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Fred Kinzie was born February 4, 1914
in Bremen, Indiana, the last of five children. He was reared
on a farm in nearby LaPaz, Indiana. Young Fred learned many
lessons about life from the daily rigors and experiences found in
the small-town, rural culture of north central Indiana. On
July 6, 1943, he married the girl he had been fond of since he was
five years old, beautiful Vera Berger. The young couple
continued to work the family farm.
The Pentecostal
message first came to the area in the early 1920's. Bertha
Mangun (mother and grandmother of Pastors Gerald and Anthony Mangun,
respectively) was the first person in the community to receive the
Holy Ghost. Later, her husband Walter received the same gift,
they were both baptized in Jesus' name, and Walter started a church
in Plymouth, Indiana, where the Kinzies first heard of the apostolic
doctrine.
Fred, who had
attended a United Brethren church and later moved to the Union
Church, repented of his sins on March 5, 1936. He was baptized
in Jesus' name ten days later, March 15, 1936 and received the Holy
Ghost, December 20, 1936. A definite call to preach settled on
his heart, and Fred began preaching in neighboring churches, while
he continued to farm his land.
Fred was ordained
into the ministry in 1941, and that same year the Kinzies were
invited to Pensacola, Florida, to preach a revival. While
traveling to Pensacola, Fred became very ill with rheumatic fever.
He found himself lying flat on his back, in intense pain, in a
hospital room. Unable to move, he told the Lord, "If you will
get me out of here, and if the farm is what is holding me back, I'll
leave the farm behind and go full time in the ministry." The
hospital staff, the doctors, and everyone involved in his care were
amazed when they entered his room the next day and found him totally
healed. Soon, he entered full-time into evangelism and never
returned to the farm.
Fred and Vera lived
a disciplined life on the farm. Their work ethic carried
through in their new ministry. Pam and Pat McQeen were sisters
who had been won to the Lord by the Kinzies' ministry. Pam and
Pat joined the Kinzie Evangelistic Party and traveled across North
America for almost ten years. Fred's discipline proved to be a
great blessing to the group. For instance, they spent the
morning hours in prayer and study, and devoted the afternoon hours
to music rehearsal. Their devotion to excellence produced
quality harmony and accompaniment for singing Kinzies, and their
revivals were in great demand. Revival schedules were six
nights a week and two to three weeks at a time. Monday nights
were left open for travel and referred to as rest nights.
In his entire
ministry,. from 1941 until his retirement in 1983, Fred never varied
from his message of baptism in Jesus' name and the infilling of the
Holy Ghost. Each evening during the revival services, the
Kinzie Evangelistic Party opened the music program with their
theme
song,
It's the kindness I've done that makes me happy,
It's the sorrow I've caused that makes me sad,
So it's largely up to me how happy I will be,
For I cannot wear a smile and wear a frown.
Their music opened
hearts to hear and respond to God's Word.
As years passed, the
Kinzie Party established a successful ministry. Several
pastors were interested in Kinzie as a replacement pastor for their
churches. He declined their invitations because he did not
sense a call to those cities. Every time he prayed, he only
heard the Lord say, "Keep doing what you're doing," until finally,
in 1953, he felt the call to a small struggling church in Toledo.
After the Kinzies
arrived in Toledo, the church grew under their leadership.
Excitement mounted in the people and they responded to Kinzie's hard
work in evangelism and training. Pastor Kinzie instituted
Sunday school contests in the spring of 1954. The church
competition developed into the district fall Sunday school contest.
Fred served as the first district Sunday school secretary-treasurer
in 1955.
In 1954, Pastor
Kinzie launched the "Platter Parson" radio program. It was the
first Christian music radio program in Toledo. Also, that same
year, he was elected to serve as presbyter to Section Seven in
northwest Ohio, a position he held for twenty-five years. In
1976, he became a member of the Foreign Missions Board with the UPCI.
Under Fred Kinzie's
leadership, the First Apostolic Church steadily grew. The
church built three new sanctuaries in 1956, 1965, 1980, and
experienced phenomenal revival and growth in the 1970's.
Frederick E. Kinzie retired from the pastorate of First Apostolic
Church in 1983. He was promoted to the position of pastor
emeritus. Since then, he has continued to work for the Lord
through teaching, traveling, and authoring four books. |