James McKeown

James McKeown was born in 1900 in Northern Ireland, in a farming family. He grew up in a Presbyterian home and was converted in his early years. He was a thoughtful and serious young man. In the early 1920s, he was drawn to the Pentecostal movement, which had come to Ireland a few years earlier. He joined the Apostolic Church, a Pentecostal body that had begun in Wales and had spread to Ireland and Scotland. He was baptized in the Holy Spirit and felt a call to the ministry.

He served as a pastor in the Apostolic Church in Ireland. He was an active and gifted worker. In 1937, he was sent as a missionary to the Gold Coast, now Ghana, in West Africa. He was invited by a Ghanaian pastor, Peter Anim, who had started a work in the country and who asked for help from the Apostolic Church. McKeown arrived in the colony and settled in a small town in the forest region. He learned that the people there were open to the gospel. He had a gift for working with the local people and for training leaders.

He took up the work with energy. He traveled through the country, preaching and healing the sick and planting churches. He was known for his simple and direct preaching and his respect for the people. He insisted that the church should be African in its leadership and not dependent on foreign money. He trained local pastors and gave them responsibility. The church grew rapidly, and by the end of the 1940s, there were hundreds of congregations.

In the early 1950s, a dispute arose between McKeown and the leaders of the Apostolic Church in Britain. The issues were authority and control, and the question of whether the church in Ghana should be run from Britain. There were also issues over the use of money and the role of prophecy in decisions. In 1953, McKeown was dismissed from the mission, and the Gold Coast branch of the church separated from the parent body. A large number of the African pastors and members followed him. They formed a new organization, which at first was called the Gold Coast Apostolic Church. In 1962 it was renamed the Church of Pentecost.

He continued as the leader of the church for several years. He worked hard to build up the leadership. He set up schools and a Bible training center. He also directed the church in a program of self-support and local control. The Church of Pentecost grew, and it spread to other nations in Africa and abroad. In the 1960s, the political situation in Ghana became tense, and he was asked to leave the country. He returned to Ireland.

In later years, he lived quietly in Northern Ireland and was in poor health. He was in touch with the church in Ghana and was honored by its leaders. He was also a man who had borne the pain of the separation from the mission he had served. He was grieved by the controversy and said that he had tried to act in good conscience. Critics say that he was too rigid in his dealings with the mission leaders. Others praise him for his courage in standing for the independence of the African church.

He died in 1988. The Church of Pentecost has grown to be one of the largest churches in Ghana, with millions of members across the world. His life shows that a missionary who respects the people and trains them for leadership may leave behind a church that outlives him.