Charles L. Allen

News Obituary Article

HOUSTON: Charles L. Allen, author, minister

By KAY POWELL

The local memorial service for the Rev. Charles L. Allen of Houston, former pastor of Atlanta's Grace United Methodist Church, will be held Sunday.

The Rev. Allen, 92, died Aug. 30, and services have been conducted in Houston. The Atlanta memorial service is at 2:30 p.m. Sunday at Grace United Methodist on Ponce de Leon Avenue, according to the church's senior minister, the Rev. John Beyers.

The Rev. Allen was pastor of Grace church 1948-1960 and widened the scope of its ministry. Grace was the first local church with a TV ministry, according to the Rev. Beyers.

The Rev. Allen's writings, which began in Georgia's Wesleyan Christian Advocate in 1947, were a prelude to the column he wrote for The Atlanta Journal beginning in 1949 and for The Atlanta Constitution beginning in 1952, according to the New Georgia Encyclopedia. At Grace Methodist, he initiated a radio broadcast on WAGA in 1949, and WSB started televising his Sunday services in 1951.

A Midtown street in Atlanta is named in his honor.

He led 30 tours of the Holy Land and wrote more than 40 books, including the best-seller "God's Psychiatry."

He served First United Methodist Church in Houston 1960-1983. Under his leadership, that church became the denomination's largest in the world, according to the Houston Chronicle.

The Newborn native had ministered to congregations in Sylvan Hills, Blue Ridge, Acworth, Douglasville, Thompson and Atlanta.

Survivors include a son, Charles Allen Jr. of Bluffton, S.C.; a daughter, Mary Jane Allen Miller of Houston; nine grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.

© 2005 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution