United Pentecostal Church International

I thank God for the move of the Spirit.

I'm on the Evangelism Commission of the United Pentecostal Church.

Been in that group since right after it began, and I've had a...

I've had a hunger to see a stir and a move like we've got right now.

Some time ago I walked into a grocery store on Saturday as husbands are prone to do when their wives drag them to the store to buy groceries.

And there she was, she was leading the way and I was following where she led.

And the lady walked up to her and stopped our little procession and said, where do you go to church? And she said, well, said, I'm with the Texas Bible College and we're members of United Pentecostal Church and our work takes us to various congregations.

And this lady said, I thought you were United Pentecostal.

And they went before the magistrate," and they had this to say, 17:6.

"And when they found them not, they drew Jason out, and certain brethren, unto the rulers of the, of the city, crying, 'Those who have turned the world upside down have come hither also.'" I was up at the campground some years back, 20 years or so ago, and the UPCI publishing house, what's that, Word Aflame, I believe is the name of the publishing house.

They had pump- published a UPC Apostolic Bible.

And, you know, young people, they're into the wind of change.

But, uh, years and years, she just couldn't see the need for it.

But this became a, a theme in my life, and eventually, I ended up teaching throughout, uh, the United Pentecostal Church and many different Oneness groups, um, and, uh, teaching in Bible colleges, pastored for many, many years.

St- uh, p- started a church in Chicago, uh, was at Indiana Bible College in Indianapolis as executive vice president for 14 years, and then I've been in Atlanta now for 16 years.

So my ministry has been shaped by all of those things, becoming a Oneness Pentecostal from a Trinitarian background and having, uh, academics steeped in, uh, language.

So we're working on publishing these works and, and doing a, a complete analysis of how the Oneness movement was impacting the world, uh, for hundreds of years, and is again today, thank God.

I feel like this would be an interesting question for you to answer as someone who came out of a organization that was the product of the Reformation.

Why do you feel like they have this, uh, burning desire to hang on to a doctrine that was formulated later, where they have actually rejected other doctrines that were formulated later? Like, why is it that the doctrine of the Trinity is that one that they are adamant that we have to believe this if you don't believe this? Like, for example, we just had a church try and register with the YouVersion Bible app, you know, the, the huge, uh, Bible app, and, uh, they rejected them because they saw that they're a United Pentecostal church, and they said, "Well, you, you don't, um, believe, you know, what we believe, and so we're not gonna allow you to be a church on our app because you're Oneness." And it's like, why, why do they have this burning desire to hang on to that specific doctrine, whereas they've rejected a lot of the other ones? Especially these churches that have come across, like the Pentecostal Trinitarian movements that have come across in the 20th and 21st century.

They've rejected a lot of Catholicism.

We are part of each other.

And I love the United Pentecostal Church.

It is a very special place.

I believe a very special vehicle which God is using today to get the gospel to the world.

I appreciate the pastors, the ministers, the evangelists that make up this body of United Pentecostal Church ministers, and especially the Saints of God that fill our churches.

I deeply love and appreciate them so much.

So tonight when I come to you, I suppose I have that burden more on my heart than A conference is a very unique place to minister, and I count it an honor to be asked to speak.

I'll compare mine with hers now.