David Bernard, author of The Oneness of God and The New Birth, elected as General Superintendent of the United Pentecostal Church International (UPCI)

Dr David Berndard was elected as the General Superintendent, of the 3 million member, United Pentecostal Church International last month (October, 2009).

David Berndard has been the United Pentecostal Church International’s most well known ambassador for the last few decades due to his outstanding contribution to the field of Apostolic Pentecostal Literature.  Pastor Berndard has written books such as The Oneness of God, The New Birth, Spiritual Gifts and many, many others.

He came from missionary parents who served as leaders in the UPCI and he holds several degrees including a magna cum laude (with highest honours) in Law.  Dr Bernard is also President of the Urshan Graduate School, an Apostolic Pentecostal Bible College run by the United Pentecostal Church International in the USA.  I am praying that God anoint and empower Dr Bernard for the work ahead, he is definitely a champion of the gospel and a man of God.  Let us all keep him and his family in our prayers.

This was the press release on the UPCI website…

 

St Louis – October 5, 2009. The United Pentecostal Church International announces the election of the Reverend Doctor David K. Bernard as General Superintendent of the 3-million-member church. The ministers of the organization selected Reverend Bernard at their 85th annual General Conference held in St Louis last week.

David K. Bernard is the founder and senior pastor of New Life Church in Austin, Texas. He is also District Superintendent of the South Texas District of the United Pentecostal Church International and president of Urshan Graduate School of Theology, located in St Louis. He has earned a doctor of jurisprudence with honors from the University of Texas, a master of theology from the University of South Africa, and a bachelor of arts in mathematical sciences and managerial studies with high honors from Rice University. He is currently a doctor of theology candidate in New Testament at the University of South Africa.

In addition to his ministry in Austin and throughout the United States, he has ministered in forty-five countries on six continents. Bernard is also a prolific writer who has written extensively on the Bible, theology, the history of doctrine, and Christian living. To date, he has written thirty books, with a circulation of about 750,000. He has been published in thirty-six languages. In addition to his books, he has produced debates and teaching series on CD and DVD and other preaching and teaching helps on CD-ROM.

David Bernard and his wife, Connie, have three children, Jonathan (married to Sara), Daniel, and Lindsey, and one grandchild, Elijah.

The United Pentecostal Church International, headquartered in St Louis, has 30,000 churches in 192 nations around the world and a ministerial membership of 27,000. It was formed in 1945 from the merger of two previously established organizations. The UPCI emerged out of the Pentecostal movement that began in Topeka, Kansas, in 1901. It traces its organizational roots to October 1916, when a large group of ministers withdrew from the Assemblies of God over the doctrinal issues of the oneness of God and water baptism in the name of Jesus Christ.

For the past eight years, Reverend Kenneth F. Haney has served as the General Superintendent of the church. Reverend Bernard is the 7th General Superintendent in the church’s history.