What are you reading currently?

[Sam]

Originally Posted by renee819

Sam, You are just full of information. I knew several in the UPC, that you probably knew also. But as i was in the UPC most of my life, I know very little about the other Organizations.

According to the UPCI site there are three churches in Cincinnati considered to be UPC Churches:

1) The Calvary Church, pastored by Norman Paslay
http://www.thecalvarychurch.com/

2) First Apostolic Church, pastored by Joel Urshan
http://www.firstap.org/index.shtml

3) Covenant Apostolic Church, pastored by Shelley Hendricks
actually this church has changed its name to Northpoint Community Church
http://www.firstap.org/index.shtml

a little history of these churches:

I think it was in 1925 or maybe 1920 that Rev. Frank Curts came from Indiana and took over as pastor of a small group that had split off another Jesus Name Church in the Cincinnati area. I think the pastor of the other Church had the last name of Washington and a Bro Brown split the church. The group that left (only a few) chose Bro. Curts as pastor. One of the names the new church under Bro. Curts used was Bethlehem Tabernacle. This name was later changed to First Apostolic Church. At that time there were some (don't know how many) Jesus Name churches in the city of Cincinnati. The church pastored by Bro. Curts was a white church and the others were either black or mixed.

In 1945 the church pastored by Bro. Curts had a split. Another congregation was formed called The Full Gospel Church which for a while had a UPC pastor but later (I think 1951) chose Joe Sizemore as pastor. Later a new building in the Carthage area was built and they took the name Carthage Apostolic Church. A newer Church was built later and the name changed to Covenant Apostolic. Under Joe Sizemore this church became an ALJC (Assemblies of the Lord Jesus Christ) church. I think it was AMC (Apostolic Missionary Council) at first but when the ALJC organization was formed in 1952 or some time after it became part of the ALJC. This Church had a split in the 1970's and a UPC church in a nearby city (Loveland, OH) was established.

Meanwhile around 1968 at First Apostolic pastored by Frank Curts, there was a falling out with his assistant pastor, Norman Paslay and Bro. Curts brought in Leroy Buller and installed him as assistant pastor. Bro. Paslay and a group left and formed what is now the Calvary Church pastored by Bro. Paslay's son. This church is about 2 miles from where I live. I think for a while the Calvary Church and First Apostolic held separate UPC youth rallies but later started to fellowship one another.

First Apostolic had a congregation too small for their building after Bro. Paslay and many others left. So the building was sold and property bought and they met in a house on the property until the present building was built. Leroy Buller retired as pastor but remains as Bishop. There have been a two or three pastors over the past few years. The current pastor is Joel Urshan.

When Bro. Sizemore died the Covenant Apostolic Church chose Shelley Hendricks as pastor. He is still pastor but the name of the church has been changed to Northpoint Community Church. It is still listed as Covenant Apostolic in the UPC listing but I think they are actually affiliated in some way with Joel Osteen. Quite a few people have left this church and now attend First Apostolic or the Calvary Church