Tabernacle had been bitterly divided during the ministry of the Rev J. Pandy Williams when the church became embroiled in a row about the constitution of the Bala Theological College.
The church was incorporated on 9 April 1886 and within seventeen months they had built a new chapel in Lloyd Street, ironically within walking distance of Tabernacle.
Evans had come to Wales as a young man, with little English, to train for the ministry and after sixteen years at Pen-ref Chapel, Caernarfon, he moved to Llanelli.
At Caernarfon, Evans had played a prominent role in public life but at Llanelli he concentrated on the chapel and pastoral work.
In his history of Llanelli's chapels, Huw Edwards speculates on the reasons for Evans's departure in 1947 to the much smaller church at Nebo, Blaengarw where he remained for seven years before retiring to North Wales.