Rodney Howard-Browne is a Charismatic Christian preacher and evangelist. He is pastor of The River at Tampa Bay, a church which he and his wife, Adonica Howard-Browne, founded in 1996, and heads Revival Ministries International. He was born in South Africa and has resided in Tampa, Florida, USA since the mid-1990s.
Howard-Browne was raised in a Pentecostal family as a young boy in South Africa. In 1981, he met and married his wife Adonica. In 1987 the family immigrated to the United States.
Browne’s ministry is known for its passion for evangelism and ministries of restoration, accompanied by “signs and wonders” characterized by baptism of the Holy Spirit and Fire, physical healings and miracles, with frequent manifestations of laughing and “falling under the power” during his evangelistic services. This gave rise to the terms “holy laughter”, and “holy ghost bartender”, which refer to audience members spontaneously laughing loudly during his services. In 1999, in upstate New York, revivals “broke out” in church meetings that Howard-Browne was leading or attending. He held a long-term revival meeting at the Carpenter’s Home Church in Lakeland, Florida and was subsequently linked to the Toronto Blessing. The manifestations at the Toronto Revival became so contentious that the Vineyard Association of Churchessevered ties with the Toronto church.
Howard-Browne serves as the pastor of a church in Tampa, Florida, which he founded in 1996. Rodney and his wife Adonica also founded Revival Ministries International in 1997 and are the Presidents of the River Bible Institute and the River School of Worship.
