The Church of Pentecost had very humble beginnings dating back to the dedicated ministry of Pastor James Mckeown (1900-1989), an Irish Missionary sent by the Apostolic Church, Bradford, UK, to the then Gold Coast (now Ghana) in 1937.

Pastor McKeown came to nurture a group of believers of the Apostolic Faith yearning for the fruit and power of the Holy Spirit. The group was based in Asamankese, a town in the Eastern Region of Ghana led by one Peter Newman Anim.

The group split in 1939 under doctrinal differences into the Christ Apostolic Church and the Apostolic Church, Gold Coast. The latter grew rapidly under Pastor James Mckeown. A Constitutional crisis in the Church in 1953 led to the founding of the Gold Coast Apostolic Church with Pastor James Mckeown as leader.

On the Gold Coast’s attainment of independence in 1957 and its adoption of the name Ghana, the Gold Coast Apostolic Church was renamed the Ghana Apostolic Church. The Church later adopted the name “The Church of Pentecost” on August 1, 1962.