Pentecostal Beginnings: The Swedish Mission, Calvary Temple, and Christian Center

Pentecostal experience reported among Swedish Baptist immigrants in South Bend before 1910 — Daniel Berg and Gunnar Vingren sailed for Brazil in 1910 — Lester Sumrall pastor in South Bend from 1963

The Swedish brethren: Pentecostal historian Vinson Synan records that in South Bend, Indiana, two Swedish Baptist immigrants, Daniel Berg and Gunnar Vingren, received the Pentecostal experience; believing themselves called prophetically to Brazil, they embarked in 1910 on the missionary trip that resulted in the formation of the Brazilian Assemblies of God. A Pentecostal congregation of Swedish brethren thus stood in South Bend in the movement's first years.

Sumrall's account: Lester Sumrall, the Assemblies of God–ordained evangelist who made South Bend his base, wrote in his Pioneers of Faith (LeSEA Publishing, South Bend, 1995): "the church I now pastor in South Bend is the church started by the Swedish brethren and pastored at one time by Adolph Peterson," adding that his congregation had "just completed the new tabernacle in South Bend that seated a thousand people." South Bend also appears in the denomination's convention record of the 1930s: a South Bend Tribune notice of October 1, 1936, set an Assemblies of God convention at the tabernacle associated with the Rev. T. F. Zimmerman, later the denomination's general superintendent.

Calvary Temple: The city's large Pentecostal congregation of the postwar decades was Calvary Temple. A participant's memoir of the era recalls Calvary as "one of the first Evangelical churches to fraternize with the Catholics," and that under its pastor Roy Wead, and his son Doug Wead, a close fellowship developed with the Catholic charismatics of the University of Notre Dame, while "this large church under the previous pastor, Lester Sumrall, had no dealings with the Catholics." Roy E. Wead also served as the Assemblies of God district superintendent for Indiana.

Christian Center: Sumrall founded LeSEA (Lester Sumrall Evangelistic Association) in 1957. In 1963 he moved to South Bend to pastor Christian Center Cathedral of Praise — now Christian Center Church, at 530 E. Ireland Road — withdrawing from the Assemblies of God around that time. He died in South Bend on April 28, 1996.

Sources:

1. Vinson Synan, The Pentecostal 20th Century (text at apostolic.edu) — Berg and Vingren's Pentecostal experience in South Bend and their 1910 departure for Brazil.
2. Lester Sumrall, Pioneers of Faith (LeSEA, 1995; text at archive.org) — the South Bend church "started by the Swedish brethren," Adolph Peterson's pastorate, and the thousand-seat tabernacle.
3. "The 'Full Gospel' Origins of Peoples Temple," Jonestown Institute, San Diego State University (jonestown.sdsu.edu) — the 1936 South Bend Tribune convention notice at Zimmerman's church and Roy E. Wead's district superintendency.
4. "Pentecostal but not Charismatic" (participant memoir, irp.cdn-website.com) — Calvary Temple under Sumrall, then Roy and Doug Wead, and its fellowship with Notre Dame's Catholic charismatics.
5. Encyclopedia entry "Lester Sumrall" (Wikipedia, summarizing the published record) — Assemblies of God ordination, LeSEA founded 1957, the 1963 move to pastor Christian Center Cathedral of Praise, and his death in South Bend in 1996.