’s young life was rocked with tragedy in a series of events while he was still just a toddler. His father abandoned the family, leaving his mother with total responsibility for care. Shortly after, she was diagnosed with cancer and died on Lowell’s third birthday.

The three children immediately went to live with their grandparents, and the family soon relocated to Pocahontas, Arkansas. As soon as he was old enough, he began to help his two sisters on the farm. As a young teen, Lowell discovered that his grandmother had also been diagnosed with cancer. By the time he was fifteen, she knew she could no longer care for him and sent him to live with his oldest sister who was now married and living in St. Louis, Missouri.

One afternoon while visiting his sister in St. Louis, Lowell entered a store-front revival where he gave his heart and life to Christ. Soon he learned that an old friend from Arkansas was now pastoring a church in nearby Granite City, Illinois. So at age seventeen, he left the life he knew with his sister to live with Brother and Sister Odell Cagle. The Cagles took Lowell into their home with open arms, waking Lowell each morning at 5 a.m. for prayer meeting. About a year after his arrival, the Cagles began to evangelize and hold tent meetings in various states.

On November 24, 1934, Lowell Benson married Nina Elizabeth King. From the very moment they said I do, the adventure began. For not only had they married each other, they formed a partnership that would join their hearts and efforts together to work for God and grow His Kingdom. The Bensons moved to Fort Dodge, Iowa, with the Cagles to pioneer a new work. Brother Benson soon started preaching revivals and evangelizing all over the country.

In the summer of 1935, he took his first pastorate in Darden, Tennessee. Fall brought the couple a special gift with the birth of their daughter, Peggy. God called the Bensons to several other works during those early years and gave them a son, Jim, in 1940. Some of Lowell’s endeavors include: pastoring Henry County Tabernacle (Tennessee); pioneering works in Sheffield and Stevenson, Alabama; pastoring in Pritchard, Alabama; and serving as district superintendent of Alabama during the early 1950s.

After working in Alabama for several years, Lowell and Nina felt God leading them back to Tennessee. In 1953 they moved to Oak Ridge to assist in a new work. Over the next ten years they pastored the West Nashville Church and pioneered a new work in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee. Brother Benson also served the Tennessee district as Sunday school superintendent.

In May 1963 the Bensons opened a new work in East Nashville, reaching out to a community that most had forgotten. They faced many hardships and strong opposition, but continued in the work to which they knew God had called them. In the spring of 1979, he was elected district superintendent for the state of Tennessee, and he served faithfully in that position for seventeen years.

He passed from this life on December 5, 2008.