Glad Tidings Tabernacle in Manhattan, New York, holds a distinctive place in Assemblies of God history for several reasons.

One of the first AG congregations, Glad Tidings ranked among the largest in the U.S. for many decades. And at a time when American women had not yet gained the right to vote, the church’s founder was female.

Marie Burgess Brown (1880–1971) started Glad Tidings in 1907, seven years before the Assemblies of God’s founding.

From the beginning, Marie faced opposition from both sinners and saints. One critic was Robert Brown, a Wesleyan Methodist minister from Ireland.

Robert opposed the Pentecostal movement but started attending Glad Tidings out of curiosity. He soon became a regular at Marie’s mission, then known as Glad Tidings Hall, which met in a small, rented storefront on West 42nd Street.

During 1908, Marie invited Robert to preach about the Holy Spirit. Confident in his theology and experience, Robert relished the opportunity to expound on Acts 2 and explain why he had no need for tongues.

While in the pulpit, however, Robert felt a desire to seek a deeper encounter with the Spirit. He finished his sermon, went to the altar, and received the baptism in the Holy Spirit.

Robert went from being a critic of the Pentecostal mission to one of its biggest supporters.

Shortly afterward, Robert told Marie, “If you ever change your name, it will be to Brown.”

Marie replied that she intended to remain unmarried.

Over the next year, the two expanded their ministry partnership as the church hosted services five days a week.

By 1908, the congregation had grown to 175 people.

Finally, Marie accepted Robert’s marriage proposal, and they wed in Chicago during 1909. They celebrated their honeymoon by attending a Chicago church convention before returning to New York.

Marie said, “God made me to know we should unite our forces.”

Pastoral Partners

The Browns seemed an unlikely pair.

Marie grew up in an Episcopalian household in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Crediting the prayers of a minister for her recovery from tuberculosis as a teenager, she later attended Moody Bible Institute in Chicago and joined the congregation of faith healer John Alexander Dowie in Zion City, Illinois.

When Charles Parham visited Zion City in 1906, Marie was among the first to join his Apostolic Faith movement.

It was Parham who asked Marie to plant the first Pentecostal church in New York City.

Planning to venture overseas as a missionary, Marie initially declined. After prayer, however, she sensed God confirming the call to New York.

Robert began life on the other side of the world and spent his youth far away from God. Born in a small town in Northern Ireland, he grew into a tall, athletic, and popular young man.

Seeking adventure, Robert moved to England and became a police officer. A frequent patron of pubs, he was an unlikely candidate for ministry.

Robert’s life changed when a cousin led him to Christ. Feeling a call to ministry, Robert moved to the U.S. and pursued credentials with the Wesleyan Methodist Church.

As a bivocational minister, Robert split his time between church work and his job as a chief engineer at a government building.

During their marriage, Marie described herself as Robert’s ministry “assistant,” but co-pastor would have been a more accurate title.

“God made me to know we should unite our forces.”
— Marie Burgess Brown

Although Marie preached as often as Robert, their personalities and ministry styles were different. Robert was outspoken and direct, while Marie was quiet, careful, and contemplative.

Robert took care of church business matters, freeing Marie to spend hours each day in prayer, Bible study, and meditation. Robert respected his wife’s wisdom and discernment, making no decisions without her input.

The Browns became a model for other ministry couples. One church member described them as a “blending of soul and spirit in the will of God and the accomplishment of His work.”

Growth and Diversity

The Assemblies of God helped Glad Tidings extend its influence.

Robert became an executive presbyter in 1915. Glad Tidings was among the first to affiliate in 1917 when the Assemblies of God allowed individual churches to join the Fellowship.

Glad Tidings Tabernacle became known for its annual spring and fall conventions, featuring ministers such as Ernest S. Williams and Hattie Hammond. The church also hosted many evangelistic ministries, including Aimee Semple McPherson and Andrew H. Argue and his daughter, Zelma.

The congregation flourished and eventually needed larger facilities. In 1921, Glad Tidings purchased the former Calvary Baptist Church for $105,000.

During the late 1920s, Glad Tidings reported more than 1,000 attendees. The auditorium, which seated between 1,500 and 2,000 people, was often unable to accommodate the crowds showing up for services.

Glad Tidings attracted mostly working-class people, many of them immigrants. Among them was Ivan Voronaev, pastor of the Russian Baptist church in New York City, who received the baptism in the Holy Spirit while visiting.

Voronaev returned to his homeland in 1920 as an Assemblies of God missionary, and was martyred during the 1930s in a Soviet prison camp.

Glad Tidings also played a role in developing Pentecostalism among African Americans in the northeastern U.S. In 1915, Robert endorsed the application for ordination of the first Black Assemblies of God minister, Ellsworth S. Thomas of Binghamton, New York.

In 1916, Lillian Kraeger, a German woman from Glad Tidings, began holding home Bible studies in Harlem for two African American girls. These meetings blossomed and ultimately grew into Bethel Gospel Assembly, a large congregation in Harlem.

Missions conventions were an annual highlight at Glad Tidings. The congregation sent dozens of missionaries to share the gospel at home and abroad and collected millions of dollars for missions.

Robert initially believed New York City needed only one Pentecostal church and that local missions and ethnic outreaches should be under the authority of Glad Tidings.

Eventually, however, small missions popped up throughout the surrounding boroughs, some of which developed into thriving congregations.

By that time, Glad Tidings had become a well-established Pentecostal center, and many from smaller congregations thronged to the church for special events and Sunday afternoon services.

Ministry as a Widow

Robert died unexpectedly in 1948 following a head injury. Marie grieved deeply, but was determined to continue in her calling.

Numerous ministers volunteered assistance in the months following Robert’s death, including some who hoped to fill his pastoral role.

Marie rejected these offers, looking instead to God’s guidance. For at least four months after Robert’s death, she attended every weekly service, preaching most of them.

Finally, Marie invited her nephew, R. Stanley Berg, to share her pulpit. Berg took on an ever-increasing share of the ministry duties until Marie died in 1971 at 90.

Marie planted and served her church for 64 years. She deflected accolades for her accomplishments, pointing instead to God. She saw herself merely as an instrument the Holy Spirit chose to use.

It was this posture of servanthood that helped the Browns pioneer Pentecost in America’s largest city.

This article appears in the Winter 2025 issue of Influence magazine.