Pentecostal Beginnings: The Rowe Mission and the Tabernacle That Became Apostolic Temple

Founded 1918 on the congregation's own account; planted 1920 at Mishawaka on the movement's timetable; tent and street meetings across Michiana; Greater Midway Gospel Tabernacle; Apostolic Temple today at South Bend

The beginning the record carries: Pentecostalism came to Mishawaka with one family and one tabernacle, and its beginning can be dated two ways, both printed. The congregation's own published history states: "Founded in 1918 by the late Bishop G.B. Rowe, Apostolic Temple Church (formerly known as Midway Gospel Tabernacle) has a rich history spanning more than a century," and the church kept its hundredth year of ministry in 2018. The movement's own timetable, Bernie L. Wade's Apostolic Faith and Pentecostal Timetable of Key Events, states that in 1920 Bishop Glenn Beecher Rowe and his wife Verbia planted in Mishawaka, Indiana, "what has become one of the most powerful and influential Pentecostal churches in the United States — Midway Gospel Tabernacle, in Mishawaka, Indiana (Today called Apostolic Temple)," and that the Rowes founded churches across northern Indiana from that base. The founding therefore stands as the sources give it: a ministry founded in 1918 on the church's account, a Mishawaka planting in 1920 on the timetable's.

The mission form: The beginning was a mission in the period's sense — tent and street meetings before it was a building. G. B. Rowe's daughter Enid Rowe Martz served as her father's secretary and, with her older sister Wreatha, assisted him in tent and street meetings throughout the Michiana area, on her published obituary's account. Rowe himself stood at the movement's national center: he was chosen one of the first five bishops of the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World in 1925, became its lead bishop at Bishop G. T. Haywood's death in 1931, and spearheaded the 1931 merger that created the Pentecostal Assemblies of Jesus Christ, on the timetable's account. Weddings and funerals at "Greater Midway Gospel Tabernacle" are placed at Mishawaka in the record of the 1930s and 1940s — Enid Rowe's marriage there on 18 December 1936, and a 1941 marriage the Palmer record likewise seats at Greater Midway Gospel Tabernacle, Mishawaka. Rowe's sons Worthy and David were ordained at Apostolic Temple, Mishawaka, in 1946, on the timetable's entry; Worthy G. Rowe, born in Mishawaka on 9 March 1920, afterward pastored the congregation for thirty-five years and founded the Apostolic World Christian Fellowship in 1969.

The seat, stated exactly: The congregation's present church stands across the city line, at 2221 South Ironwood Drive, South Bend, where Apostolic Temple Church worships today under Pastor Chris Rowe, ordained in 2011. The record reached does not date the congregation's move from its Mishawaka ground to the Ironwood seat, and one family record describes the church as "formerly Midway Gospel Tabernacle in South Bend" — the later seat read back. What is Mishawaka's, on the dated evidence, is the planting and the Greater Midway decades; what is South Bend's is the present temple. The move's date is a named gap, and its settling source is the congregation's own archive — the meticulously kept photographs and publications the church opened to researchers in 2022 — together with the Mishawaka city-directory run.

The rest of the city's Pentecostal record: Beyond the Rowe tabernacle, Mishawaka's Pentecostal record in the sources reached is a revival notice, not a second foundation: the healing-revival press of February 1953 lists a Mishawaka meeting in a large tent, contact the Rev. Fred Deckard — an evangelist's Mishawaka date, with no congregation founded from it in any source reached. No Assemblies of God congregation seated in Mishawaka carries a published founding history in any source reached, and no second Apostolic congregation's beginning is dated in the record. That beginning — the Assemblies of God line in this city, congregation by congregation — is a named gap; the settling sources are the Indiana District of the Assemblies of God archives and the Mishawaka city-directory run, church section, read year by year.

Sources:

1. Apostolic Temple Church, "About Us — Our History" (apostolictemplechurch.com) — founded 1918 by Bishop G. B. Rowe, formerly Midway Gospel Tabernacle, the 2018 centenary, Pastor Chris Rowe ordained 2011.
2. Bernie L. Wade, Apostolic Faith and Pentecostal Timetable of Key Events, vol. 5 (1940–1950) — the 1920 Mishawaka planting of Midway Gospel Tabernacle, Rowe's 1925 bishopric and 1931 merger, the 1946 ordinations at Apostolic Temple, Mishawaka; the 1918/1920 conflict printed whole against the church's account.
3. Obituary of Enid Rowe Martz, South Bend Tribune, 29 March 2002, via INGenWeb — G. B. Rowe as founder of Midway Gospel Tabernacle, now Apostolic Temple Church; the daughters' tent and street meetings; her 1936 marriage at Greater Midway Gospel Tabernacle; the church's South Bend address.
4. Obituaries of Mary E. Rowe (2012) and Esther M. Watkins (2022), Palmer Funeral Homes — the 1941 marriage at Greater Midway Gospel Tabernacle, Mishawaka, and the lifelong-member record.
5. Apostolic Archives, Who's Who in Pentecost: Bishop Worthy G. Rowe — born in Mishawaka 9 March 1920, pastor of Apostolic Temple for thirty-five years, founder of the Apostolic World Christian Fellowship, 1969.
6. The Voice of Healing, January–February 1953 — the Mishawaka tent revival listing, contact Rev. Fred Deckard.
7. The congregation's archive, opened to the Midway Gospel Tabernacle research visit of 2022 (archive.org) — named as the settling source for the move to Ironwood Drive, with the Mishawaka city-directory run named for the Assemblies of God gap.