Hodges, Melvin Lyle (1909-1988)

Missionary to Latin America and Pentecostal missiologist

Hodges was born in Lynden, Washington, to parents who had left the Methodist Church to join the Pentecostal movement. Although he lacked a formal theological education (with the exception of courses in New Testament Greek at Colorado College), he became an evangelist in 1928, the same year in which he married Lois M. Crews. Ordination with the Assemblies of God (AG) came a year later.

During the process for gaining missionary appointment in 1935, Hodges was urged by Noel Perkin, AG missionary secretary, to read the books of Roland Allen, which shaped his missiology before he reached El Salvador in 1936. Under the initial tutelage of Ralph D. Williams, Hodges helped redirect the AG in Nicaragua from a paternalistic structure dependent upon American financial assistance to one based on indigenous church principles.

Beginning in 1945, Hodges assumed editorial and added administrative responsibilities in Central America and at the mission headquarters in Springfield, Missouri. Through his lectures, the publication of The Indigenous Church (1953), and his work editing the Missionary Forum, he began retraining the existing missionary personnel and preparing candidate missionaries to work toward the growth of strong evangelistic “New Testament” churches overseas led by national church leaders. Hodges also served as field director of AG missionaries in Latin America and the Caribbean from 1954 to 1973. Upon his retirement, he became professor of missions at the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary, Springfield, Missouri; he left that post due to ill health in 1985.

Hodge’s formative influence in AG missions stemmed from his Pentecostal adaptation of the missiology of Roland Allen and his belief that the role of the Holy Spirit in evangelism and church growth as portrayed by the Book of Acts is indispensable for successful mission work today. His many books include A Theology of the Church and Its Mission (1977) and The Indigenous Church and the Missionary (1978).

Gary B. McGee, “Hodges, Melvin Lyle,” in Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, ed. Gerald H. Anderson (New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 1998), 296.

This article is reprinted from Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, Macmillan Reference USA, copyright © 1998 Gerald H. Anderson, by permission of Macmillan Reference USA, New York, NY. All rights reserved.

Bibliography

Primary

A Comprehensive bibliography of Hodge’s publications is available through the AG archives, Springfield, MO.

Hodges, Melvin Lyle. A Theology of the Church and Its Mission: A Pentecostal Perspective. Springfield, MO: Gospel Pub. House, 1977.

_____. The Church. Springfield, MO: International Correspondence Institute, 1970.

_____. El Espíritu Santo y el Evangelismo Universal. Miami, FL: Editorial Vida, 1979.

_____. The Indigenous Church. Springfield, MO: Gospel Pub. House, 1976.

_____. The Indigenous Church and the Missionary: A Sequel to The Indigenous Church. South Pasadena, CA: Wm. Carey Library, 1978.

_____. New Testament Evangelism and Church Growth. Springfield, MO: Assemblies of God Audiovisual Services, 1974.

Secondary

McGee, Gary B. ‘This Gospel Shall be Preached’: A History and Theology of Assemblies of God Foreign Missions. Springfield, MO: Gospel Publishing House. 2 vols. 1986, 1989.

_____. “Assemblies of God Missiology by the 1990’s: A Pilgrimage of Change and Continuity Since 1914.” Paper presented at the twenty-first annual meeting of the Society for Pentecostal Studies. Lakeland, FL. November 7-9, 1991.

Walker, Luisa Jeter. Siembra y Cosecha Resena histórica de las Asambleas de Dios de México y Centroamérica, Vol. 1. 1990.

Portrait

“Melvin Hodges Image,” Courtesy, Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center, Springfield, MO. All rights reserved.