As I tell in my post, “J.R. Goodwin and Me,” I first saw Mom Goodwin when she ministered for Brother Copeland in 1984. In that service, she ministers for over an hour. For part of the time, she ministers in tongues to Kenneth and Gloria, with Billye Brim interpreting. In other parts of that hour, she shares her testimony and minister with Billye and Kenneth to a number of people.  

     I’ve corresponded a few times over the last 25 years with Kenneth Copeland, usually receiving no answer.  However, I have received two or three very kind personal notes from Gloria Copeland in response. I’ve been in several of their meetings, but have never formally met them.

     After Sister Goodwin’s passing, I wrote to Kenneth Copeland Ministires (KCM), and told them of meeting Sister Goodwin shortly after she ministered that night in 1984. I knew that service had been videotaped, and I asked them if they would release to me a copy of it to remember Sister Goodwin by. KCM graciously complied.

     In the video, Kenneth says that the first time he met the Goodwins, Mom and Dad ministered to him in tongues and interpretaion. He said, “I thought, ‘I know what some of this is, [a portion of the message] but that other stuff [another portion of the message], I don’t know about that [what it refers to].’ But before the week was out, the rest of what the Goodwins said came to pass!”

     Mom said to me one time, “That Brother Copeland, and his little wife Gloria–they’re as straight as a string.”

     I hope someday to ask Kenneth and Gloria what they learned from the Goodwins.  Lord knows I have tried to reach them!  But until then I can say with certainty, Kenneth and Gloria knew the Goodwins and thought highly of them.  They invited Mom Goodwin to minister one evening at their 1984 Southwest Believer's Convention.  Here is a 20-minute video of Mom Goodwin ministering with Kenneth Copeland.  (Please excuse the visual quality.  There is a format glitch that stretches the video sideways a bit, and like looking at reflections of people in a circus mirror, everyone appears in this video to weigh about twice what they actually did).  You will see in their demeanor the respect the Copelands had for Mom Goodwin, and the affection she felt towards them in return.  

     To be objective though, Mom and Dad Goodwin disagreed strongly with some of Kenneth Copeland's teachings.  Brother Copeland inherited almost the entirety of his teachings from Kenneth Hagin.  When the Goodwins first met Kenneth Hagin in 1938, he had been healed, and was preaching faith and healing.  He had not yet come across E.W. Kenyon's writings.  He did so later, embracing many of Kenyon's unbiblical teachings, incorporating them into the "faith message."  Kenneth Coplenad, years later, adopted all of Brother Hagin's Kenyonized teachings. 

     As I make the case in "Kenneth Hagin's Two Faith Messages," when ministering for the Goodwins throughout the years, Brother Hagin would preach a core, stripped-down version of the "faith message" leaving out all the Kenyonisms, out of respect for the Goodwins' strong disapproval of Kenyon's teachings.  To my knowledge, Kenneth Copeland never ministered for the Goodwins.  So I believe it would be fair to say that the Goodwins thought highly of Kenneth Copeland on a personal basis.  They believed he and his wife were sincere, good-hearted people.  However, concerning the specifics of what Kenneth Copeland taught, the Goodwins disagreed strongly with some of Brother Copeland's teachings, as do I.

     Even though the Goodwins disapproved of some of the teachings of Kenneth Hagin and Kenneth Copeland, that did not cause them to cease loving and appreciating these men and their ministries, and that love and appreciation were returned by Hagin and Copeland.  They demonstrated the fact that you can disagree with a person's teachings without being disagreeable or engaging in personal attacks.

Copyright 2006 Mel C. Montgomery. All rights reserved.  Material may not be used without written permission from author.