This Week in AG History — March 15, 1964
Seeking more of God, Swift had become interested in the baptism in the Holy Spirit and wanted to experience it for himself.
“I discovered that I had been praying and looking for a feeling, but my heart had not been exercising any real faith,” He reported.
He said that day by day his heart began to fill with joy, as he anticipated that God was going to answer his prayers.
He attended a cottage prayer meeting held in the home of a Mrs. Kelly in Calgary. Noted medical doctor and pioneer Pentecostal evangelist, Lilian Yeomans, was also in this group. The people were in prayer for most of the night.
At 2:30 a.m., as Swift was kneeling by a chair, he later recounted, “The power began to fall . . . God spoke to me and told me to yield my voice to Him. This I did and the Spirit began to speak through me in other tongues. No one was near to urge but God did it all.”
From that point forward he was committed to following God and being led by the Spirit. He was totally sold on the moving and gifts of the Spirit.
In 1909, he enrolled as a Bible student at A.B. Simpson’s Missionary Training Institute (Nyack, New York), where he became associated with early Pentecostal pioneers such as David H. McDowell, Frank M. Boyd, W.I. Evans, W.W. Simpson, and Gottfried Bender.
In 1911, he married Carrie Peters in Pulaski, New York. They had three children.
Swift was ordained to the full-gospel ministry in 1912 by Bethel Pentecostal Church in Newark, New Jersey, where he was the founding pastor. He remained as pastor for six years, and during that time the first church building was erected as well as a convention building, which housed Bethel Bible Training Institute, an early school which trained missionaries and Bible students.
After pastoring in Newark, he served as a missionary in Yunnan, China, for nine years, beginning in 1915. He went under the direction of the Pentecostal Missionary Union, a British missionary organization. A son, Kenneth, died in China. A daughter was also born on the mission field.
Swift returned to the United States where he was ordained by the Eastern District of the Assemblies of God on Jan. 17, 1928, and he served for a while as an evangelist based in East Orange, New Jersey. In 1929, he became pastor at Trinity Pentecostal Church (Assemblies of God) in Elizabeth, New Jersey, a church he founded through cottage prayer meetings, which he had conducted while still pastoring in Newark, years earlier. He continued to pastor at Trinity for a little over eight years.
He shared one testimony from his church in Elizabeth about a woman who came to the church and spoke Spanish. She had been a Christian for a long time, but she was skeptical about the baptism in the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues.
Then one Sunday morning, another woman gave a message in tongues, and the first lady understood what was spoken. The first lady worked in an office in New York City and did business in the cultured Castilian Spanish, and she said the message in other tongues was in that language. It was Psalm 45. The lady who gave the utterance in tongues did not know Spanish. Swift was given the interpretation and shared it with the congregation. Afterwards the first woman was amazed because she understood the message given in tongues as well as the interpretation. This convinced her of the reality of the Pentecostal baptism. She sought God for it and soon received it.
Swift followed on the coattails of J. Roswell and Alice Reynold Flower when he became the founding principal of Eastern Bible Institute (now University of Valley Forge). For several summers the Flowers conducted summer classes in tents at the Maranatha campgrounds in Green Lane, Pennsylvania, and this led to the founding of the school. Swift served as principal for 11 years (1938-49). He returned to the pastorate at Elizabeth, altogether serving for about 20 years in that one congregation.
After retiring from pastoral duties in 1958, Swift traveled about as a “minister at large.” He became well-known as a Bible teacher, traveling to churches and camp meetings in various places in the United States and Canada. Some of his messages included topics on divine healing, hearing the voice of God, spiritual life, salvation, sanctification, and studies from the Book of Genesis and other books of the Bible. He also served as assistant superintendent of the Eastern District from 1951-1953. He was a member of the New Jersey District presbytery as well as the general presbytery.
The last place he ministered was a two-week revival at Riverside Gospel Tabernacle in Jacksonville, Florida, in January 1964. He passed away the next month.
Allan Swift was known and loved by thousands throughout the Pentecostal movement. His ministry as a Bible teacher made a deep impression upon people of all ages. He also served as a missionary to China, pastored two congregations in New Jersey, and served as the founding principal of Eastern Bible Institute int Green Lane, Pennsylvania.
Read “Brother Swift Called Home,” on page 21 of the March 15, 1964, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel.
Also featured in this issue:
• “It Won’t Reach Me,” by Evangelist Bob Watters
• “I Remember,” by Marie E. Brown
And many more!
Click here to read this issue now.
Pentecostal Evangel archived editions courtesy of the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center.