United Pentecostal Church International

Heritage

The United Pentecostal Church International was formed at St. Louis in 1945 by the merger of the Pentecostal Church, Incorporated and the Pentecostal Assemblies of Jesus Christ — the principal white-led bodies descended from the Jesus-name movement that divided early Pentecostalism after 1913, and from the ministers who withdrew from the interracial Pentecostal Assemblies of the World in 1924. Headquartered at Weldon Spring, Missouri, it has become a global fellowship far larger abroad than at home. RCMS 2020 counts 4,549 US congregations — the fourth-largest Pentecostal total in the census.

Theological family

Oneness Pentecostal: God is absolutely one, without distinction of persons, and Jesus is that one God manifest in flesh — Father, Son and Holy Spirit understood as manifestations of the one God. The new birth follows Acts 2:38: repentance, water baptism by immersion in the name of Jesus Christ, and baptism in the Holy Spirit with the initial evidence of speaking in tongues. Trinitarian churches confess the Godhead differently; the UPCI teaches its position as the apostolic faith itself, and the difference is real on both sides. This record describes; it does not referee.

Who decides what

A general superintendent and boards elected by ministers in general conference, with district superintendents over districts — while local churches hold their own property and call their own pastors. Authority runs through elected brethren, not bishops.

What a first-time visitor would find

Demonstrative Pentecostal worship: fervent singing, the whole church praying aloud at once, tongues and interpretation, and preaching toward an altar call that expects repentance, Jesus-name baptism and Spirit baptism — in the same service when need be. Many congregations keep visible holiness standards, such as uncut hair and skirts for women and modest dress generally, worn as consecration.

What it has always cared about

The Acts 2:38 new birth preached without embarrassment; holiness as a visible way of life; vigorous evangelism and church planting; Bible colleges; and a missionary reach that has made the fellowship far larger outside North America than within it.

Its gift to the wider church

A seriousness about conversion that treats the book of Acts as still in force — and one of American Christianity's most vigorous church-planting cultures. Whatever one makes of its baptismal doctrine, the UPCI plants and fills churches in towns much of Protestantism has left.

Commonly confused with

With the Assemblies of God — similar revival culture, opposite answer on the Trinity; with the historically Black apostolic bodies of its own family, the PAW above all, from which its founding stream departed in 1924; and with independent congregations that use "United Pentecostal" wording without affiliation.

Range of views inside it

A live internal range on how holiness standards are applied and taught, from strict traditional congregations to somewhat relaxed ones — a discussion the fellowship conducts in its own conferences — along with ordinary variety in worship style and congregation size.

Where United Pentecostal Church International churches are on the map

9 United Pentecostal Church International congregations appear on The Church Map, across 9 states.

• Kentucky — 1
• Missouri — 1
• Mississippi — 1
• New Mexico — 1
• Ohio — 1
• Oregon — 1
• Texas — 1
• Virginia — 1
• Washington — 1

Moments this body was part of

• 1916 — The New Issue: Oneness Pentecostalism

  A dispute over the Godhead and the baptismal formula — "in the name of Jesus" versus the trinitarian formula — divided young Pentecostalism when the Assemblies of God adopted a trinitarian statement in 1916 and about a quarter of its ministers withdrew. The Oneness stream organized chiefly in the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, which remained deliberately interracial when much of the movement segregated, and later the United Pentecostal Church.