Dr. Willis C. Hoover: From Medical Doctor to Methodist Missionary to Pentecostal Pioneer in Chile

This Week in AG History — July 22, 1922

By Glenn W. Gohr
Originally published on AG News, 25 July 2024

Willis Collins Hoover (1858-1936) is remembered as the Father of Pentecostalism in Chile. A medical doctor and Methodist missionary to Chile, he pioneered the Pentecostal movement in the country following his baptism in the Holy Spirit. Several of his descendants became leaders in the Assemblies of God.

Hoover was born to Methodist parents in Freeport, Illinois. After becoming a medical doctor (M.D.) in 1884 and receiving training in architecture, he felt the Lord calling him to missionary work. He was first inspired by reports from pioneer Christian missionary David Livingstone to offer himself as a missionary to Africa. When the Methodist mission board gave him an assignment to Chile, he accepted it as God’s will. Soon he began receiving an inner impression that said, “South America, South America, South America.” His calling was so strong that when he proposed to his future wife, Mae Hilton, he insisted that as a married couple they must go to South America to minister.

Dr. Hoover left his practice in Chicago as a homeopathic physician, and he and his wife arrived in Chile in 1889 as Methodist missionaries. He was appointed director of the Colegio Ingles de Iquique (Iquique English School) in northern Chile and then served as superintendent of the Methodist Iquique District. By 1902 he was pastoring a large church in Valparaiso.

Word of the Pentecostal outpouring in 1906 at the Azusa Street Mission in Los Angeles reached him in his pastorate in Valparaiso. It stirred his interest, and he began to earnestly study the Bible for teaching on the baptism in the Holy Spirit. That year the Sunday school lessons were in the Book of Acts, so this augmented his studies. He gathered his family together, and they began having special times of prayer and revival.

Around this same time, Mae Hoover received a letter from Minnie Abrams, who had been her roommate at Moody Bible Institute. Minnie had received the Pentecostal experience at the Azusa Street Mission and had gone to India as a missionary. There she worked with Pandita Ramabai, an Indian woman who also had received the baptism in the Holy Spirit.

Minnie’s letter concerning the outpouring of the Spirit at Azusa Street motivated the Hoovers to invite others to join them for times of seeking God in their home. The board of deacons joined them in these prayer meetings.

Next, the Hoovers started a Sunday prayer meeting at the church before the Sunday night service, which was known as clase de cinco (five o’clock class). This class drew increasing numbers, and sometimes people prayed on into the evening service. These concentrated times of prayer eventually led to people experiencing united prayer (instead of individual prayers). One time Willis Hoover was kneeling and praying on the platform, and he observed that his congregation was praying spontaneously in what could be called “the sound of many waters.”

As the Holy Spirit began to move on the congregation, and people received the baptism in the Holy Spirit, there were manifestations of speaking in other tongues, and sometimes holy laughter and dancing in the Spirit. Some extreme manifestations were also evident at times. In 1936, when Willis Hoover lay dying, his prayer was that God would “give us another revival as that which You gave us; if possible without the errors and the extravagances which accompanied it; but in any case, give us another revival.”

Because of the empowerment of the Spirit, evangelism and personal witnessing took on fresh meaning, and this became a major contributing factor in the phenomenal growth of the Chilean Pentecostal Church. While Hoover’s congregation was happy with the revival that came in the early 1900s and rejoiced to witness the power of the Spirit, the Methodist Church leaders in the United States were not in favor of the revival and accompanying manifestations. What they viewed as emotionalism and excitement did not follow the accepted decorum and a well-ordered methodical service as handed down since the days of John Wesley, who was a leader in the Methodist movement.

During the annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Chile, held at Temuco in 1909, Bishop F.M. Bristol came face to face with the “problem” of Pentecost. He had been directed to conduct an investigation and try to persuade Hoover and his church to abandon what was viewed as intolerable error in doctrine and practice.

Hoover received his superior courteously, but he could not deny the Pentecostal experience, and he would not quench the flowing of the Spirit. The Methodist Church then issued an ultimatum: either Hoover would cease from Pentecostal activities and stop teaching that doctrine, or he would be dismissed from the Methodist Episcopal Church.

For Hoover, the choice was clear. He compared his stand to that of Martin Luther when facing the Catholic hierarchy at the Diet of Worms: “Here I stand. God help me. I cannot do otherwise.”

Dr. Hoover cut all ties with the Methodist Episcopal Church. With some 400 members of the church he pastored, and who had also received the baptism in the Holy Spirit, he formed a new organization called the Methodist Pentecostal Church. He no longer received any support from the Methodist Church in the United States. The church had to be self-sufficient. Hoover continued to follow the teachings of John Wesley, which included his form of Methodist church government, church discipline, and major doctrines, with the added belief in the Pentecostal experience.

By 1909, the church Hoover founded was the flagship of the Chilean Pentecostal movement, and the Pentecostal movement in Chile grew rapidly. In 1933-1934 there was a split in this church, and the splinter group took the name “Iglesia Metodista Pentecostal” as well as the periodical, Chile Pentecostal. Hoover’s main group had to choose a new name. His group then became known as “Iglesia Evangelica Pentecostal” and his periodical was called Fuego de Pentecostales (Fire of Pentecost). Since that time, both church bodies have prospered and seen tremendous growth. There is hardly a village or city from one end of Chile to the other without a congregation of Pentecostal believers. Members and adherents number approximately one million and growing. Hoover’s Iglesia Evangelica Pentecostal now celebrates 115 years since its founding.

Mae Hoover attended the November 1914 General Council in Chicago and held credentials for a short time with the Assemblies of God. Willis Hoover attended the 1915 General Council and gave a report of his work in Chile. He also gave later reports in the Pentecostal Evangel.

Among his descendants are Mario Hoover (who attended Central Bible College and had a long career at the Gospel Publishing House in Springfield, Missouri) and Mario’s wife, Elva Johnson Hoover, who was the director of Women’s Ministries for the Assemblies of God (1975-1985). One of Mario’s sons, Ronald Hoover, also worked for many years at the Gospel Publishing House.

Because Willis Hoover stood by his convictions that the baptism in the Holy Spirit was essential to the spreading of the gospel, he cut ties with his sending church and established what later became two Pentecostal denominations in Chile, which are still making a mark in the world.

Read, “Pentecostal Revival in Chile,” on pages 2-3 of the July 22, 1922, and pages 6-7 of the Aug. 5, 1922, issues of the Pentecostal Evangel.

Also featured in this issue:

• “Drowsiness: Its Remedy,” by Zelma Argue

• “Victory in Little Things,” by Bert Williams

And many more!

Click here and here to read these issues now.

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

Do you have Pentecostal historical materials that should be preserved? Please consider depositing these materials at the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center (FPHC). The FPHC, located in the Assemblies of God national offices, is the largest Pentecostal archive in the world. We would like to preserve and make your treasures accessible to those who write the history books.

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