Kenyon was born on April 25, 1867 in Hadley, New York. At the age of 17, he was converted in a Methodist prayer meeting. He became a church member in his early twenties and gave his first sermon at the Methodist Church in Amsterdam, New York, where he served as a deacon. Kenyon had a crisis of faith and left the faith for 2 1/2 years before returning to the faith in 1893.

Although he wanted to be an actor, Kenyon made his living as a piano and organ salesman. In an attempt to hone his acting skills, Kenyon attended the Emerson School of Oratory in Boston for a year in 1892 to study acting.

Kenyon married Evva Spurling for the first time. The two were married on May 8, 1893. Shortly thereafter, Kenyon attended services at the Clarendon Street Baptist Church led by Pastor Adoniram Judson (AJ) Gordon . At this service, Kenyon and his wife again dedicated their lives to the Lord.

Later that year, Kenyon joined the Free Will Baptists and became pastor of a small church in Elmira, New York. In 1898, Kenyon opened Bethel Bible Institute in Spencer, Massachusetts, which remained in operation until 1923. He served as its president for twenty-five years.

The school then moved to Providence, Rhode Island, and became Providence Bible Institute. Later it became Barrington College and merged with Gordon College, which was named after one of Kenyon’s many mentors, A. J. Gordon. It is now known as Gordon College.

Evva Kenyon died in 1914. Kenyon later married Alice M. Whitney and had a son and daughter with her. In 1948, EW Kenyon died and his daughter Ruth, with whom he lived, continued his publishing ministry.

Some have suggested that Kenyon was the originator of the modern “positive confession” theology that is prevalent in Pentecostal Word of Faith. Proponents of this view suggest that Kenyon’s religious views were heavily influenced by the New Thought Movement during his time at the Emerson School, and that he developed the teaching of positive confession from this influence.

According to Kenyon biographer Joe McIntyre, Kenyon’s actual influence at Emerson on his religious views is debatable. Instead, McIntyre suggests that Kenyon developed his teaching of positive confession primarily from the teachings of the ministers of the holiness, faith healing and higher life movement of the late 19th century.

Evidence that the teaching of positive confession was already developing in Christianity before Kenyon was present in the literature of the time. In the 1884 book Atonement for Sin and Sickness, Russell Kelso Carter demonstrates an early version of what Kenyon later taught: “I have only prayed, O Lord, assure me of the truth, and I will confess it; I have nothing to do with the consequences, that is your portion,” and again, “Jesus has the custodial portion, I have the belief and confession.

Kenneth E. Hagin is most often recognized for the Word of Faith movement, and he has at times openly acknowledged some of EW Kenyon’s thoughts. Some of EW Kenyon’s ideas about the Word of Faith have been acknowledged by Word of Faith teachers such as Kenneth Erwin Hagin, Sr., Kenneth Copeland, Joel Osteen and many others.