About Us
The Birthing of Pentecostal Tabernacle
Pentecostal Tabernacle was birthed by the Holy Ghost after all most a year of fasting and praying. I was an evangelist when I began to be burdened to see a move of genuine Pentecost in my home area. I began to seek God for revival to come by an outpouring of the Holy Ghost. I had become spiritually grieved by all the religion taken hold without seeing people experience the Life of Christ by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost whom it is that brings that Life. Over time as I began to fast and pray more and more seeking the face of God the burden grew more and more. The more I sought God the more unsatisfied I was becoming with a status quo of religion. I couldn't be satisfied with a social club of religion. I knew there was much more to this Christ. I began to feel that God wanted to raise up a vessel of which He could reach people in our area with the genuine Life of Christ. I spent two and a half months in South Africa during this time preaching a crusade and running the SOC. The burden grew more and more during the times of prayer in the SOC.
I will never forget meeting with Pastor B. H. Clendennen in Beaumont, TX right before leaving for South Africa. We talked for a good while that day about different things taking place in the Pentecostal church of today. In that meeting I had asked him two things. If he would write a forward to a book I was putting together called "Endless Possibilities" and if he would preach a tent meeting with me in my local area. Without hesitation he said he would love to, and then he leaned real close to me as he was known to do when an utterance of more than words were to come forth. He said, "son, the fire of God is liable to fall in that tent meeting and God birth a church through you in that town." I never forgot those words. Bro. Clendennen went to be with the Lord just a few short months later. I knew that Bro. Clendennen didn't talk just to be talking. He never knew that God had been dealing with me about a church. Therefore, his words were confirmation to me.
I remember talking to Pastor Don Shoots about starting a church in the will of God. Pastor Shoots repeatedly encouraged me to keep it on the altar, and that I did. There were two particular revival services I went to in which God confirmed the burden I had been feeling. God had already began to show me things that He wanted to do. In one revival a minister, Sis. Kelly, ministered to me in word of knowledge in regards to what God had been dealing with me about and what God said He was going to do. Out of six services she ministered to my wife and I in four of them. It wasn't a lot of the foolishness you see going on today as word of knowledge. She even told me of Bro. Clendennen wanting to help me and why. No one there knew anything about that. In another revival service my wife and I went to God confirmed it as well. I remember praying on the way and telling God that I wasn't going forward for a man to give me a word, but if God had something to say to me to send the preacher back to me to say it. In the middle of the message the preacher stopped and walked back to where I was sitting. He looked at me and said, "God has already told you what he wants to do, and He is going to make it happen."
One night I was laying down and tears started down my cheeks. My wife asked what it was and I replied with, "all I know to do is fast until I have a definite answer." I started a fast! We had planed and scheduled the tent meeting I previously mentioned. Everything came together as God worked miracle after miracle. However, we needed insurance. I checked on the price of an insurance policy for the ministry that would cover tent meetings. We needed $1000 just for the deposit. We didn't have a dime! At the time we had been having prayer meetings in our home on Friday nights. I remember being knelt down beside my bed in the back of the house praying at the next prayer meeting. I was praying over the tent meeting and the need of insurance along with the burden of when to start the church. Everyone else was in the front of the house praying in the living room. It was about the time we closed out the prayer meeting. I said, "God, all I know to do is advertise the tent meeting and leave the insurance deposit up to you. After all, You are the miracle worker, not me. Above that in regards to the church, all I know to do is step out in faith starting the church out of the tent meeting. I just ask you to guide my every footstep." I walked into the living room where the others were and the Lord moved upon a lady to give a tongues and interpretation. In that, the Holy Ghost said, "my son, seek me through my Word and prayer, and I will do everything that I have told you that I will do. I will guide your every foot step if you just look unto me. Seek Me through My Word and prayer, and I will guide your every footstep." A few days later a gentleman told me that he would like to cover the insurance deposit so we could have the tent meeting. The tent meeting went from 18 April through 1 May 2010. We carried on with services as Pentecostal Tabernacle on 2 May 2010. We had that first Sunday's services at the tent. From there we carried on in the living room. It wasn't long after we started that my grandmothers old house, which is still in the family as a rent house, opened up and we moved in. We can accommodate up to 60 people in the small house church.
A Testimony Shortly After We Started
We started with just a hand full of people. I chose to go without any pay from the church while it was getting started, so I took a part time job with a tree trimming service. Even working part time we still didn't have enough to cover personal bills. The church struggled through the beginning. I worked for this tree service for about three months. I had told my wife to be praying with me about working. We would need a miracle in order for me to not have to work a secular job and be able to pay the bills, but I knew I needed to be able to dedicate to prayer, the Word, and ministry of the church. One morning while working I had text my wife about the burden of working and wanting to be able to dedicate to the church properly. After lunch that day a preacher was talking with me. He began to tell me that earlier that day the Lord had told him that He wanted to free me up from working so I could do what He had called me to do. The preacher said he didn't know when that would be, just that God was going to make a way sooner or later. The next week we went to campmeeting at Central Pentecostal Ministries. In one of the messages Pastor Don Shoots made a statement that pierced my heart seeing God strongly began to deal with me about quitting my job. I went down to the altar and began to talk to God. I said, "God, if you want me to quit you will have to give me perfect peace right now, because without a miracle we'll be doomed." Without a miracle from God I knew we would loose it all. A peace came over me in that instance like I have never felt in my life before. I could have laid on that altar and slept better than I ever have before if I would have known Bro. Shoots wouldn't come kick me off. I walked out with a smile of victory and told my wife, "now's the time to quit." Oh, to dare to believe God Almighty! I quit working that moment. I never returned to work once we got back home. As Bro. Clendennen always said, "businessmen may preach, but preachers will never be businessmen." The church is still small and having our struggles fighting the devil for the will of God, but God has been so faithful. As Wigglesworth always said, "Dare to believe God!" We have testimony after testimony of how God met the needs and brought money in from outside that we would never expect. Oh, to be in the will of God! If the devil wasn't fighting so I would need to get in an altar and find out where I stepped out of the will of God. Friend, Dare to believe God for the impossible!
Pentecostal Tabernacle
1520 Bennie Breece Street - West Monroe, LA 71292
931-237-2784 - PentecostalTabernacleWM@yahoo.com