As Ghana, especially Accra, became increasingly cosmopolitan, The Church of Pentecost was confronted with the challenge of reaching out to and offering effective fellowship to the broad spectrum of the people. For effectiveness, the spread of the Gospel by the Church was expected to be done in a way that people of different nationalities, traditions and cultures would be comfortable with in fellowship.

The contemporary Church of Pentecost had become an International Church with branches in over 30 countries (at the time) – in Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas. This raised another challenge of giving effective and comfortable fellowship to the Ghanaian External Branch members when they were on holidays in Ghana.

The English Assembly concept had already emerged as part of the Church’s response to the concerns of the teeming number of students and graduates who no longer seemed content with the ‘traditional’ Church of Pentecost programmes and activities. Most of these young men and women, very committed to their faith but ‘who did not fit in’, began to leave the Church in their hundreds not only to provide the membership of emerging Charismatic churches (the phenomenon of the early 80’s) but also supplied their key leadership. To arrest this trend, the then leadership of PENSA urged upon the Executive of the Church to consider opening English Churches at the district levels to provide fora to contain this new breed of Church members. The vision, as with PENSA itself, met with stiff opposition from sections of both the clergy and eldership of the church. Apostle F.S. Safo (then Chairman of the Church) and Apostle D.K Arnan (then General Secretary and Greater Accra Regional Apostle) pushed the vision through to its implementation. English Assemblies were thus initially formed in Kokomlemle in 1984, Dansoman in December 1987 and Cantonments in July 1989.

During this same time in Kumasi, a similar movement was ongoing. Their English Assembly (International Worship Centre) had been born through the vision of Apostle A.T. Nartey. After approval by the Regional Executive Committee, the Centre was inaugurated on the 26^th of March 1986 under the leadership of Elder Dr. Peter Ohene-Kyei (now Pastor), Elder Dr. Ken Aboah, Elder Michael Adjaloo and Elder Mac Obiri Mainoo with an initial membership of twenty-five (25).

With time, it was realised that the full potential of the English Assemblies was hindered as they were compelled to operate from school classrooms with limited scope of expansion and attracting the target group for fellowship. To a very large extent, the alignment of the Assemblies to the traditional local Church of Pentecost practices except for the spoken English did not help promote the objective of their set-up. Added to these was the need to unify and promote the strength and resistance required to fight against extinction of the vision due to internal persecutions. Another purpose was the promotion of evangelism among the elite class of the society. Some of these took expression in memoranda to the church leadership on the way forward (See letter to Executive Council).

As the International Missions Director, Apostle Dr. Opoku Onyinah also took great interest in transforming the outlook of the then English Assemblies and engaged their leadership in consultative discussions. (See two Addresses delivered at Meetings with Presbyteries of English Assemblies). As a result of these, the Executive Council of the Church in June 1993 approved the birth of the Accra International Worship Centre (A.I.W.C.). It was an amalgamation of the three English Assemblies in Kokomlemle, Dansoman and Cantonments. The vision was to set up a place of worship where all people of diverse national and cultural background would feel welcome. In 1995, the Executive Council changed the name to Pentecost International Worship Centre (P.I.W.C.) to reflect its roots in The Church of Pentecost.

In 1997, a French Assembly was carved out of PIWC-Accra. The objective was to enable the Church reach out to the increasing French-speaking community within Accra and its environs.

PIWC-Accra began with Apostle Dr. Opoku Onyinah (International Missions Director) also having oversight as the Resident Minister from 1993 until 1995 when Pastor A.K. Miah (now Apostle) was transferred from Mamprobi District. He pastured the Centre until 1997 when he was called to missions in Gabon. Pastor Julius Franklin Asante-Ayeh was transferred to PIWC-Accra from Navrongo in 1997. In the year 2000, he was also transferred to Lesotho to pioneer the missionary work and his place taken over by Pastor Steve Millar. In 2004, Pastor Millar was transferred to the Takoradi East District and succeeded by Pastor Michael Collins Asiedu (now Apostle). Rev. M.C. Asiedu remained the Resident Pastor until 2008 when the Centre was split into two separate PIWCs with one each in the La and Madina Areas as PIWC-Kokomlemle and PIWC-Atomic respectively.

Since the establishment of the Centre in 1993 until about 2004, Rev. John Waller, a Missionary in Ghana, was the Associate Pastor. Pastor K.E. Agbavitoh (now Apostle) was the Associate Pastor responsible for the French Assembly from 1997 to July 1999 when he was transferred into missions. In 2002, the French Assembly was given a district status with Rev. Prince Joseph Sefa-Boakye as its first Resident Pastor. Subsequently, the church leadership was strengthened with the addition of Rev. Prof. Emmanuel Kingsley Larbi and Rev. Dr. Emmanuel K. Anim as Associate Ministers.

Over the period, the Lord continually added to the Church and the CIDA Hall of Accra Technical Training Centre (ATTC) could not conveniently contain the congregation in one Sunday service thereby resulting in the re-organization into two services also in 1997. The two services were later turned into independent but closely related Assemblies of the Centre – Mckeown and Safo.

In January 2008 when the church’s auditorium had reached a stage when it could be put to use, the District Presbytery decided to re-organise the church into two Assemblies with one operating from ATTC-Kokomlemle and other from the new auditorium at Atomic, Kwabenya under the banner of PIWC-Accra.

This was the case until October 2008, when the Executive Council decided to create a new district for the PIWC now worshipping at Atomic effective 26^th October 2008. The decision also involved the carving out of the Atomic Assembly from the Haatso District to become part of the new PIWC-Atomic under the Madina Area.

The Centre has since September 2016 been under the leadership of Rev. Daniel Nii Teiko Tackie as Resident Pastor. PIWC-Atomic currently operates as a district with three Assemblies operating with English, Akan and French languages.

The District Executive Committee is composed as follows:

The following have served as Presiding Elders of the Centre in the periods indicated:

The Women’s Ministry leaders over the period have included Deaconesses Ama Amponsah, Janet Ahenkorah, Charlotte Amegatcher, Rose Addai, Vida Boatemaa Akyea and Ruth Amoah-Koomson (current leader).

In February 2009, the Executive Council set up a seven-member Committee under the chairmanship of Apostle Ekow Badu-Woode to among others to come out with modalities that will best enhance the efficient running of the centres, as well as the various English Assemblies in the Church. (See the Committee’s Report) The recommendations of that Committee were approved by the Executive Council during the General Council meeting held in May 2009.

Other officers who make up the leadership of the various ministries, departments and committees in the district are as follows:

WHO IS OUR TARGET (PIWC-ATOMIC)?

The Church of Pentecost has achieved so much over the past years. It is the single largest Protestant church in Ghana today with branches in over ninety (90) nations worldwide as at 2016. This is no mean achievement in view of the fact that this church has only officially existed for some sixty-three (63) years.

With the changing world and the evolving generation, it has become clear that our church may decline in the future if she does not adopt a different approach to attracting certain groups of people in the society.

Human beings are so different and it is difficult for any single church to possibly reach out to everyone. That is the reason why we need all kinds of church groups and approaches to the work of evangelism. Together, we can accomplish what no single congregation, strategy or style can accomplish by itself.

God created an infinite variety of people with different interests, preferences, backgrounds and personalities. To reach and retain all these people for Christ, we require a variety of styles of evangelism and groups. The message must remain the same, but the methods and style of communicating it will vary greatly.

It is in furtherance of this that the Pentecost International Worship Centre (PIWC) was established to reach people who by training and orientation do not feel comfortable with the traditional way of worship which focuses on the use of the vernacular amongst others.

The PIWC is a church that is not burdened by anything but Christianity, radical enough to get back to the New Testament and courageous enough to apply it in practice in our contemporary world