This Week in AG History — September 6, 1959
By Glenn W. Gohr
Originally published on AG-News, 04 September 2025
Elva Johnson Hoover (1919-2017) was one of the pioneer women ministers of the Assemblies of God. She filled many roles in ministry. She was a missionary in the Kentucky mountains during the Great Depression, a pastor and co-pastor, and also served for many years as the national secretary of the Women’s department of the Assemblies of God.
Elva Mae Johnson Hoover was born Nov. 23, 1919, in Holdenville, Oklahoma, and grew up in Coffeyville, Kansas. From early childhood she felt God’s call to Christian ministry. She began attending Southwestern Bible School in Enid, Oklahoma (now Nelson University). In 1939, she interrupted her studies and went as a missionary to the Appalachian Mountains in eastern Kentucky. She was one of scores of missionaries who ministered in this primitive area during the Great Depression. Upon leaving for Kentucky, she prayed and said, “Lord, if it would do any good, I’d go.” She didn’t feel she was worthy to go. But it was like God said to her, “Go. That’s what I’ve been trying to get through to you.” So she went, not knowing what lay ahead.
She had a colorful ministry in Kentucky as a missionary, evangelist, and pioneer pastor. Her first assignment was at Bloody Creek, Kentucky, working with Ann Howard (later Ann Ahlf) who had served in the mountains the year before. Elva had a difficult time adjusting to the primitive conditions, and some of the people were feuding with neighbors. Some would spit tobacco on the church floor. She witnessed violence and bloodshed, but she also saw lives transformed by the power of the gospel.
Elva continued her training at Southwestern Bible School and graduated in 1941. Then she returned as a missionary to the Appalachian Mountains in eastern Kentucky where she served for five years total. When Elva answered God’s call to go to the Kentucky mountains, she said she had no idea that God would ever lead her anywhere else. “I thought I was there for life,” she said. Elva was in the mountain ministry because she had committed her life to the Lord while attending Southwestern Bible School. She pledged to go anywhere the Lord called her. Soon God opened up other doors of ministry.
Ordained into ministry in 1945 by the Kentucky District, she pioneered an Assemblies of God church in Earlington, Kentucky. In 1949, she was co-pastor in Brooten, Minnesota, along with Juanita Brown Stetz, who became a lifelong friend. During that time, G. Raymond Carlson was the district superintendent. He said Elva “has done nothing but enrich my life.”
In 1950, she was asked by the Assemblies of God to come to Springfield and write Sunday School materials and stories. She later wrote promotional materials for the denomination’s Home Missions and Benevolences Departments. Her writing caught the attention of the editor of the Pentecostal Evangel who invited her to serve as an editorial assistant in the late 1950s.
In 1960, she became the national representative of the Women’s Missionary Council (now AG Women). In that capacity she edited a quarterly leadership magazine called Slant and traveled as a speaker.
In 1963, she married Mario G. Hoover and adopted his three sons, ages 7, 10, and 12. She left the work environment for a few years in order to make a home for their children. They were married by former General Superintendent Ernest S. Williams.
She returned to the Assemblies of God National Office in 1968 to serve as Public Relations assistant for the denomination. In 1973 she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in communications at Evangel College (now Evangel University). She then was appointed special assignment editor in the Church School Literature Department where she developed Vacation Bible School materials and started a publication called Children’s Church: the Leader’s Guide.
In 1976, she was named national secretary of the Women’s Ministries Department and served in that capacity for 10 years. In this position she was founding editor of Woman’s Touch magazine. She wrote and edited hundreds of articles and stories for AG magazines and other Christian publications. She also revised the Women’s Ministries and the Missionettes training courses. The WM Leader in Spanish was an added publication under her leadership.
Besides her public ministry in the Assemblies of God, Elva Hoover helped to raise two families. After her mother died, Elva — then age 13 and the oldest of seven children — assisted her father in rearing her younger siblings. Then in 1963, when she married widower Mario G. Hoover, she helped to raise his three sons and adopted them.
In addition to administrative duties, she spoke in churches across the U.S. as well as in Africa and South America. She also served as chairwoman for women’s and editorial committees in the Pentecostal Fellowship of North America, the Pentecostal World Conference, and the International Pentecostal Press Association. She was an outstanding leader. General Superintendent Thomas F. Zimmerman said, “I’ve never known Elva Hoover to give less than 1,000 percent.”
In four decades of ministry, Elva’s career took her from being a young missionary in the mountains of Kentucky to eventually working at the Assemblies of God national office for 30 years (1955-85), the final 10 as the director of the National Women’s Ministries Department.
Read Elva Johnson’s article, “Big Bargain,” on page 24 of the Sept. 6, 1959, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel.
Also featured in this issue:
• “A Holy Minority,” by Leonard Ravenhill
• “Amazing Grace,” by Violet Schoonmaker
And many more!
Click here to read this issue now.
Pentecostal Evangel archived editions courtesy of the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center.
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