Great Soul-Winning Churches - Elmer Towns

A year later, God spoke to Powell about the ministry. A missionary speaker didn’t show
up and Downs brought a message on “Being a Missionary at Home.” Powell testifies, “During
the invitation hymn, God told me to go forward, but I was afraid.” When he got to the front of
the church, he told Pastor Downs, “I think God has called me to preach.” The pastor announced
boldly to the congregation, “John has surrendered for the ministry.” God had been dealing with
his wife, Mary Lou, in another part of the auditorium and, completely unknown to him, she came
forward for rededication. Neither knew the other had been called of God.
John Powell began preaching in homes for the aged and youth meetings, and attending
evening school at Akron Bible Institute.
He learned at school that a church was opening on Reimer Road in Wadsworth, Ohio
(population 12,000). Someone told Powell he could get preaching experience there. He called
Doyle Ballengee and asked, “Could I be a candidate?” Powell’s name was turned in, along with
five others, and when the field was narrowed down to two candidates, Powell got five votes and
the other fellow, four.
His professors at evening school told him not to take the church on a split vote, but he
testifies, “I didn’t have anything to lose, so I took the church.” There was no salary, and he
continued working in the factory and attending evening school for the next three years.
On that first Sunday there were 23 who met Powell, including 5 from his own family.
Powell testifies, “I didn’t know how to organize, promote, finance, or preach—I just stood up
and gave them the Word of God.”
That first Sunday, Powell sat the people all on one side of the auditorium; he only turned
on one set of lights because the church was so poor.
A friend sent The Sword of the Lord as a gift, and when Powell saw announcement of a
preachers’ week at the Bill Rice Ranch for only $15.00, he figured, “I can afford that,” loaded up
everything in his Volkswagen and headed for Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Dr. Jack Hyles taught
him how to organize his Sunday School; Dr. John R. Rice taught him how to prepare sermons;
Dr. Bill Rice gave him lessons on pastoral duties.
Powell came home from that conference with a challenge to build a great church of 100.
It took three months to reach that goal; now he testifies, “We have been setting a higher goal
each year ever since.”
The church had been founded by Rev. Adrian Wilmoth in 1960 in a “chicken coop”
which was nothing more than a wooden building that would seat about 40 people. The church
had built a concrete-block building seating 150. That was the auditorium to which Powell came.
Eighteen months after he arrived, he built a Sunday School wing; two years later he added to the
auditorium, put on a second Sunday School wing and bricked the building.
Two years after that, two houses were converted into Sunday School rooms, and in 1971-
72 the church constructed a $300,000 auditorium that seats 800.