Early Church

Mary Lee Meares, co-founder and elder, provides a fascinating look at the early years of a ministry that started in a tent and grew to become one of the largest congregations in the Washington Metropolitan region. The church was called the National Evangelistic Center and Evangel Temple before being named Evangel Cathedral (now pastored by her son, Bishop Don Meares). Co-founder Bishop John L. Meares was a patriarch of the faith whose zeal for spiritual unity was an instrumental part of racial reconciliation in the Body of Christ, bringing blacks and whites together during a time of ...

In the first quarter of the twentieth century, many women - single and married - experienced the Pentecostal revival and entered Pentecostal missions in every corner of the world. Generally discouraged from preaching and leading congregations in the USA, these disempowered women considered their Holy Spirit baptism all the permission and empowerment they needed to go abroad to share the gospel. However, Pentecostal missionaries in the Assemblies of God, the largest American Pentecostal organization, soon became part of an emerging system of AG policy and emerging regulations. Why and how ...