Rev. John Leaman

John Samuel Leaman was born on October 13, 1937, to the Reverend Glen and Anna Leaman in McCuneville, Ohio. John received the Holy Ghost when he was nine years old. When John was sixteen, his father passed away, so John worked at a greenhouse and Kroger’s to help support the family.

After high school graduation, John enrolled in Apostolic Bible Institute (ABI) in St Paul, Minnesota. During his second year of school, his mother and sister joined him, and his mother, Anna, became a dorm-mother for the female students. While attending ABI, John met Shirley Louise Hall from St. Louis, Missouri. They were married September 28, 1957.

In May of 1958, John graduated from ABI, and he and Shirley were invited to assist Pastor R.G. Cook in Lancaster, Ohio. During their time in Lancaster, they were blessed with two children, Rodney and Melanie.

In 1965 he felt the call of the Lord to go to Wausau, Wisconsin, where he started a new church and received one of the first Christmas for Christ offerings. John served as both Youth Secretary and Youth President for the Wisconsin District.

In 1971 R. G. Cook invited John to return to Lancaster, where he eventually became pastor. From 1971 to 1976, the average Sunday attendance grew from 199 to 464 with a record attendance of 727. In 1975 124 were baptized in Jesus’ name and 108 received the Holy Ghost. That year the church was eleventh in the nation in Foreign Missions giving and fifth in the state of Ohio. John also served as Youth President of the Ohio District.

In 1976 John joined the Foreign Missions Division as director of promotions and publications. For the next twenty-nine years, he prepared thousands of deputation itineraries for missionaries. He traveled across North America promoting Faith Promise in over 1,650 Faith Promise services, securing more than $60 million in pledges to support the work of missionaries around the world. John served under three Foreign Missions directors, T. F. Tenney, Harry Scism and Bruce Howell. For three years John worked with short-term missionaries as the director of Associates in Missions (AIM).

John has authored two books promoting the Faith Promise giving initiative inspired by his experiences in the Foreign Missions Division: Faith brings an Empty Basket and Faith fills an Empty Basket.

John and Shirley look forward to celebrating their sixtieth wedding anniversary in 2017.