The Beginning

From the early 1950's till present the Evangelistic Center Church has been a place of worship. It was started in Nevada, Mo. by Pastors A.J. & Margaret Rowden. They felt God’s calling to move to Kansas City and first established a church at 1912 Linwood Blvd. and then moved to 34th & Michigan. In January, 1956, the first services were held at 1024 Truman Rd. The following article for LOGOS Magazine was published in 1970 by author Harry Lunn and is probably the best description of THE CENTER and it's history. We hope you enjoy this history of your church!

THE CHARISMATIC CHURCH By Harry Lunn

During the last ten years, I have attended Evangelistic Center Church at 1024 Truman Road in Kansas City, Missouri, on a fairly regular basis. Unquestionably, it is an extraordinary church, a unique church. It is a charismatic church with a free flow of supernatural tongues and interpretations, prophetic utterance, and songs in the Spirit. There is liberty without license, freedom without disorder. During the last eighteen years, hundreds and probably thousands have found Christ as their Savior, Lord, Baptizer, and Healer at the Center. How many? We don’t keep such records at the Center. We let the Lord keep the records.

Ten years ago, during a time of great personal stress, I discovered Evangelistic Center. As I began to move in the church, it soon became for me "...a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; like rivers of water in a dry place, like the shadow of a great rock in a weary land (Isa. 32:2). There is life at the Center. Its reputation is worldwide. When charismatic personalities from other areas and other countries visit Kansas City, they frequently come to the Center for rest and renewal. Our hospitality is boundless. Many well-known charismatics have spoken from the pulpit at the Center, some of them several times.

Rev. A. J. Rowden, the only pastor the Center has had, was ordained in the Evangelical United Brethren denomination more than thirty years ago. Although pastor of a thriving, prosperous EUB church in Louisiana, and in good standing with his denomination, Rev. Rowden was dissatisfied. It was always embarrassing for him to read the New Testament, then to compare his ministry with that of the New Testament preachers. Apostolic power was lacking in his ministry, and he knew it. As he and his beloved wife, Margaret, went to God in prayer in a petition for spiritual power, the conviction merely deepened-and the dissatisfaction increased steadily. Finally the Lord brought him into contact with a Pentecostal evangelist by the name of Everett Parrott, who spelled out the baptism in the Holy Spirit as the source of spiritual power. Convinced and fully persuaded, Pastor Rowden sought the experience. Both he and Margaret were baptized in the Spirit in a short while. Launching immediately, they tried to introduce their congregation to the experience.

The reaction and consequences can be predicted. Remember, this occurred in the mid-forties, long before charismatic renewal reached the historic denominations in anything approaching its current intensity. In a short while, Pastor Rowden lost his church and was expelled from his denomination. The epilogue can be found in a news release which appeared in charismatic publications several years ago. The release stated that in California all Evangelical United Brethren pastors, with two exceptions, had been baptized in the Holy Spirit with the initial evidence of glossolalia. The Lord knows how to vindicate his own.

Led by the Spirit each step of the way, A. J. Rowden pastored several inter-denominational charismatic churches, with congregations made up mostly of believers who had suffered experiences similar to that of their pastor and his wife-ejection from their denominations after being baptized in the Holy Spirit. As A. J. and Margaret sought the Lord earnestly in prayer, they experienced an increasingly compelling urge to come to Kansas City, and finally yielded to what was much more than an impulse. It was the Lord leading them, and they knew it.

The Church’s Beginning

Literally depending on the Lord for their daily bread, with nothing to sustain them but their faith in Him-which He confirmed daily-the Rowdens obtained a small building on Linwood Boulevard and began to minister the things of the Spirit to a small congregation, which became steadily larger. Soon they moved to a larger building at 34th and Michigan, and continued to prosper. While traveling on a California freeway in 1962, Pastor Rowden received a revelation from the Lord of a new location which He had prepared for the Center in Kansas City; He let him know that it was located near the confluence of centrally located freeways.
Returning to Kansas City, Pastor Rowden found the building almost immediately. It proved to be a fine edifice, formerly housing the Friendship Baptist Church, located at 1024 Truman Road. Yes, it is strategically located near the confluence of two major freeways. It is a beautiful brick building, wonderfully constructed, with all the needed facilities except adequate parking space, which was eventually provided through the acquisition of an adjacent property. Contacting the owner, Pastor Rowden soon negotiated the acquisition of the property, and sold the property at 34th and Michigan for nearly as much as the cost of the new location. It was an unbelievable transaction, all arranged and provided by the Lord-who took care of everything.
In the first paragraph, we used the word "unique" in describing the church-which is no exaggeration. A church even approximating the Center in some of its characteristics will not be found anywhere. This does not indicate that the church is in error. It merely means that when His Spirit is allowed to exercise control, the Lord is willing to allow congregations as well as individuals to develop according to their needs and capacities, also according to the needs of the community in which the church is located. When allowed to do so, the Lord delights in decorating a congregation with spiritual graces, in much the same way that He decorates a landscape with natural beauty. Stereotyping is man’s idea, not the Lord’s.

Perhaps the Lord’s reason for allowing the Center to develop uniquely is to be found in its impact upon the community. Over the years, no church has been more influential in generating charismatic renewal in the Kansas City metropolitan area than Evangelistic Center. This can be verified in dozens of instances. With Kansas City rapidly becoming a focal point for the entire Jesus Movement, the Center has been a vital and positive factor in tipping the balance in favor of renewal.

Worship Is the Key

When one examines the spirituality of the Center, he sees that the Lord’s wisdom and purpose in the church is fully manifested. Although the Rowdens paid a high price for their courage in the early years of their charismatic ministry, both they and the congregation are reaping rich rewards now. For it is here at the Center, that one finds the full flowering of the Lord’s purpose in the church. It can all be summed up in one word: worship.

Many Pentecostals and charismatics are under the impression that the ultimate purpose of the Pentecostal experience is to be found in the acquisition of spiritual power for witnessing and evangelization. This is an important facet of the experience, but it is not the supreme purpose by any means. The ultimate purpose is found in John’s Gospel, chapter 4, verses 23-24: "But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." Let me try to describe worship at Evangelistic Center. Informality and spontaneity are in evidence. The entire atmosphere is relaxed. There is seldom any need to try to generate spirituality, since it usually flows naturally. This is a mature congregation with none of the hang-ups which generate fear, apprehension, and tension among those who have had little experience in charismatic spirituality.

Sometimes a printed program is provided, which consists mostly of announcements concerning needs and forthcoming activities within the congregation. The worship service is never programmed, for no one knows what will happen-and the Lord seldom tells us in advance. Usually the service starts with a few songs and choruses, followed by pastoral announcements, introduction of visitors, a few testimonies-frequently unsolicited, but usually purposeful-eventually an unpressurized offering, and finally, the pastor’s sermon. At some point during the service described above, the Holy Spirit usually takes over for an interim, and no one ever knows exactly when or where it will happen. The anticipation adds much to the quality of what occurs, for we know it will be spontaneous-the work of the Lord and his Spirit, not man. Quite often it will start with a song of the Spirit, sometimes in English, sometimes in a supernatural tongue-followed by the interpretation. It is not unusual for one singer to bring forth the song in a tongue, then for another to sing the interpretation. Some of the voices are operatic in quality-developed by the Lord, not by man, for most of the singers have had no formal training whatever.

Vocal Prophecy

Frequently there are other supernatural utterances. Some take the form of direct prophecy. Others are brought forth in tongues, followed by interpretations. The miracle here is to be found in the fact that the supernatural utterances in song, prophecy, and interpreted tongues are invariably closely related and in harmony with each other. These utterances are blended like the elements of a symphony. Verbal nuances are expressed in which everyone finds something which applies to him. Only the Lord could do this, for it is all unplanned. One finds evidence of this in the Center’s bimonthly publication, Gospel, which is distributed to the ends of the earth-including every state in the union.

Another miraculous facet is to be found in the blending of the supernatural utterances with the sermon which follows. The pastor’s sermons are practically never announced in advance. Seldom is anyone aware of the sermon topic. Nothetheless, the prophetic utterances frequently blend perfectly with the sermon. This would indicate that the same Lord has authorized both the prophetic utterances and the sermon. What is the purpose behind these supernatural utterances? Once again, it can all be summed up in one word: worship. These utterances invariably fall within the purview of I Cor. 14:3, and they always trigger worship. As the congregation is encouraged by these utterances, the believers lift their hands in submission and surrender as they praise and worship Jesus. Sometimes there is wave after wave of worship. It may last but a few moments; it has been known to continue for more than an hour.

One finds in all this none of the exhibitionism sometimes associated with the early Pentecostals. Although the worship is always orderly and in good taste, the uninitiated frequently find it objectionable because it offends their carnal sensibilities. The carnal mind does not lend itself to the worship of Jesus. That which has made possible the kind of worship described above is to be found in the complete restoration of the gifts of the Spirit enumerated in I Cor. 12:8-10, the body ministry described in the rest of the chapter, and the ministry gifts defined in Eph. 4:11-12.
Observers have repeatedly described Evangelistic Center as God’s armory, in which the army of the Lord is equipped and trained in the use of spiritual weapons needed to conduct successfully a spiritual warfare. Actually, the Center combines the functions of a church, spiritual armory, and Bible school. Through the years, hundreds of workers, pastors, and evangelists have been trained, equipped, and sent forth by the Lord from the Center. Their exploits have become legendary as they have circled the earth.

No Membership

The factor which has frequently made other pastors popeyed with amazement is the financing of the Center. The congregation has no fixed membership. New members are not inducted into the Center as in other churches. There is actually a floating membership, some permanent and some temporary, which fluctuates between 500 and 1000. The church supports the pastors, A. J. and Margaret, one or more assistant pastors, three radio programs, three missionary families in Latin America, Gospel magazine, Charisma Bible School, and two annual pastoral conventions in May and October (they are enormously expensive). Gifted with an apostolic ministry, Pastor Rowden is a world traveler, and he has been responsible for establishing and ministering to many churches here and abroad-additional expense.

In spite of the tremendous expense incurred in keeping these activities current and solvent, all financing is low-keyed. There are no frantic appeals for money, no begging, no fund-raising programs in the traditional sense. Only once have I witnessed any anxiety in financing the church’s programs-the purchase of the property needed to expand parking facilities-and it was finally resolved successfully. Where does all the money come from? Most of the congregation tithe their income, some give much more than a tithe, and the Lord supplies the rest-much of it from anonymous donors.

What shall we say of the Center? How shall we describe the quintessence of its spirituality? Simply by this: if the Center were the only church in the world, it would immediately set out to evangelize the world. It is a New Testament church.