PCOG Origins:
Historical Sermon Collections:
Two families from the Rio Grande side of Texas. A young pastor from Kansas City. A small, stone home on the west end of Porterville.
From such humble beginnings sprung the Porterville Church of God, a Christ-centered Pentecostal movement that lives on today, 72 years after the day nine charter members met in A.R. and Minnie Pearson’s living room and started having church on March 11, 1944.
Four church buildings, 24 pastors and thousands of saved souls later, the Porterville Church of God continues its mission of loving Christ and Community, determined to continue in the evangelical heart and Pentecostal Spirit of their forefathers in the Lord.
Located in the agricultural cradle of California, the Porterville Church of God has sent a host of ministers into the harvest fields, including two future Church of God state overseers and at least seven pastors.
It’s all because seven Church of God members driven out of Texas by the drought of the Dust Bowl were equally driven to bring the latter rain to Porterville, CA. Led by founding pastor J.H. Steenburgh, the charter members quickly outgrew the house where they first held services – meetings that got so loud with Spirit-filled shouting, Pastor Steenburgh was once arrested for disturbing the peace when neighbors complained to the police.
Nothing, however, could stop this move of God. The congregation rented a small building on the corner of Hockett and D St., but that too couldn’t hold them as the Lord added souls weekly. When 24-year-old pastor H.B. Thompson arrived in 1950, God used Bro. Thompson’s fiery preaching and his construction skills to launch the church into its most explosive period of growth yet.
The church bought its first property just down the street on Orange and E. Bro. Thompson rolled up his sleeves and helped build a new and larger worship house in 1951, a sanctuary that would remain the church’s home for 45 years.
The congregation grew from 200 to over 300 by 1952, with attendance charts showing a record day of 363 that fall. One revival grew so big, Bro. Thompson moved it outdoors into a field, stringing lights from polls and using a flatbed trailer for a platform. He also hosted a daily radio show and led the charge to retake a city that was plagued with vice.
From there, the Porterville Church of God would see a long list of mighty men and women of God come through it’s doors and minister to the church and community. Its early pastors included statesmen such as Jack Hale, Carl Hughes, Thomas Griffith Sr. and Charles Querry.
Future assistant general overseer John Nichols preached his first revival on Orange and E. Future West Coast Bible College president Hal B. Thompson Jr. was saved and baptized there as a child. The Church of God’s General Overseer Mark L. Williams preached at the new sanctuary as a state overseer.
Through it all, the Holy Spirit flame continued to burn through all the church’s ebbs and flows. By the mid-1990s, the congregation had again outgrown its building. Pastor Tom Griffith Jr. moved the church across town in 1996 to an empty lot on 940 W. Westfield Ave., where they built a fellowship hall that would initially be used as the sanctuary.
Four years later, Pastor Phil Akin arrived and began Phase 2 of the building project: the construction of the largest worship center in the church’s history. Bro. Akin bought 300 chairs, knowing they were averaging just 65 in attendance, but convinced God would one day fill the house. That vision was first fulfilled on multiple Easter Sundays, when standing-room audiences came to be changed by the Resurrection story of Christ.
Today, Bishop Troy and Dawn Sawyers long to see those chairs filled with newborn souls every week of the year, as they pray for a Revival like the one that launched this Pentecostal movement in an upper room some 2,000 years ago.
Let us give God all the thanks and glory for over 80 years – and counting -- of His Love and Blessings.
Special thanks to Paul Loeffler, radio announcer for California State University, Fresno for assisting with the production of this video.
