Church For All Nations congregants during a worship service. (Photo by Pam Zubeck)
Editor’s note: This story is part of Pam Zubeck’s “Wing and A Prayer” reporting for the Feb. 23 edition of Sixty35 that includes Local church files suit over hangar project and Land deals: 3 states, 35 years.)
Hundreds of people raise their arms. Some close their eyes and sway, as if in a trance. The band onstage — seven or eight strong — leads them in song, such as the opening tune, “Our God Reigns.”
Soon, this Christian flock’s leader appears onstage, and on two huge screens, to deliver about 40 minutes of instruction in the teachings of Jesus Christ and other matters.
That leader, Mark Cowart, has come a long way from his days doing janitorial work there to serving as senior pastor of Church For All Nations, where he draws thousands of worshippers each week and speaks of “the last end time.”
Cowart’s church domain has expanded to include two locations in Colorado Springs as well as his involvement in the ministries of others, notably the televangelist Andrew Wommack, who’s based in Woodland Park.
Going back 40 years, Cowart was a high school grad looking for his place in the world.
As he explains in an online video message, his grandmother predicted he would become a minister when he was 14 as they sat on his grandparents’ porch in Texas. It surprised him, but, “Lo and behold, as I began to hunger and thirst for the things of God, I began to recognize the call on my life.”
“I showed up at the church we’re now pastoring,” he continues. “I started attending in 1983. And I just said, ‘Is there anything I can do to help?’ So they had me do janitorial. They went on a staff retreat, and I watched the phones for them, and over time, the Lord began to just fit me into the body. And so then there was a change of pastors from the founding pastor.”
The same month he and his wife married, January 1985, they became associate pastors at the church and were named senior pastors in 1987, he says.
Started as Grace Fellowship in 1979 in a home on the city’s Westside, the church incorporated in 1988 under Cowart’s leadership and changed its name to Church For All Nations in 2001.
“All of a sudden, it began to grow,” Cowart says in the video. “It began to explode.”
As membership expanded, the church built a new facility at 6540 Templeton Gap Road roughly 20 years ago; it also has a location at 2188 Executive Circle Drive called Christ Church of Colorado Springs.
Ties to Wommack, Truth & Liberty Coalition
Cowart, too, has branched out. He’s written books, including Army of God Rising.
He’s director of the Practical Government School at Charis Bible College in Woodland Park and has been a featured speaker at Andrew Wommack Ministries, which runs the college.
He also serves on the board of directors of the Truth & Liberty Coalition, which defines itself on its website as “a 501(C)(4) non-profit” that was set up by Wommack and other Christian “leaders” to “seek to educate, unify and mobilize believers in Jesus Christ to affect the reformation of nations through the seven mountains of cultural influence.” Those seven areas are family, religion, education, media, entertainment, business and government.
501(c)(4) organizations are exempt from federal income tax, but donations made to it are not tax-deductible, because such groups are allowed to engage in political lobbying and political campaigns, including donating to political committees that support or oppose ballot measures, bond issues, recalls or referenda. However, 501(c)4 groups cannot make direct contributions to candidates, and political activity cannot constitute their prime activity.
(Nonprofits exempt from federal taxes and to which donations are tax-deductible are called 501(c)3s.)
Last September, 3,500 people packed into a Charis facility for a Truth & Liberty Coalition event to hear Wommack declare, “America was founded to be a Christian nation.”
Among the coalition’s “influencers,” as stated on its website, are Reps. Doug Lamborn (R-Colorado Springs) and Lauren Boebert (R-Rifle), TV personality Glenn Beck, failed Colorado Republican gubernatorial candidate Heidi Ganahl, and Jay Sekulow, former President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer.
Cowart’s Truth & Liberty bio says he seeks to fulfill Matthew 28:18-20 — “Go then and make disciples of all nations.”
Church For All Nations is involved in the coalition by offering “Culture Impact Teams Information,” such as how to start a team and what the teams’ objectives are. CFAN’s team has adopted the Christian Right’s education issues in Colorado Springs, as previously documented by Sixty35. (See “D20 superintendent to retire; ‘book ban’ battle reaches fever pitch” and “Skewed Search?”)
Now, it’s calling members’ attention to city politics by hosting a City Council candidates forum on Feb. 22 at its Templeton Gap auditorium.
Though the church’s articles of incorporation as a 501(c)3 religious organization state it “shall NOT [emphasis not added] engage in any political activity” in violation of the IRS code for 501(c)3s, Cowart has been forthright about his desire to be involved in politics. He’s hosted events called “Breaking the Silence” to explain how elections affect the country, and told a Gazette reporter in August 2016, “I am voting for Donald Trump.”
Cowart also serves on at least one other nonprofit board outside the church. Called Koome Ministries, it’s based in Monument and seeks to “wake up, educate, and train the Christian and Jewish communities on the impending dangers of Islam…,” according to its IRS filings.
Cowart has served as Koome’s secretary/treasurer since at least 2011, with Wayne Pendleton, who has ties to CFAN, serving as a director. From 2011 to 2020, Koome Ministries, which reported assets in 2020 of less than $15,000, gave CFAN more than $159,000.
Missions
Besides taking part in projects at the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming, Church For All Nations engages in transcontinental missions, including in Peru, the Middle East and the What Matters Ministries & Missions in Casa Angelina, Guatemala, which helps educate children and house elderly women.
“I always make sure in our mission giving, it included widows and children,” Cowart told congregants during a recent Sunday service.
Cowart also complained about the growing influence of Satan in today’s world, citing the appearance of Sam Smith and Kim Petras during the Grammy awards, performing their hit song “Unholy” in which the nonbinary singer and transgender performer, respectively, dressed in red outfits with horns. The performance, the New York Post reported, drew complaints to the Federal Communications Commission as being “anti-Christian.”
Cowart called it “evil” and “a perversion.”
“Once they stayed in the closet,” he said. “And it’s out in the open now.”
He also bemoaned protests that have arisen across the country for various causes that he said are “funded by very wicked people,” and asserted that “after school Satan clubs” have formed.
Cowart blamed all of that, in part, on Christians themselves. “The reason we have all of these issues going on in America is the church has allowed it,” he said. But now, he said, it’s time for the church to “stop fooling around” and get “all hands on deck” to battle evil forces. “Arm yourself with the will of Christ,” he said. “Darkness flees at the sight of light.”
He then warned, “We are seeing signs of these being the last of the last days.”
Editor’s Note: Land deals: 3 states, 35 years is also part of this reporting.