[1] He was pastor of Park Street Church in Boston, Massachusetts from 1969 to 1989 and also served as president of the National Association of Evangelicals and chairman of World Relief.
Paul Elmer Toms was born in Bellingham, Washington in 1924 to Margaret Anne Tew and Paul Elmer Toms, Sr.[2][3] In 1945, he graduated from Bob Jones University and married Eva Briscoe that same year in Kosciusko, Mississippi.
The Toms then moved to Concrete, Washington where he served as pastor of the Presbyterian church.
[4] Toms and his wife served as missionaries in Hawaii on the Kona coast from 1952 to 1962 and from 1962 to 1965 they directed Congregational missions in Australia.
After stepping down from Park Street in 1989, Toms was appointed dean of the chapel at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in addition to serving for many years on the Board of Trustees of Gordon Conwell.