Leo Clyte Upton

Leo Clyte Upton was born in Red Oak, Oklahoma, on May 15, 1907. At an early age, he had a desire for God. He took a correspondence course from Southern Nazarene College in Bethany, Oklahoma, obtained his minister’s license, and quickly became a successful Nazarene evangelist.

Brother Upton was invited to preach a revival in Monett, Missouri, for his uncle, Pastor Frank Babb. During those meetings he met Rhoda Priscilla Brown, who had come to hear the “good-looking” evangelist. A serious friendship ensued, and the couple was married on May 11, 1928, in Caseville, Missouri.

Rhoda Brown had been introduced to Pentecost at Eureka Springs, Arkansas in 1918, when she was only twelve years old. She received the Holy Ghost evidenced by speaking in tongues and was baptized in Jesus’ name by Andrew Urshan. This experience profoundly influenced the spiritual direction the Upton family would eventually take, although that would not be evident for some time.

On October 1, 1932, Leo Upton was elected to serve as the pastor of the First Church of the Nazarene in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The rest of his family chose to attend the newly formed First Apostolic Church, led by Pastor C.P. Williams. In 1943, the Uptons moved to Montgomery, Alabama, where Leo assumed the pastorate of the First Church of the Nazarene. That assignment came to an end after Rhoda Upton testified publicly about her Pentecostal experience of speaking with tongues. The church decided they needed a new pastor, so the Uptons returned to Oklahoma.

The family settled in Okmulgee, south of Tulsa, where Leo Upton operated a dry-cleaning business. Around this time, he was diagnosed with a heart condition and was advised to quit preaching. He prayed about the matter and felt God leading him to attend a healing crusade led by Oral Roberts. At that meeting, Brother Upton witnessed the instantaneous healing of a baby who had been injured in an automobile accident. This miracle caused him to recognize his own need for a deeper walk with God. (Brother Upton also developed a friendship with Roberts, and the famous evangelist publicly credited Upton with inspiring an article in Roberts’ May 1956 newsletter.)

Sometime later, Brother Upton was invited to preach at a Trinitarian Pentecostal church. Convicted by his own sermon, he fell on his knees at the altar and received the gift of the Holy Spirit, evidenced by speaking in tongues. In 1954, Brother Upton asked his son, Paul, who had become a United Pentecostal Church (UPC) pastor (a testament to Rhoda Upton’s influence), to baptize him in Jesus’ name. Eyewitnesses reported that, when Brother Upton came out of the water, he prophesied about the future of his own ministry.

From that point forward, there was a marked difference in Leo Upton’s life and preaching, including the operation of the gifts of the Spirit. He joined the UPC, and briefly served as pastor of a church in Tulsa. He and Rhoda then moved to Atlanta, Georgia, to become the pastors of Southside Pentecostal Church, later renamed First Apostolic Church of Atlanta.

In 1961, Brother Upton embarked on his first overseas missions’ trip. He was accompanied by Butch Rosser, a member of Brother Upton’s congregation, and Richard McCary, a pastor from Birmingham, Alabama. The three men traveled to Ghana, and McCary and Rosser produced a video based on the experience titled “Upon All Flesh.” This trip would mark another transition in Upton’s ministry.

UPC Foreign Missions Director T. F. Tenney recognized Brother Upton’s effectiveness in ministering overseas and decided to appoint him as the organization’s first international evangelist. In this new role, Brother Upton traveled four to six months at a stretch, preaching and ministering all over the globe. By the end of his life, he had visited eight-five nations and all but three states in the U.S. He became the UPC’s first international evangelist to see more than one thousand people receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Many missionaries recorded the signs and miracles that followed Brother Upton’s preaching in biographical accounts of their ministries.

Near the end of Brother Upton’s life, Brother Tenney wrote the evangelist a personal letter in which he stated, “I do not know of a man among us who has made a greater impact in soul-winning through evangelistic efforts overseas as my friend, Leo Upton.” Brother Upton passed away shortly thereafter, in January 1988. During his funeral service, UPCI General Superintendent Nathaniel A. Urshan called him “a very outstanding man of God.”

“Of all the ministers I have known, this man uniquely depended on the moving of the Holy Spirit,” Brother Urshan said. “In observing his ministry numerous times, he would move only when he felt prompted by the leading of God’s presence. The results of this very spiritual sensitivity were thousands of souls brought into the kingdom of God.”