Jack Coe was born in Oklahoma City in 1918, but was abandoned by his parents and raised in an orphanage where he stayed until he was aged 17. He joined the army during World War II, where he experienced a miraculous healing. Thereafter he became a minister and began conducting healing revivals while still a soldier. In early 1944 he was ordained an Assemblies of God minister.
His public ministry
He had a dynamic personality and stage presence and soon won the allegiance of thousands. He rented his first tent in 1947 and was an established evangelist when the healing revival broke in 1947. From then on his influential ministry career enjoyed a meteoric rise to national fame, placing Coe as a serious challenge to Oral Roberts as the popular leader of the revival.

Coe was a powerful preacher. His messages were peppered with humour, presented boldly and dynamic in their effect. Some found him too controversial and impulsive but thousands of people, both black and white, were attracted to his lovable and tender-hearted personality.

But it was his healing ministry that was the main attraction. He would walk down rows of wheelchairs and crutches commanding people to be healed and to walk normally. Not all did, but there were large numbers of afflicted who got out of their wheelchairs, threw their walking aids away, got up off their beds and walked out of the meeting healed.

Coe visited an Oral Roberts’ meeting, measured the Tulsa evangelist's tent, and then ordered one slightly larger. In July 1951, he announced that his tent was the largest gospel tent in the world, seating 22,000 people! Both the Coe and Roberts tents were larger than the Ringling Brothers big top. Coe’s public statements about his tent could be regarded as tinctured with a little pride. ‘I bought my present tent to accommodate the crowds attending my meetings. When evangelists make statements about the size of their tent, they could dispel much of the controversy by giving the actual length and width. Then people would not feel that someone was telling a lie or exaggerating. I'm not saying this to belittle or condemn some other evangelist, but many have claimed that we are exaggerating when others beside myself state that they have the world's largest tent. If they do have . . . I praise God for it! If they will write me, telling me the size of their tent . . . I will print this in formation in my magazine, admitting that mine is only the second or third largest.'