Joel L. Washington, who died at age 69, began preaching when he was 9, evangelizing at revivals throughout the Midwest, and as an adult established Denver’s Evangelist Temple Church of God in Christ, where he served until his death Dec. 12.
The fifth of six children born to a sharecropper and an evangelist, Washington grew up in Fredericksburg and Austin, Texas.
As a preschooler, he could recite the corresponding Scripture as soon as the pastor cited chapter and verse.
Before he was 10, he began establishing a reputation as an exceptional boy preacher. Revival leaders and church pastors throughout the Midwest invited Washington to speak. He became so popular that by age 14, he spent most weekends traveling to revivals and services.
Even as an adolescent, Washington perfected the skill of using cadence and stories to grip audiences, peppering his sermons with lines from gospel songs he loved to sing in his clear tenor. He cut an arresting figure, favoring suits in rainbow colors, with matching shoes.
He sometimes employed props, once climbing into a casket to preach the climax of his sermon. Another time, he positioned himself on a cross.
By age 20, Washington became an ordained elder in the First Church of God in Christ in Tulsa, Okla., where he met his wife, Bertha Alice Ferrell, one of the church’s most active members.
In 1962, Washington and his wife moved to Denver, where he organized and founded the Evangelist Temple Church of God in Christ. At the time of his death, he served as superintendent of his denomination’s Great Central District, a position he had held since 1980.
He ate countless meals served from aluminum trays heated by Sterno cans, listening and talking with parishioners. He spent more time in fluorescent-lit basements and anterooms than he did outdoors.
Washington spent more than 20 years leading one church in Denver and a second church in Corpus Christi, Texas, preaching at them on alternate Sundays. For much of the same time, he traveled during the week to revivals and meetings at other churches.
“I can recall him coming home with one suitcase and picking up another,” said daughter Joel-lyn Washington-McCormick.
Washington enjoyed close ties to other African-American denominational church leaders. They elected him the first president of the East Denver Ministerial Alliance, sought him for advice and enjoyed his innovative approach to preaching.
Survivors include his wife, Bertha A. Ferrell Washington of Denver; son Charles Ferrell of Tulsa, Okla.; daughters Carolyn Williams of Greensville, N.C., Yolanda Owens of Stillwater, Okla., Ajuanya Washington and Tara Washington, both of Denver, and Joel-lyn Washington of Edmond, Okla.; brothers Lewis Washington of Manor, Texas, and George Washington of Austin, Texas; sisters Rebecca Washington Berry of Apple Valley, Calif., and Ola Mae Brown of Austin, Texas; and nine grandchildren.
Staff writer Claire Martin can be reached at 303-820-1477 or cmartin@denverpost.com.
