H. Vinson Synan (1934-2020)

Country of Origin

  • United States

Countries/Regions of Ministry
  • United States
  • Chile
  • Korea
  • Europe
Traditions
  • Pentecostal
Ministries
  • pastor
  • ecumenist
  • historian
  • educator

Harold Vinson Synan, Sr. is one of the most influential historians, educators, denominational leaders, and ecumenical bridge-builders in the history of the Pentecostal-Charismatic movement. Through more than five decades of scholarship, leadership, and ministry, he helped shape both the academic study of Pentecostalism and the broader understanding of Spirit-empowered Christianity. As an historian, he preserved the story of the movement; as a participant, he stood at the intersection of many of the events he later chronicled. Few individuals exercised comparable influence across the scholarly, ecclesiastical, and relational dimensions of global Pentecostalism. 

Born on December 1, 1934, in Hopewell, Virginia, Synan was raised within the International Pentecostal Holiness Church (IPHC). He was the son of Bishop Joseph A. Synan, one of the denomination's most influential leaders, and grew up immersed in Pentecostal life during a formative period in the movement's development. Alongside his twin brother Vernon, he witnessed the growth of a movement that had emerged from the Holiness tradition and the Azusa Street Revival only a generation earlier. 

Synan's spiritual formation reflected the classical Pentecostal Holiness pattern of conversion, entire sanctification, and Spirit baptism. After giving his life to Christ as a teenager at a youth camp, while the song "Where He Leads Me, I Will Follow" was sung, he sensed a call to ministry while seeking the experience of entire sanctification. Several months later, he received the baptism in the Holy Spirit with the treasured evidence of speaking in tongues. Although he briefly imagined careers in law, politics, and music—playing the baritone horn, trombone, tuba, bass fiddle, violin, mandolin, and guitar—he ultimately surrendered to the call of ministry and was ordained in the IPHC in 1956. 

In 1957, while preaching at a denominational youth camp, Synan met Carol Lee Fuqua, whom he described as a dark-haired beauty whose smile seemed to light up the entire room. They married in 1960 and shared nearly sixty years of life and ministry, raising four children together. Their marriage provided a foundational framework for every stage of his public ministry. 

After attending Emmanuel College, Synan earned a B.A. from the University of Richmond (1958), followed by an M.A. (1964) and a Ph.D. in American Social and Intellectual History from the University of Georgia (1967). He finished his doctorate in a record one year and eleven months—a feat that included mastering Spanish and French while pastoring a local congregation. His research into Pentecostalism's roots resulted in his landmark dissertation, published by Eerdmans as The Holiness-Pentecostal Movement in the United States (1971). Tracing origins back to John Wesley, Methodism, and Holiness movements, it established Pentecostal history as a legitimate academic field and, after more than 50 years, remains a foundational textbook on Pentecostal historiography.

The publication of this book launched a scholarly career that would span more than five decades. Synan authored, edited, or contributed to more than twenty-five books and hundreds of articles. Among his most influential works were The Holiness-Pentecostal Tradition, The Century of the Holy Spirit, The Spirit Said "Grow", In the Latter Days, and Charismatic Bridges. Through these publications, he became a foremost interpreter of modern renewals, helping Spirit-empowered Christians understand their heritage and their place within world Christianity. 

His influence extended writing into institution-building. In 1970, alongside William Menzies and Horace Ward, Synan helped found the Society for Pentecostal Studies (SPS), which became the premier scholarly organization devoted to Pentecostal research. Serving as General Secretary, President, and Executive Director, he helped create a secure forum where theologians, biblical scholars, and church leaders could engage in serious academic reflection, eventually sponsoring the journal Pneuma in 1979. 

Beyond his scholarship, Synan’s greatest impact was as a bridge-builder. In June 1972, Father Kilian McDonnell invited him to speak at the Catholic Charismatic Conference at Notre Dame. Raised to view Catholicism with deep suspicion, Synan arrived declaring he had been "more afraid of Catholics than of Communists or rattlesnakes." What followed changed his life. From the top bleachers of the basketball stadium, he witnessed 8,000 Catholics praising and singing in the Spirit in four-part harmony. Overwhelmed, he wept in a restroom, sensing a divine mandate to tell his own people what he had seen and lead them to pray for these Catholic Pentecostals. Convinced God was at work across denominational lines, he became a premier ecumenical voice. Inspired by David du Plessis, he engaged in international dialogues and built deep friendships with Vatican leaders like Father Raniero Cantalamessa, culminating in audiences with Pope John Paul II and Pope Francis.

His commitment to building bridges rather than walls found expression through the North American Renewal Service Committee (NARSC). Synan served on the planning committee of the historic 1977 Kansas City Charismatic Conference, which packed Arrowhead Stadium with nearly 50,000 corporate worshipers from all traditions. Following the success of this ecumenical high-water mark, he stepped into the role of chairman and chaired the subsequent mass international congresses, including New Orleans (1987), Indianapolis (1990), Orlando (1995), and St. Louis (2000), successfully modeling a relational unity that bridged deep-seated theological differences while maintaining his classical Pentecostal identity. 

Alongside his ecumenical work, Synan served in top leadership roles within his own denomination. He served as General Secretary from 1973 to 1977, Assistant General Superintendent from 1977 to 1981, and Director of Evangelism from 1981 to 1985. As Director of Evangelism, he executed a strategic vision  of planting 100 churches that resulted in planting of 153 new churches, significantly exceeding his original goal. He also authored the official historical narrative of his denomination, The Old Time Power. His global missional perspective widened through more than twenty-five trips to Chile, where he witnessed the explosive growth of the Pentecostal Methodist Church, eventually helping forge a formal affiliation between the Chilean movement and the IPHC. 

His educational leadership expanded dramatically into higher education. He taught history at Emmanuel College and Southwestern College, briefly serving as Southwestern’s acting president in 1980. From 1990 to 1994, Synan joined the faculty of Oral Roberts University as Professor of Pentecostal/Charismatic History and Director of the Holy Spirit Research Center. Oral Roberts had been a close family friend since Synan's childhood, preaching revivals alongside his father, Bishop Joseph Synan, in 1945. Synan became one of the foremost historical interpreters of Roberts' life and legacy, recognizing him as a foundational architect who brought Pentecostal healing and spirituality into the mainstream of American society. During his tenure at the Holy Spirit Research Center, Synan significantly strengthened ORU's library archives, laying the collaborative groundwork for original source materials to support future doctoral scholarship. 

In 1994, J. Rodman Williams recruited Synan to Regent University, beginning a highly transformative era of service that would span a total of twenty-one years at the institution. He served as the second Dean of the School of Divinity for twelve years, during which time the student body skyrocketed from 250 to nearly 1,000 students, establishing Regent as one of the fastest-growing divinity schools in the nation. When Pat Robertson secured a massive $305 million endowment for the university in 1997, Synan immediately utilized the funds to launch a Doctor of Ministry program and pioneer a revolutionary Ph.D. model. 

This Ph.D. program in Renewal Studies was the first non-residential, online doctoral model of its kind in the world. By combining required short-term campus residencies with intensive online modules, Synan broke new ground for theological education. Despite stern opposition from traditional deans at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Emory, who argued that a doctoral program must be entirely residential, Synan and University Provost Barry Ryan successfully argued their case before the Association of Theological Schools (ATS), earning historic accreditation for the program. He hired world-renowned renewal scholars like Stan Burgess, Peter Grabe, and Graham Twelftree, creating an elite training center that mentored a generation of global researchers. Following his deanship, he was named Dean Emeritus and spent an additional nine years as an impactful part-time professor, finishing his formal connection to Regent in the summer of 2016. 

In his later years, Synan returned home to Oklahoma to re-join the faculty of Oral Roberts University as Interim Dean of the College of Theology and Ministry, subsequently serving as Scholar in Residence. Nearly thirty years after his initial professorship, he successfully partnered with Wonsuk Ma to start an ATS-accredited Ph.D. program in Global Contextual Theology, marking the second time he built an advanced program to shape Spirit-empowered scholarship. 

During this final season, he became deeply involved with Empowered21 (E21), working closely with Billy Wilson to promote global renewal and evangelism. Synan served on the E21 Global Council and co-chaired the international scholars’ consultations alongside Amos Yong. This strategic collaboration produced the landmark four-volume regional series Global Renewal Christianity, a sweeping demographic profile that de-centered Western ethnocentrism by documenting mass outpourings of the Spirit across Asia, Africa, and Latin America. 

Despite these monumental achievements, those who knew Synan best remembered his unique personal character. Memorial tributes consistently described him as kind, approachable, deeply relational, and full of down-home, humorous honesty. He wore his encyclopedic knowledge lightly, functioning as a loving spiritual father and mentor who opened doors for younger scholars. When Vinson Synan died on March 15, 2020, at the age of 85, the Spirit-empowered world lost one of its most respected statesmen. His enduring legacy rests in the relational bridges he built, the historical structures he created, and the memory of the global people he preserved. Many historians preserve memory; Vinson Synan became a vibrant part of the memory he preserved. 

Connie Dawson

Global Awakening Theological Seminary

 

For Further Reading

  • H. Vinson Synan, The Holiness-Pentecostal Movement in the United States (1971)
  • H. Vinson Synan, Charismatic Bridges: An Opening Door to Christian Unity (1974)
  • H. Vinson Synan, In the Latter Days: The Outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the Twentieth Century (1984)
  • H. Vinson Synan, The Century of the Holy Spirit: 100 Years of Pentecostal and Charismatic Renewal (2001)
  • S. David Moore and James M. Henderson, eds., Renewal History and Theology: Essays in Honor of H. Vinson Synan (2014)
  • H. Vinson Synan, Where He Leads Me: The Vinson Synan Story (2019)
  • H. Vinson Synan with Younghoon Lee, eds., H. Vinson Synan: A Spirit-Empowered Legacy (2026)