Parkersburg, WV
 

I was checking out the UPC site for churches in Parkersburg, WV.
Two were listed:

1. Gateway Apostolic Church
Pastors Steven Joy and Michael Seebaugh

2. Sanctuary of Hope
Pastor Franklin R. Bounds

There used to be a church there called Christian Life Center pastored by Delton Smith.

Does anyone know why the Christian Life Center is no longer listed?

Re: Parkersburg, WV
 

They left the org. I'm from the area. Delton Smith is no longer pastor there.

Re: Parkersburg, WV
 

Keith and Shelly Mendenhall pastor there now. Here is a link to the church website;

http://wvclc.org/

Re: Parkersburg, WV
 

I went to Bible college there. It's not a huge booming metropolis. Seems odd to have 2-3 UPC churches along with Bro Nelson's church/Bible College campus for the ALJC. There was also at least one independant there when I was in the area. Seems like a bit of overkill maybe.

Re: Parkersburg, WV
 

Hmmmm.....how long have you been around old time Pentecost? At least in the South it is very common to see two or three or even more Oneness Pentecostal churches in even teeny tiny towns. Usually some are splits off other churches and each one thinks they are the only ones in town with the correct "standards".

Re: Parkersburg, WV
 

That's funny in a sad way.

Small community that I am from had a few churches. We were the UPC in town, ultra con. There is an Apo Assembly, the group whose icon is a shield. Had a friend that attended there. He wouldn't visit us because we were not with the AA. Several times we had visitors from that church. The women would worship God, and the men would stand with their arms folded. LOL

There is a PAW, very small. Mostly the pastor's family in attendance. We didn't fellowship them because they liberal.

Later a pseudo-oneness church opened, but they closed their rather quick.

Re: Parkersburg, WV
 

Just a note___________as child the PAW and UPC in our area had total fellowship!

This is not practiced today...........becuzzzzzzzz standards rule :foottap

Re: Parkersburg, WV
 

I know it is common. It still just stinks of overkill and refusal to work with another man who is already there in an established church. Why not just go and work ALONG SIDE the church that is already there instead of feeling the need to start yet another church in the same area?

Re: Parkersburg, WV
 

There are 3 UPC churches in the immediate Parkersburg area. Frank Bounds recently started one after CLC left the UPC. There is one PAW church. Bro Tisdale now pastors Spreading Truth, which is the ALJC campus formerly pastored by Bro Nelson. David Adams also pastors an independant church (very good man!). There is another church called Soul's Refuge that I believe has oneness persuasion. I will say that currently the UPC churches in the area seem to be fairly united and hold to a pretty moderate standard.

Re: Parkersburg, WV
 

Have you ever been to Kingsport, TN? There are a TON of Apostolic churches there. A TON.

Re: Parkersburg, WV
 

Standards don't split churches in this region. Money does.

Re: Parkersburg, WV
 

Or should I say money and control splits churches here.

Re: Parkersburg, WV
 

I like what I read on their website.

Re: Parkersburg, WV
 

Previously on their website you could not even tell it had any Apostolic affiliation. I do like, at least that their website now acknowledges Acts 2:38.

Re: Parkersburg, WV
 

I found nothing related to Acts 2:38 or anything truly Pentecostal except for a misquoted verse from 1 Corinthians.

Re: Parkersburg, WV
 

Timeline a little off. Pastor Bounds started his church before CLC left the upci. His new church building is a couple blocks up from my workplace. He was holding services in a hotel conference room at least a year before the church moved to its downtown location. Bounds was blessed to grow his church as a result of various church splits in the area. The upci was preparing for CLC since the turn of the century. There are six upci churches within a 30 drive of each other. Classic upci church growth 101.

Re: Parkersburg, WV
 

Around here, some churches split because they don't like what the pastor is doing. So a small crowd leaves, gets another building and elects a new pastor (usually one of them) and allows the new pastor to do the same thing they did not like their former pastor doing to begin with. :pirate

Re: Parkersburg, WV
 

Yes and a lot of "church hoppers". They used to fight on radio how to be baptized. One would say Lord Jesus Christ and another would say "Jesus Christ, and another just "Jesus". There are probably more Pentecostal
Apostolic churches there than there are Baptists.

Re: Parkersburg, WV
 

I knew the previous CLC pastor. He was my best friend's pastor. He took a church content in living in the past and made it relevant. I met the current pastor one in the local christian bookstore. Seems like a good guy.

Re: Parkersburg, WV
 

I recently counted 12 churches with Oneness persuasion in the parkersburg area. Pentocostals of Parkersburg (Bro Bounds), CLC, Life Church, Soul's Refuge, Dayspring Chistian Assembly (Bro David Adams), the PAW (not sure the name), Gateway Apostolic (Bro Dan Hopkins), Victory Apostolic in Davisville, Davisville Community Chapel (another ALJC), Bro Joy's Church (used to be People's Apostolic), Fort Boreman House of Prayer (Denzil Ray), Spreading Truth Ministries.

Re: Parkersburg, WV
 

A previous pastor was Delton Smith. He is married to my wife's cousin. The only time I have been to that Church was Father's Day in 1990 (I think it was 1990). At that time Delton and his son, Terry, were pretty strict with the standards. Delton and Jean had rented a tv "monitor" to play a video and he was quick to let us know that it was a "monitor" and did not "receive" tv broadcasts. His on Terry was pastoring a church in NJ and has "relaxed" the "standards." Delton has been retired for a couple years and they live in Dublin, OH which is in the Columbus, OH area. I'm not sure which church they are going to but last I heard it was pastored by "Bro. Cook's grandson."

Re: Parkersburg, WV
 

I do know Brother Bounds. He is a very good man. Also know David Adams. He is like a son....love David and Mary very much.

Re: Parkersburg, WV
 

Bounds builds on church splits.

Re: Parkersburg, WV
 

Did you get the church in Vienna, WV? Parkersburg is a river town. Two more upci churches. One in Belpre, OH, the other in Marietta, OH. Another church in Ravenswood, WV is down wind from Parkersburg.

Re: Parkersburg, WV
 

Pastor Smith wasn't popular with the district because of his out of the box thinking. He stopped the public support of "standards" long before I did.

Re: Parkersburg, WV
 

I work a couple blocks down from his church. I know he got a good portion of his congregation from the church I attended in the 1980's.

Re: Parkersburg, WV
 

and because he didn't go along with the "clothesline holiness tradition," didn't the UPC attempt to start new (competing) churches around the church he pastored so they could draw people away from CLC?

Re: Parkersburg, WV
 

Absolutely. That's why Bounds returned back to the area. Bounds is the best bet to keep the upci brand alive in the Parkersburg area.

Re: Parkersburg, WV
 

That is the way he has done it everywhere he has ever been!

Re: Parkersburg, WV
 

The Church that was in Vienna was pastored by Bro Dan Hopkins. The congregation moved over on Rosemar Road now.

Re: Parkersburg, WV
 

I know we have quite a few down here in Charleston WV too, I can think of 3 UPC, got 1 ALJC, 1 PAW and at least 7 independent.

Re: Parkersburg, WV
 

My wife and I spent the first night of our honeymoon in Parkersburg at a historic gaslight era hotel downtown called The Blennerhassett. We were on a road trip to Miami to catch a cruise to the Bahamas.

The church in Columbus you're talking about was pastored by Paul Cook, RG's grandson. He has moved to TX and pastors Abundant Life in Plano. The new pastor is Jared Howell, Bruce Howell, UPC Global Mission Director's son. The church is in Westerville, OH.

Re: Parkersburg, WV
 

I work three blocks from that hotel. Grew up with a view of the island in my front yard.

Re: Parkersburg, WV
 

Charleston is in need of a GOOD Church.

Re: Parkersburg, WV
 

I visit Christ Temple in Huntington, WV a few times a year.

Re: Parkersburg, WV
 

I learned a bit more of the history of the Apostolic movement in Parkersburg.

Sister Willie Johnson came through preaching revival. Reverend Clair Ruble's parents (may have just been his mother..I'm not sure) came to the Lord and received the Holy Ghost in that revival. Bro Ruble started the Apostolic Hour of Faith in 1950 (according to Sister Ruble's obituary). In 1956 William Branham preached "Hear ye Him" at Bro. Ruble's church. I have heard that there were MANY miracles that took place in that church. It was sometime after that Bro J.C. Cole started his UPCI church in Parkersburg.

Brother Ruble is 95 now.

I wonder if anyone else hear is familiar at all with any of the events surrounding the Pentecostal revival in Parkersburg.

Re: Parkersburg, WV
 

http://www.messagehub.info/en/read.do?ref_num=56-1215

William Branham preaching "Hear Ye Him" in Parkersburg, WV.

Re: Parkersburg, WV
 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqGf1XrU1bE



Sister Willie Johnson. The man on the far left is Brother Billy Cole. I'm assuming this was in Parkersburg.

Sister Johnson preached for Bro J.C. Cole in the 1970s.

Re: Parkersburg, WV
 

love this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-BCBL9vniE

Re: Parkersburg, WV
 

An amazing man of God. Unequaled in his prime.