The United Pentecostal Church makes it quite clear in their yearly Manuals that if a person is guilty of committing immoral conduct regarding sexual matters, that they are not eligible to be licensed. If such happens while they hold license with them, their license is to be revoked and never reinstated. In addition, such people are not supposed to be ministering in any of their churches, whether or not they hold license. Yet despite what appears to be very clear directives, one discovers that for years there have been men holding license who have been immoral, as well as people preaching in their churches who have been immoral.
Let’s go straight to the 2019 UPCI Manual. These four rules have been in place since at least 1991, with most of it being in effect since at least 1965. In their 1952 to 1957 Manuals, they had a reinstatement procedure in place for ministers who they believed had repented of adultery or fornication. Other immoral acts were not noted. The repentant individual would be silenced for two years and then could apply for a one year probation of being permitted to preach, followed by them being able to apply only for a local license. They were never to be allowed more than a general license. [1952 UPCI Manual screenshot] By the 1965 Manual or prior, this reinstatement process was no longer in place. (For information on their three levels of licensing, read this.)
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Article VII Section 9. Immoral Conduct. [2019 UPCI Manual screenshot]
1. For the purpose of ministerial membership in the United Pentecostal Church International or for ministering in a United Pentecostal Church International church, immoral conduct shall be defined as adultery, fornication, homosexuality, incest, and/or any other sexual acts determined by the District Board to be perverted or immoral (Matthew 5:32; Matthew 19:9; I Corinthians 6:9; Romans 1:24-28). [Bold emphasis mine- This shows that even if one does not hold license, they should not be welcomed to preach in a UPC church.]
2. Any minister affiliated with our organization proven guilty of adultery or fornication, or committing any other immoral offense, shall forfeit his or her papers immediately. Immoral offense shall include sexual molestation of minors. [Note: The last sentence wasn’t added until the 2003 edition.]
3. In the event a minister confesses in writing to immoral conduct and surrenders his or her fellowship card, no trial shall be granted. In either case, such minister shall never be qualified for reinstatement into the ministry of the United Pentecostal Church International.
4. Any minister formerly affiliated with any other organization, (or any other minister) who has been proven guilty of committing the act of adultery or fornication, or committing any other immoral offense, either by confession or conviction, shall not be eligible for license or ordination in the United Pentecostal Church International.
Then under Section 10, Moral Obligations, it quotes two sets of Bible passages: I Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:6-9 without any commentary.
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Last October I wrote about one such case from Colorado, where a former youth leader received his UPCI license after having allegedly committed an immoral act. He obtained it in a different state and is yet licensed today. There is another case from Colorado which I will be writing about, where another youth minister from this same church was able to retain his license for years after allegedly assaulting several boys. In February I wrote about a case in Texas where a licensed minister allegedly committed immoral acts in the 1980s while a pastor. He either turned in or lost his license and was granted another in 2004 in a different state, where he is currently the pastor of an affiliated UPCI church.
I’ve written extensively about Steven J. Dahl who, while he never held license with the UPCI, he has been allowed to preach at their churches after repeatedly sexually abusing Debbie McNulty and also going after his wife’s younger sister. One of the pastors at Calvary Gospel Church in Madison, Wisconsin signed for a man to apply for his local license after they had been informed he sexually assaulted a minor. He was granted license in 2014 and had preached at the church prior to then. Another man from Calvary Gospel Church, who was an assistant pastor, was stripped of his license and made to confess to adultery in front of church members. He moved to Illinois and later ended up as a family pastor and has preached numerous times at an affiliated UPCI church. I have heard of cases where licensed UPCI ministers have covered for the sexual immorality of a son and they were later able to obtain license. How many stories of sexual immorality have we heard through the years of people attending one of their Bible colleges and yet were later afforded licenses?
A preacher may fall into sin, be forgiven by God, be restored to the church, and even be restored to many areas of service, but this does not automatically entitle him to his former position of leadership. He must once again meet the qualifications of being blameless, having a good report, and so on. This takes much time, and in some cases total restoration may never be possible. …Moreover, some sins-such as child molestation, incest, and rape-may indicate deep personality problems that would permanently disqualify someone from many leadership positions. – David Bernard, January-March 1988 Forward
Prior to writing this article, I asked people in a couple of groups if they knew of someone in the UPCI who was able to keep their license even though people knew they had done something immoral. I quoted from the Manual what was considered as immoral. It quickly became evident that this is, and has been, an ongoing problem in this organization and many people have known about or witnessed it. Almost 20 different people responded. Two claimed to know of 11 cases. Two others mentioned knowing three cases. Several responded without giving a number. One mentioned a well-known evangelist and another mentioned a legacy minister. Another shared they knew of multiple cases but those had their licenses revoked. Yet another brought up where both a pastor and his son had molested people, with the son going on to obtain license (though not now holding one). The pastor is still licensed. A minister in a southern state was mentioned who was caught with a teenage girl and later started an independent church, which at some point was welcomed into the UPCI with him as a bishop and his son as pastor. Though not involving immorality, another mentioned a man being previously turned down for license in Ohio due to multiple marriages but after he started his own church, he was later granted license while married to his third wife. [This is another area to be addressed as the UPCI Manual has rules regarding marriage and divorce among its ministers.] I’ve heard that the Ohio District has had a number of cases of sexual immorality through the years as well as other problems.
Besides all these situations alleged by those who responded to my question, for many years I have heard directly from people, and also read posts by others, who have known of men retaining or gaining their license after sexual immorality. I recall reading that a man in Michigan still retains license after allegedly committing more than one act of sexual immorality. I know of something disgusting an ordained minister in the NJ/DE District did to a female church member. He did not lose his license, though District officials were aware of it. It should have caused his license to be revoked.
What good are these rules if licensed ministers and District officials are allowed to break and circumvent them? In an organization that states they have the ‘whole Gospel’ and ‘the truth’ and claims to operate in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, how is it that these things happen and are allowed? Do Oneness Pentecostal pedigrees come into play? Is it because they give a nice amount of money to all the fundraisers in the organization? Is it because they have dirt on other ministers? Are they close friends with a District or General official? Are they married into the right family? I can find no excuse for allowing anyone in the United Pentecostal Church to hold license who has been immoral. I can find no excuse for allowing men to preach in their churches when they have been immoral. Their rules are clear. Either learn to abide by them with no wiggle room, or cut them out of your Manuals, because they are worthless if not followed. Instead, they give you and others a very false sense of security.
The United Pentecostal Church doesn’t appear to want to hear about these things, or from those who have survived sexual abuse in their churches. Last November, General Superintendent David Bernard deleted posts from and banned a woman on Facebook after having promised to look into a situation at one of their churches. He never got back to her. Just recently this month on the UPCI Facebook page, they removed the review section after some people were posting about these cases and how Calvary Gospel Church had hit the front page news of the Cap Times for unreported cases of child sexual abuse going back decades. Their Ladies Ministry Facebook page did the same thing after only one woman reached out to them in a review. At least they first made a response before shutting it down. Then there are people like UPCI Pastor J.R. Sellers of North Carolina, who wrote the following on August 23rd in a public Facebook post using his wife’s profile. This was his response to a quote from Jennifer Brewer’s book, Free: From Legalism to Grace Breaking Out of the United Pentecostal Church.
Hi Jereme. This is Sondra’s husband, J.R. Yes, I am a UPCI, Apostolic to the core pastor. I read the blurb in your wife’s best seller that the UPCI made her ashamed of her body and her curves and that she was never able to express herself. I thought I might warn you as her husband that now she is liberated to express herself with her body and her curves you better keep an eye on her next pastor because he might be enjoying her curvy expression a little too much and be like one of those pervo pastors that are being outed on your favorite spiritualabuse.org website. In this case my friend you may be out in the cold and she will have to write another best seller about a different kind of abuse. 😂– J.R. Sellers, Pastor of Spirit of Life UPC, Kinston, NC
It is extremely disturbing to see one of their ministers openly suggest and then laugh about the possibility of a woman being assaulted. Apparently, the United Pentecostal Church has quite a ways to go when it comes to getting rid of the thought that a female is responsible for any man sexually assaulting her. There is going to come a time when the United Pentecostal Church will be forced to openly address the multitude of sexual issues that have been present in their churches for decades.
Connie Baker, a licensed professional counselor in Oregon, shares her thoughts on sexual abuse cases in the Catholic Church and whether these assaults happen more there as compared to other churches. In June she released a new book, Traumatized by Religious Abuse: Courage, Hope and Freedom for Survivors.
EDIT: Since this article was written, at the 2019 UPCI General Conference, they passed a position paper on Abuse and Sexual Abuse.
You will find a complete list of articles in this series by clicking here.
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