Lourenna Mae Moreland arrived in Pennsylvania with her family when her father accepted the pastorate of the Williamsburg congregation in 1943. The Church of God in Pennsylvania was blessed by her musical, evangelistic, pastoral, and administrative ministry for more than 30 years.
When Lourenna was born in 1906 in Paducah, Kentucky, her parents, David Ray (D. R.) and Mary, were members of the Salvation Army. The family joined the Church of God in 1921, and Lourenna was saved during a Church of God General Assembly under the ministry of Zeno Tharp. By 1926, the family was traveling as the Moreland Evangelistic Party. Revival campaign ads sometimes referred to them as the “Musical Morelands.” Lourenna played the piano and organ while her sister Ollena played the violin. Pump organs and violins were especially useful for tent campaigns because they were portable and did not require electricity. D. R. quickly established himself as an effective and colorful evangelist with the motto “Have a revival or a riot.”
D. R. resigned from the Williamsburg pastorate in 1947 to return to evangelistic ministry. By that time, Ollena had married a Pennsylvania minister, David Lykens, which effectively ended the Moreland Evangelistic Party. Having been credentialed as an evangelist, Lourenna chose to remain in Pennsylvania, and her mother lived with her while D. R. traveled.
State Overseer Glyndon Logsdon soon appointed Lourenna as pastor of the Church of God Tabernacle in Saxton. At that time, Saxton was a small Appalachian borough of just over a thousand people known for coal mining and related industries. Sunday school attendance under her ministry at the Tabernacle reached a peak of 178.
Lourenna faithfully ministered in Saxton until Overseer Logsdon recognized her value to the state ministries team in Somerset. She previously had served as registrar for the Northeast Bible and Music Institute held on the campground each summer. In 1949, Logsdon appointed Lourenna as state youth director and as state secretary. Although her tenure as state youth director only lasted a year, she remained the state secretary for the next decade. While at the state office, she also preached revivals throughout Pennsylvania and, for a while, served as youth director of the Somerset District.
In 1960, newly appointed State Overseer James Stephens asked Lourenna to return to the Church of God Tabernacle in Saxton as an interim pastor. When the young man slated to become the permanent pastor declined the appointment, Lourenna decided to remain at Saxton. By this time, the coal mining industry and the railroad had abandoned the area, and the community was in decline. Not afraid of a challenge, Lourenna led with vision and purpose until her retirement on June 18, 1974. Under her leadership, the congregation extensively remolded and expanded their facilities.
Shortly after her retirement, Lourenna married Robert Smith, and they lived on the Somerset campground until his death in 1981. Lourenna lived her final years in North Cleveland Towers in Cleveland, Tennessee. She went to be with the Lord ten days before her ninetieth birthday in 1996, having preached 3,280 sermons during her ministry.
For more information about the Morelands and other Pennsylvania ministers, see The Church of God in Pennsylvania, written by Robert Varner (Derek Press, 2004).
David G. Roebuck is the Church of God historian and director of the Dixon Pentecostal Research Center in Cleveland, Tennessee.