Bishop Ernest N. Webb

Presiding Pastor from 1969 to 1993

Bishop Ernest N. Webb was a native of Fordyce, Arkansas and relocated to Nevada in 1941. He was saved in 1944 and answered to the call of the ministry in 1945. He was commissioned to pastor in Reno, Nevada by the last Bishop C. C. Cox in 1950. His first Church was a 10 ft. 10 ft. room in a basement with only three members. From these humble beginnings, he continued to Pastor in Reno, Nevada for twenty years. He was the first Elder to be appointed as State President of the Y.P. W. W. Department organized in 1952, a position he held for thirteen years. Bishop Webb was appointed Assistant Bishop of Nevada in 1961 by the Late Bishop C. C. Cox while in Reno, Nevada. He succeeded the late Bishop Cox as Jurisdictional bishop of the Nevada Jurisdiction. Having been appointed by the General Board of Bishops in 1969 the same year he received his Doctorate of Divinity Degree, he became Pastor of the Upper Room church of God in Christ in Las Vegas, Nevada. Tragedy struck in September 1976. A fire caused by an arsonist, as reported in the Review Journal, gutted the sanctuary of the Cox Upper Room Church at 2:00 A.M. destroying the work of both Bishop Cox and Bishop Web. The rebuilding of the sanctuary was completed and dedicated August 1977. It was at that time the church was renamed Pentecostal Temple. During the 50th year jubilee, the group breaking ceremonies for Pentecostal Temple Expansion Project was held on June 22, 1991. The purchase of the land located at 609 Madison Ave., owned by the late Mrs. Smith, the present location of Pentecostal Temple, was a blessing that was spearheaded through professional negotiations by Elder Leon Smith. Bishop Webb is well remembered, loved and respected.