Bishop Lewis Stallworth Sr.

Pentecostal Churches of the Apostolic Faith

1923 ~ 2008

Bishop Lewis Stallworth Sr. was born July 5, 1923 in Welty, Oklahoma. He was one of nine children to Will and Susie Etta Stallworth.

Lewis was reared on a farm in an integrated community with segregated schools, churches, restaurants, modes of travel and restroom facilities. He attended Rosenwald Grammer School, where he walke 2 1/2 miles from home.  He finished school by graduating from Douglas High School.

Lewis learned as a young boy how tough it was growing up in a large family without the advantages of maximum education and financial security.

Though the year 1943 was marked by World War II, this was not what made it a special year for Lewie Stallworth. It wasthe girl by the name of Mary Wofford, she was his fiancee; and she had agreed to share a lifetime together with him. Together with Christ they began a blissful marriage that brought them thirteen children.

His military obligation was fulfilled in the United States Army. He was employed by the U.S. Government and later with the Stockton Army Depot and Naval Annex.

In 1947, he received the Holy Ghost becoming a member of the Church of God In Christ movement. In 1948 he was baptized in Jesus' Name. At that time his pastor was Elder Carter Little of the True Light Apostolic Church.

Having a strong quest for knowledge and seeing the growing necessity for it, he went on to further his education by attending the University of the Pacific where he obtained his bachelor and masters degree.

He was licensed as a pastor in 1948, and in 1958, he was consecrated as bishop in the Pentecostal Church of the Apostolic Faith, after serving only one year as district elder in California. He was one of the few men in the PCAF to be promoted to the office of bishop after such a brief term in office as district elder.

In his diocese as bishop, he carried the responsibility of all the churches in the state of California including those that were in the Western States Council. He served on the board as the 2nd assistant presiding bishop and 2nd. vice president of the Corporation.

Stallworth also founded the Samuel Hancock School

As the founder of Christ Temple Church of Stockton, he pastored the church (of 500 members) just a month shy of his 55th anniversary. Bishop Stallworth was 84 when he succumbed to death.