Lester Sumrall
Lester Sumrall was a Pentecostal evangelist, missionary, author, broadcaster, and deliverance minister whose work connected mid-twentieth-century healing revival culture with later charismatic emphases on spiritual warfare, demons, miracles, missions, media ministry, and global revival, making him an influential figure in modern Pentecostal and charismatic networks while also reflecting the movement's broader tensions around supernatural authority, healing claims, demonology, and personality-driven ministry.
Lester Sumrall was a Pentecostal minister and evangelist ordained by the Assemblies of God. Sumrall is well known as the "father of Christian television"[1] and his humanitarian organization "Feed the Hungry".[2] Sumrall ministered abroad in Tahiti, New Zealand, Australia, Asia, Europe, and the Philippines. He was also deeply involved with the Healing Revival,[3] hosting big names of the revival such as F. F. Bosworth,[4] Raymond T. Richey,[5] and William Branham[6] at his church in South Bend, Indiana.
In 1949 during the time that the "Latter Rain Message" was quickly spreading throughout the United States and Canada, Sumrall joined Roy Wead in dedicating the Laurel Street Tabernacle in Indianapolis,[7] where Jim Jones would be recruited into Branham's "Message" cult following. Sumrall, joined Wead to hold a series of revivals at the church. As would any church affiliated with the Branham healing revivals, the Laurel Street Tabernacle often advertised healing meetings.[8] The Laurel Street Tabernacle eventually attracted Jim Jones, Jones began preaching and continued to do so until he became a familiar face in the Laurel Street Tabernacle.[9] Whether directly or indirectly through Sumrall and others sympathetic to Branham's movement at the Tabernacle, Jones would eventually become a "Message" minister.[10]