G. E. Lowman

Infobox clergy
name = G. E. Lowman


image_size = 160px
caption = Rev. Dr. G. E. Lowman in 1964
birth_date = Birth date|1897|11|16
birth_place = Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
death_date = Death date and age|1965|1|18|1897|11|16
death_place = St. Petersburg, Florida, U.S.
church =
other_names =
education = B.Th., Burton College and Seminary, July 1930
writings = Prophecies for the Times (series)
congregations = Baltimore Gospel Tabernacle (1930–1959);
"International Gospel Broadcasters" weekly radio program (1930–1965)
offices_held =
title =
spouse = Minnie Anna Wagner
children = Elmer, Ruth, Edna, Doris, Vernon, Darlene
parents = Oliver Lowman and Annie Perkins
footnotes =

Guerdon Elmer Lowman, more familiarly G. E. Lowman (November 16, 1897 - January 18, 1965) was an American Christian clergyman and a pioneering international radio evangelist beginning in 1930, following a successful business career.

Early years

G. E. Lowman was born in Baltimore, Maryland, where he worked in the local shipyards as a teenager, becoming a Christian at the age of 17. He married Minnie Wagner on December 8, 1917, and they had six children.

In his early twenties, he began a commercial electrical contracting company.Thomas H. O'Connor, "Baltimore Broadcasting from A to Z", Baltimore, Md. (1985)] Later, he acquired a spinoff supermarket chain in the Baltimore region from Sanitary Grocery Stores, which he renamed "Twin Food".cite web | title=G. E. Lowman memorial website | publisher=Atlas Communications|url=http://www.atlascom.us/GELowman.htm | accessdate=October 29 | accessyear=2007 ]

Ministry

In the late 1920s, Pastor Lowman began preaching at area Methodist churches and started using a bus to hold evangelistic rallies on Baltimore street corners. [Jacques Kelly, "Baltimore Neighborhoods in Focus". Baltimore, Md.: Pratt Library, 1986 (ISBN 0-910556-23-7)] So popular was his preaching that he founded the "Baltimore Gospel Tabernacle" on October 19, 1930, and began weekly live radio broadcasts of the services on Sundays and Wednesdays.

The church was built of stone with large stained glass windows, one of which was donated by a "Titanic" survivor. Atop the Tabernacle's west tower was an illuminated cross, which revolved when services were underway, one of four revolving crosses in existence in the U.S. at the time.William J. Leslie, "Gospel Tabernacle Dedicated One Year Ago", "Baltimore Post", October 19, 1931.] On the church's first anniversary in October 1931, the "Baltimore Post" reported: "The Gospel Tabernacle is interdenominational in character and from 10 to 15 different denominations are represented at the services". In celebration of the anniversary, "jubilee services were held nightly for two weeks, with ministers from different churches conducting the services," the newspaper said. Two balconies were added to the structure in the mid-1930s to accommodate the overflow crowds.

The broadcasts eventually reached coast-to-coast in the U.S., including such high-powered, Class 1-A clear channel radio stations as WABC in New York City, WLS in Chicago, and WBT in Charlotte, North Carolina. Worldwide, the program was broadcast on major mediumwave and shortwave stations in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia, originated by flagship station WBAL (AM). By the late 1930s, the "Pittsburgh Post-Gazette" said of Rev. Lowman that, "the noted radio evangelist and founder of the Baltimore Gospel Tabernacle ... is well-known to Pittsburghers inasmuch as his forceful sermons are transmitted here from the Baltimore Tabernacle". ["Noted Pastor to Speak Here", "Pittsburgh Post-Gazette", April 22, 1938.] In August 1941, WNOX (now WNML) in Knoxville, Tennessee began carrying the broadcast, which it advertised as "inspiring and timely messages by one of America's religious leaders", but six months later a controversy ensued when the radio station refused to broadcast a sermon in which Rev Lowman mentioned the word "fornication", prompting protests from disappointed listeners. [Earl Parrish, "Indignant That Sermon Was Cut Off Air", "Knoxville News Sentinel", February 8, 1942.] When the program debuted on WELI in New Haven, Connecticut in 1940, a radio columnist for the "New Haven Register" described the broadcasts as "one of America's most unique and varied religious programs, conducted by Rev. G. E. Lowman, a noted preacher who takes for his topics timely and interesting subjects that are up-to-the moment". ["Radio Dial" "New Haven Register", July 1940] By the late 1950s, a second weekly radio program was also carried on the Mutual Broadcasting System network in the U.S.cite magazine|title=G.E. Lowman, founder of International Gospel Broadcasters|publisher="Broadcasting" magazine|date=February 2, 1965 ]

Pastor Lowman authored several books in the series, "Prophecies for the Times". His ministry was nondenominational. He wrote, "Many claims are made by certain religions. But no one denomination can rightfully claim that it is the only one. The true church of our Lord and Master is made up of born again people. It is not what we belong to on this earth; it is what we are in Christ". [G. E. Lowman, "Prophecies for the Times", Baltimore, Md. (1961)]

The weekly radio broadcast originated live from the Baltimore Gospel Tabernacle on Sunday mornings at 11 a.m. until December, 1959, when the program was moved to a studio in St. Petersburg, Florida. It was then produced and distributed by the International Gospel Broadcasters, founded by G.E. Lowman. [The former Baltimore Gospel Tabernacle edifice at Federal and Wolfe Streets in Baltimore became the St. Paul Community Church on December 13, 1959. (reference: "St. Paul Marches On Into Its New Church Home", "Baltimore News-Post", December 12, 1959).] The broadcasts were also noted for their music, featuring the Tabernacle's large Möller pipe organ accompanying the congregation singing hymn favorites. Daughters Ruth, Edna, and Doris sang as the "Lowman Sisters Trio", ending each broadcast with the Maori melody theme song, "Search Me O God".

Awards and Honors

In honor of his ministry, he was presented with the Key to the City of Baltimore by then-Mayor Theodore R. McKeldin on September 14, 1943. [cite news|title=Mayor Awards Key to Rev. G. E. Lowman|date=September 15, 1943|publisher="The Baltimore Sun" ] Pastor Lowman received a Doctor of Divinity degree from Burton College and Seminary in Manitou Springs, Colorado, on May 20, 1957.

Death

G.E. Lowman died on January 18, 1965, of leukemia, ending the worldwide radio ministry of the International Gospel Broadcasters. He is interred at Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens in Timonium, Maryland.

Notes and References

External links

* [http://www.atlascom.us/GELowman.htm Rev. G. E. Lowman memorial website]
*Findagrave|24662010