This Week in AG History -- Nov. 21, 1914

Ministerial education was one of the five reasons for the organization of the Assemblies of God (AG) in 1914, and one of the most prominent early AG educators was D.C.O. Opperman.

Daniel Charles Owen Opperman (1872-1926) was born near Goshen, Indiana. He was originally a member of the German Baptist Brethren or “Dunkards.” He grew up in a strict environment and was raised to be God-fearing. When his father died in 1887, Opperman was only 15. He worked on the family farm and assumed responsibility for his widowed mother, two brothers, and one sister.

With a hunger for learning, Opperman attended Manchester College in North Manchester, Indiana, graduating in 1890. There he met Ella Syler, who later became his wife. He began teaching in public schools in the spring of 1892 at Elkhart, Indiana, and later in Illinois. He also furthered his education at a Brethren college in Mt. Morris, Illinois; Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Illinois; and Illinois State Normal University, Normal, Illinois. His first wife, Ella, died in childbirth with his first son. He later married Hattie Allen, and they had five more children.

While a student at Moody Bible Institute, Opperman fell under the influence of evangelical healing evangelist John Alexander Dowie, who founded both a town (Zion City, Illinois) and a denomination (Christian Catholic Church). Opperman eventually directed Zion City’s education program. In 1902, he was ordained as a deacon in Dowie’s Chicago Auditorium.

In January 1905, Opperman caught a cold, which developed into tuberculosis. He moved to San Antonio, Texas, in March 1905 to seek a better climate for his health. There he spent time with a Zion elder named Lemuel C. Hall, who had a healing ministry and a church in the city. People prayed for Opperman, and God gave him partial deliverance from tuberculosis, though he could hardly speak above a whisper.

In March 1905, Opperman went to Houston to preach to a group of Zion believers, and that is when he met Charles F. Parham and a group of his Apostolic Faith workers. At that time, Parham was conducting a short-term Bible school in a large house at Rusk Avenue and Brazos Street in Houston.

Opperman then felt that God told him to begin street preaching. Opperman wrote in his diary, “On April 8, 1905, at about 7:30 p.m., I stepped onto Houston Street, near the Post Office, to herald the gospel of the Kingdom. God marvelously healed me, and gave me great joy in my ministry in the street.”

With all traces of tuberculosis gone and his health restored, Opperman returned to Zion City on April 22, 1905, and finished his term as principal of schools. He continued as principal that fall, but relinquished his duties and went back to San Antonio to evangelize.

Through the influence of Dowie and Parham, Opperman began preaching about the baptism in the Holy Spirit, and many were baptized through his ministry, although he himself had not yet received. He was dignified and proper in his manners and had difficulty yielding to the working of the Holy Spirit. He wanted to have a true experience, and not one that was mere emotionalism. After much prayer, Opperman finally received the baptism in the Holy Spirit at Belton, Texas, on Jan. 13, 1908.

In July 1908, Opperman was appointed state director of Texas for the Apostolic Faith Movement, which was originally founded by Charles F. Parham. He began touring a number of Texas missions and also visited a camp meeting in Doxey, Oklahoma. He continued traveling and ministering in Missouri, Kansas, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Tennessee, before returning to Houston, Texas. During his travels, he began thinking of the need to hold short-term Bible schools in different parts of the country to train people in Bible and Pentecostal doctrines.

Beginning in 1909, Opperman began teaching a series of short-term Bible schools with hands-on practical training that each lasted for 30 to 90 days. The first school, held in Houston, was modeled after the one Parham held there three years earlier as shown by an announcement in Word and Work: “The Bible will be the only textbook. There will be only two requirements made to every student entering. First, he must learn the commands of Jesus. Second, he must obey them. It will be a faith school; there will be no charges for board, room or tuition.” Opperman also said that an evangelistic meeting would be conducted each night, and there would be street meetings and prison meetings, giving the students opportunity to practice the daily lessons learned in the school.

Opperman sought for a balance between education, prayer, and practical training. An advertisement for the school he held in Ottumwa, Iowa, stated: “The notion that preparation is nonessential is wrong. God has always had his ministers seasoned. No calling to which man is eligible needs such discipline, such preparation as that for one called to the gospel.”

At another school held in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, Will Newman said that Opperman stressed the importance of spiritual guidance in all aspects of the ministry: “Everything is done by the direction of the Holy Ghost; nothing is undertaken without first waiting on Him to lead, guide, and instruct.”

Opperman’s short-term Bible schools were held in various places in the Midwest and the South, including Houston, Texas; Hattiesburg, Mississippi; Joplin, Missouri; Annison, Alabama; Des Moines, Iowa; Fort Worth, Texas; Hot Springs, Arkansas; Ottumwa, Iowa; and Eureka Springs, Arkansas.

Some of those who are known to have attended these short-term Bible schools include Hugh Cadwalder, Mary Crouch Cadwalder, Roy Scott, John Crouch, Andrew Crouch, John Goben, Eugene Hastie, F.F. Bosworth, Elias Birdsall, W.B. McCafferty, W.B. Jessup, Ralph M. Riggs, Everett and Efton Wiley, Opal Stauffer Wiley, Harry Bowley, Willard Pope, Joe Rosselli, Forrest G. Barker, and Oscar Jones, each of whom made a lasting impact in the foundational years of the Assemblies of God.

D.C.O. Opperman was one of the five signers who risked their ministries by signing the “Call to Hot Springs,” which led to the organization of the Assemblies of God in April 1914. The signers were M.M. Pinson, A.P. Collins, H.A. Goss, D.C.O. Opperman, and E.N. Bell. Opperman conducted one of his short-term Bible schools from January to April in the Opera House in Hot Springs, Arkansas, just prior to the founding convention. Opperman also served as assistant general chairman of the AG from 1914 to 1915.

Sadly, Opperman was killed in a car accident in Baldwin Park, California, on Sept. 5, 1926, when he was on his way to a Sunday night service where he was preaching. The car he was riding in collided with the Southern Pacific Sunset Limited train. In addition to Opperman, six other people were killed. Opperman was only 54 at the time of the accident.

Not only did D.C.O. Opperman influence a number of early leaders in the Assemblies of God who attended his short-term Bible schools, but the educational model of his schools also paved the way for permanent Bible schools, correspondence schools, and district schools of ministry in the Assemblies of God.

Read about D.C.O. Opperman’s “Ottumwa Bible School,” on page 3 of the Nov. 21, 1914, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel.

Also featured in this issue:

• “Gospel Work Among the Jews,” by Mrs. Alice Riggs

• “How Much Belongs to God?” by W.F. Carothers

• “Questions and Answers,” by E.N. Bell

And many more!

Click here to read this issue now.

Pentecostal Evangel archived editions courtesy of the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center.