By Lloyd Mackey

IT WAS 100 years ago, in February 1910, that James Bavis Rowell sensed his call to be a minister of the gospel. Less than two decades later, he began to live out much of that call at Victoria’s Central Baptist Church.

J.B. Rowell had been converted to Christ in 1907 in a little chapel, through some straightforward biblical preaching.  He was a baker at the time, in Bournemouth, England.

Soon after, Rowell enrolled in Kensit Memorial College, the training school for the Protestant Truth Society – at the height of the ‘Anglo-Catholic’ controversy.

This intellectual battle related to concerns among some Baptists and others committed to ‘free grace’ and ‘free church’ theology, over what they believed was the drift of the dominant Anglican church into Catholic practice – such as the use of images and icons.

That controversy helped to shape Rowell’s ministry. He became a major authority on Catholic theology and practice, observed from a strong Protestant perspective.

In his later years, he was believed to have one of the largest libraries on Catholicism outside of official Vatican and Catholic institutions.

Rowell headed for Canada in 1913, entering Brandon College for theological studies. Before arriving in Victoria, he was already a part of what eventually became the theologically conservative Fellowship of Evangelical Baptists.

One of his three children, Grace Eno, recalls that in Victoria, Rowell was known in Central Baptist as a warm-hearted and compassionate pastor ­– and a skilled, intelligent preacher who bolstered his biblical expositions with verbal illustrations and charts designed to make his points relevant.

Under his leadership of the Canadian Protestant League’s Victoria chapter, he often packed Central on weeknights for lectures comparing Protestantism and Catholicism.

Often, those Rowell won to Christ were people who were first attracted to his ‘free grace’ message, through the influence of such biblical texts as: “Not by works of righteousness that we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us.”

In coming to Canada, he had left behind a young woman named Lucy. When he was in Brandon, they exchanged correspondence in shorthand.

In 1916, Rowell left Brandon to enlist in the British Medical Corps. The open trenches  of World War I left him in ill health – with conditions that returned to trouble him periodically throughout his life.

His ill health, however, brought a reuniting with his beloved Lucy in England.  They were married in April, 1917, and settled in Canada the following year.

Rowell held pastorates in Vernon and Prince Rupert – both successful, but cut short by recurrences of ill health. In Kamloops he worked with a small group to re-energize a dying congregation. By the time seven years had passed, that church was flourishing.

In 1927, he responded to a call from Victoria to establish what was to become Central Baptist Church. It was part of the ‘Regular Baptist’ stream that had grown out of a fissure in the denomination.

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As pastor Rowell wrote, he realized the magnitude of what he was taking on:

“Passing the Parliament Buildings, and crossing over in front of the Empress Hotel, we experienced an overwhelming sense of the responsibility of such a venture. Spontaneously the prayer was offered, ‘Oh Lord, I don’t want to come here unless it is positively Thy will’; and like a flash the reply came, ‘Behold I set before thee an open door.’

“The following day, contemplating what it would mean to leave Kamloops where we had been for seven years, and come to a city where we were not known; begin a work without a church or a church member, or any equipment, there welled up the prayer, ‘O Lord, give me an assurance that it is Thy will for me to come here.’

“Immediately, the Lord gave His word, ‘My Presence shall go with thee.’ And on these two promises our pastorate in Kamloops, filled with many evidences of the Lord’s blessing, was terminated, and another, with an unknown future, begun.”

Today, Central Baptist is a congregation of several hundred, whose edifice takes up most of one block.

The original building, today incorporated into the larger structure, was completed in 1929. Grace Eno says crowds were good from the start, both for church and for the Protestant rallies. During World War II and after, dozens of young soldiers  attended the church and became part of its burgeoning youth group. Many of them came to Christ through Rowell’s preaching; and he was known to have solemnized marriages between sailors and Central girls.

After World War II, Rowell was active in the founding of what became Northwest Baptist Seminary, now a part of the ACTS seminary consortium at Trinity Western University.

He would leave on the midnight CPR boat Sunday nights, to teach classes at the school during the week at the school’s Port Coquitlam campus.

A recurrence of health problems forced him to cut back on the teaching and focus on his pastoral activities, such as encouraging church plants.

Later, he earned a doctorate of theology  from Los Angeles Baptist Theological Seminary; and he taught there periodically, after becoming Central’s minister emeritus, in his mid-60s.

Rowell was a great believer in the use of print to augment his ministry. His gospel tracts and explanations of the Protestant take on Catholicism were widely distributed.

After ‘retirement,’ Rowell remained active in guest preaching and teaching assignments. In his 80s, he embarked on a ‘dial-a-thought’ ministry, making use of cutting edge telephone recording technology to provide words of inspiration to callers.

Rowell died June 24, 1973, active to the end in “telling the triumphs of the King.”

This article was based on archival materials supplied by Grace Eno to Aaron Dunlop, minister of Victoria Free Presbyterian Church.

July 2010