Lance Brenton Latham

Lance Brenton Latham (1894–1985) was an American evangelist, pianist, composer, pastor, and pioneer of children's ministry. Born on March 21, 1894, in Dentonville, Pennsylvania, he showed unusual musical ability from childhood and later received advanced piano training from Mauritz Leefson of the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music. Hymnary's biographical record places his conversion in 1915 during an evangelistic campaign led by William Nicholson, after which he increasingly directed his musical gifts toward Christian ministry.

Latham became associated with evangelist Paul Rader and served in the musical ministry of the Moody and Chicago Gospel Tabernacle environment. He was known as a pianist, composer, and organizer of youth music, including the White Shirt Brigade. He later founded and pastored the North Side Gospel Center in Chicago, where children's and youth programs became a major part of the congregation's ministry.

At North Side Gospel Center, Latham worked closely with Art Rorheim to develop the weekly club program that eventually became Awana. Awana's official history identifies Latham and Rorheim as the organization's co-founders when the work was established as a parachurch ministry in 1950. Latham's broader legacy therefore joins gospel music, local-church pastoral work, evangelism, and structured Bible ministry for children and teenagers.

As a composer, Latham supplied tunes for a number of evangelical gospel songs, including Only Jesus and Blessed Calvary. His music circulated through revival, radio, youth, and congregational songbooks during the twentieth century, while his pastoral and Awana work ultimately became more widely known than his hymn tunes.