A. A. Allen Ministries

[Global Faith Coalition]

A. A. Allen Ministries

One of the most well known evangelists of the Twentieth century, Asa Alonso Allen was known as 'God's man of faith and power'. He was incredibly gifted, dramatic and controversial. Brother Allen was born in Sulphur Rock, Arkansas, March 27th 1911. His childhood was one of growing up in poverty and plain hard work as was common in those days. His father was known to be a chr ... onic alcoholic, and his mother was said to be living in sin with other men.

In 1934 Brother Allen was converted in a Holy Ghost filled Methodist church. He was ordained in 1936 as an AOG minister and launched out in his life of preaching.

Revivalism during those times of depression was tough on an evangelist. A driving spirit and God's grace empowered Brother Allen to continue on...

In 1947 he settled into pastoring a small church in Corpus Christi, Texas and left the field. Two years later Allen attended an Oral Roberts tent meeting in Dallas. Brother Allen was touched at the results of Robert's Revival meeting and was convinced that a great revival was ahead. That meeting exposed Brother Allen to miracle after miracle and he was convinced that the Spirit of God was moving across the land with displays of great power.

Asa Allen left that meeting with such a conviction for the lost to receive God's miracle working power that he asked his church board to allow him to start a radio program. They refused. This seemed to damper Brother Allen's spirit immensely, although he had inside of him a great overpowering urge and determination that pushed him beyond the barriers imposed by man and he resigned from pastoring to hit the gospel road again. It was at this point that Allen started his Healing Revival Campaigns.

Asa was desperate to sum up what people were hungering after. He came to a realisation after witnessing the great crowds being drawn to the gigantic tent of Oral Roberts. In 1955 Brother Allen made a bold move of faith and purchased a tent for $8,700 that was way beyond his natural abilities to pay for, although he knew that God was the giver. With God's blessing he entered the golden era of tent evangelism with a healing/salvation theme. This was the turning point for this determined man of God. Allen was know as a man that the poor and desperate responded to. Like David of old, who drew those in debt, in distress and discontentment. There was something about his ability to relate to their needs and give them the gospel hope, and they responded to him by the thousands. During his crusades he was known as the revivalist who never ran from the hard cases. More to the point - he thrived on them! If there was someone blind, no problem. Brother Allen would pray. On one occasion, a man came to his meetings who was an ex-mine worker. This man had his eyes blown right out of their sockets in a terrible explosion. When prayed for, God instantly replaced those empty sockets of flesh with brand new brown eyes in front of the people! If there were the lame, no problem. Asa would pray. He would grab the afflicted person's crutches and throw these at the alter. The person was healed. Even the retarded would come with their faces all deformed. God would heal them instantly, their faces 'popping' back to normal! Many of the travelling evangelist had their own styles and Brother Allen was no different.

A.A.Allen had an incredible ability to set the stage of a service through music like no other of his day. Brother Allen was one of the first, along with Oral Roberts, to open his revival meetings up to an interracial crowd. This created a different kind of persecution, but he would use it as a platform to stand on and preach. He was a powerful preacher and was not fearful of prophetic declarations that had a spiritual punch to them. While in London he preached a dynamic message entitled, "God is a Killer." On another occasion he delivered a prophecy declaring a vision that he had of the "Destruction of America."

Brother Allen was apostolic in the sense that he thrived when under pressure. He felt that he was one of the most persecuted men in the ministry because he believed God for miracles. Allen, like many of his fellow revivalists, had religious enemies. Attacks of all sorts were railed at him. One of the most severe of those attacks started after an alleged arrest in 1955 for drunk driving in Knoxville, Tennessee. He never stood trial and forfeited his bail. Even today, regarding the whole incident, it is still unclear as to exactly what happened. Although well known evangelist R.W. Schambach said that he knew that Brother Allen was not drunk because he was with him that night in the car. In Allen's ministry publication, Miracle Magazine, he printed his response to the accusations for his ministry supporters. "Brother Allen declares that all this is but a trick of the devil to try to kill his ministry and his influence among his friends, at a time when God has granted him greater miracles in his ministry than ever before."

With gossip flying around, and newspaper reporters never seeming to stop, Allen found himself on the road without much denominational support. Even his fellowship, the Assembly of God, asked him to withdraw from public ministry until this matter was resolved. Brother Allen was very hurt feeling that he had been abandoned in a great time of personal need even though he had been with them for eighteen years. Asa felt that to withdraw, he would ruin his ministry and give the appearance of guilt. He surrendered his ordination papers and was on his own.

By the mid-1950s Brother Allen began to urge the Pentecostal ministers to establish independent churches that would be free of denominational controls. He felt that the denominations were limiting what the Spirit of God was trying to do. He felt that programs had replaced the old wooden altars. "With few exceptions, the churches today are leaning more and more toward dependence upon organisational strength, and natural ability, and denominational methods. They no longer expect to get their increase through the old fashioned revival altar bench, or through the miracle working power of God, but rather through the Sunday School". Sadly, the situation doesn't appear to have changed much even now.

In 1958 Jack Coe went to be with the Lord, so Brother Allen purchased his great tent. Coe's tent had seated well over 22,000 and Allen had obviously been blessed with the largest tent in the world. During a time when the revivalists of the Voice of Healing movement began to disappear, Allen was bestowed the ability to raise the support that he needed to keep this ministry going. He was one of the first to call poverty a spirit and believed in God's ability to perform miracles financially. His teaching on prosperity were a major theme in his meetings during the 60's.

Brother Allen's style was bold and outgoing. He sometimes wore lavender suits with white patent leather boots. His television commercials declared, "See! Hear! Actual miracles happening before your very eyes!