The Cowan Ministerial Association in Cowan, Tennessee brings together churches and pastors to glorify Jesus Christ, promote Christian fellowship, and reach out to the community with God’s love and mercy. Cowan churches have a long, documented history of working together and worshiping together. The first religious services in Franklin County were held at the Goshen Camp Ground near Cowan in 1807.
Although Goshen was a Presbyterian gathering place, Baptists and Methodists gathered there as well. From the late 1800's through the late 1900's, Cowan churches of various denominations gathered together for shared services and partnered together for service projects. Carlos Sparks, pastor at Cowan First Church of the Nazarene and also the town mayor, spearheaded the effort to get the various churches and pastors together on a more regular basis. His efforts were followed by a community newspaper, the Cowan Bell, that operated between 1974 and 1980 and helped get local churches more community involved. In this timeframe the Community Thanksgiving service and the community Easter Sunrise Service grew in popularity. By the late 1980's, a dynamic team of local pastors introduced an Ash Wednesday service, a Maundy Thursday service, and a Good Friday service, all of which grew to enormous popularity through the 1990's and into the New Millennium. The Cowan Ministerial Association formally organized in the Year 2004 with a set of basic by-laws, a small treasury, and a team of pastors and lay leaders to continue the work and legacy that is part of the town's heritage. The sponsoring churches include Abundant Life Assembly of God, Cowan First Baptist Church, Cowan Fellowship Church, Cowan Cumberland Presbyterian Church, Goshen Cumberland Presbyterian Church, First Church of the Nazarene, New Creation Ministries, New Hope Church of God in Christ, and St.
