The Church of Pentecost, is a worldwide, non-profit-making Pentecostal church with branches in over fifty countries. Its International headquarters is in Accra, Ghana, and its national headquarters in Bronx, NY. The Church in U.S. is currently made up of 5 Regions and 23 Districts. The Oakland Assembly/District is in the California Region.
The Church of Pentecost traces its roots far back to June 1937, six years after the prophesy above was made, when Pastor James McKeown was sent to Ghana (then known as Gold Coast), by the Apostolic Church, Bradford, U.K. at the request of the Apostolic faith Church.
With time, a series of doctrinal differences among the people resulted into a denominational split where the Asamankese leaders broke away from Pastor McKeown to form the Christ Apostolic Church.
Pastor McKeown and his group, which later in 1961 adopted the name “The Church of Pentecost”, embarked on massive evangelism through conventions and rallies, which resulted in an explosion of Pentecostalism in Ghana.
In its effort to spread throughout the entire nation of Ghana, the church, under the chairmanship of Pastor McKeown, held its first convention at Winneba in December 1939, with over two hundred members in attendance.
In April of 1940, during the Easter session, the church held its first General convention also at Winneba, with over four hundred attendees. The strong men behind Rev. McKeown were: Revs. J. S. Gyimah, S.R. Asomaning, S.W. Dufour, S.H. Ankamah, J.A. Bimpong, and R.O. Hayford (the first Evangelist of the Apostolic Church).
Through this effort, the church opened branches all over the country (Ghana), beside its external branches. Here in the United States, the church started with a handful of people in 1988. Now it has branches in over 25 states, with over four thousand members; and it continues to grow through vigorous evangelistic outreach.
The Church of Pentecost comprises of different movements operating in different ministries, which accommodate people of all ages.