Edgar M. Louton

The Reverend Edgar M. Louton
Louton c. 1960, The Flint Journal
Born	Edgar Myron Louton (1933-12-13) December 13, 1933 Grosse Pointe, Michigan, U.S.
Alma mater	Columbia International University (M.A.)
Spouse	Barbara Ann Hughes ​ (m. 1958)​
Children	4, including David
Parents	A. G. Louton (father) Louise Marie Rettinger (mother)
Family	Louton
Signature

Edgar Myron Louton (/luːtɪn/ LOO-tin; born December 13, 1933) is an American missionary in southern Africa. He has been affiliated with the Assemblies of God and other organisations.

Early life and education

Louton was born in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, an affluent enclave of Metro Detroit, in 1933. His parents were the Reverend Albert Gordon Louton (1902 - 1985) and Louise Marie Rettinger Louton (1904 - 1967). He was raised in a Christian family in Detroit with two sisters. Louton's maternal grandparents were prosperous Austro-Hungarian immigrants; his paternal grandparents owned a cotton farm in Arkansas.

Louton attended public schools and joined the National Honor Society. When he was 17, he moved with his family to South Africa where he graduated from the South African Bible Institute in 1954. He later attended Central Bible College before earning a Master of Arts degree from Columbia International University.

Ministry

Church leadership

Louton spent the first years of his career gaining exposure to missions by assisting with the prominent ministry begun by his parents in the Northern Transvaal. Working under his father he was involved in various activities including church planting, tent evangelism and outreach programs. He started his first independent church in a Coloured area of Pietersburg in 1954. In 1956, he returned to the United States where he was ordained by the Michigan District of the Assemblies of God and began the first of several speaking tours to raise funds for his ministry.

His talks at various churches and events in Michigan and Wisconsin between the 1950s and the 1970s drew media attention to his ministry and made him popular in American evangelical circles. In local newspapers, he was portrayed first as an "outstanding young missionary and later as a "veteran missionary." In early 1961, he moved to Basutoland for two years and planted churches.

Leadership in the Assemblies of God

In the 1960s, Louton focused his ministry in the Northern Transvaal area. He was heavily involved in the distribution of Christian literature and music and was appointed to a number of leadership positions, notably as the director of the Assemblies of God Youth program in South Africa, and then as the District Superintendent of the Northern Transvaal from 1965 to 1970.

Political involvement and academic work

In the 1980s, Louton became a controversial figure within the Assemblies of God, after being identified as holding views aligned with liberation theology, which he denied. In December 1980, he published The Crisis of Christian Credibility in South Africa, an academic paper which opposed South Africa's Apartheid regime and critisized Christians for failing to protest it. This prompted the Assemblies of God to cut all ties with Louton, wanting to remain apolitical. Louton returned to the United States to avoid scrutiny, but and was returned to South Africa in the mid-1980s on better terns with the AG.

In January 1988, he joined the faculty of Africa School of Missions, a well-known missionary training college in Mpumalanga, where he taught courses focusing on anthropology and cross-cultural communication. He retired in 2008, but remained partially active until the 2020s.

Personal life and family

Louton married Barbara Ann Hughes, the daughter of the Reverend Ralph P. Hughes on February 1, 1958. Their son David A. Louton is an investment analyst at Bryant University.