Howard A. Goss

Howard Archibald Goss (1883-1964) was a pastor who was an original member of the Assemblies of God. Goss was greatly influenced by Oneness Pentecostalism and became the first superintendent of the United Pentecostal Churches.

Goss was born in Steelville, Missouri in 1883. In 1898 his father moved his family to Galena, Kansas. Goss converted to Christianity in high school in 1902, when Evangelist Charles Parham arrived in Galena and began preaching the new Apostolic Faith, known now was the Pentecostal message. Goss claims to owe his conversion to listening to people speak in tongues. After his conversion he dedicated his life to serving God.

Upon graduating high school, Goss went to Houston to attend Parham's Bible School. When the term ended, Goss received his first leadership position for the revival in Angleton, which was deemed as a success. Although at this time he was able to understand tongues, he was unable to speak it himself. While in Houston working at Brunner Tabernacle when Lucy Farrow, an African-American preacher, who had just returned from the Azusa Street revival, prayed for him and he spoke in tongues again. From that time forward he was "able to speak in tongues at any time I yielded to the Spirit of God."

By 1907, Goss and the majority of the Apostolic Faith Movement broke with Parham. Shortly after, Goss and his first wife Millicent preached revivals around Texas and eventually Arkansas. It was in Arkansas that Goss did his prime ministry, this state became the center of the movement populated by the remnants of the Apostolic Faith group. Arkansas was also the place they began to refer to themselves as "Pentecostals" instead of "Apostolic Faith Group" in order to disaffiliate with controversial scandals associated with Parham. In the fall of 1909 Goss and his wife settled in Malvern Arkansas which became his focal point during this time and they experiences great success in their revivals. After the death of Millicent, Goss resided in Malvern where he hosted a camp meeting. Soon after Goss accepted the message of William Durham regarding the finished work, a controversial topic at the Malvern camp. Goss traveled and did many tent revivals including an inter-state camp meeting in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, where he met his second wife Ethel Wright. The newlyweds entered itinerant evangelistic work and would go on to have six children.

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