Christian Life College

How videos are produced at the UPCI headquarters.

Daniel Segraves

June 4, 2025 | Daniel L. Segraves, Ph.D.

Since 1968, I have been involved in various ways in the production of Sunday school curriculum for the United Pentecostal Church International. This started with Word Aflame Publications, when I served as the editor of the Junior High literature.

As you might imagine, many changes have occurred in this process since 1968. Beginning in the 1970s and continuing to the present time, I have written materials on the adult level. Although I have lost track of how many lessons I have written, I think it is safe to say they number in the hundreds. Some years ago, I counted what I had done to that point. I believe it was 150 lessons.

More recently, with the development of new technologies, my involvement has reached beyond writing. Videos are now included in the materials produced to supplement the printed lessons. Last week, I was in the studio at the headquarters of the UPCI to film two videos, one on the significance of the change of Jacob’s name to Israel and the other on what it means to say that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart.

It occurred to me that some readers of this blog may be interested to know what kind of studio is used and how this process is accomplished. Susan, my wife, was with me, and she took some pictures with her iPhone. We were in the same studio where David K. Bernard and Jonathan Mohr film Dr. Bernard’s podcast.

L. J. Harry, Curriculum Director for the Pentecostal Resources Group, sits with his back to the camera. State-of-the-art technology is utilized, including a teleprompter that keeps pace with the reader’s voice. I wrote the scripts for the videos and emailed them to Brother Harry before the session. David Zuniga, the cameraman, is a graduate of Christian Life College in Stockton, California. I taught at Christian Life College for twenty-five years.

So that’s it! I recommend God’s Word for Life, the current name of the curriculum produced by the UPCI. Each Sunday, the lessons prepared for all grade levels explore the same biblical texts, enabling families to review what they have studied.

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Sixty years of ministry.

Daniel Segraves

May 7, 2025 | Daniel L. Segraves, Ph.D.

I am so thankful for the privilege of being involved in various aspects of ministry in the United Pentecostal Church International for the past sixty years. This has included pastoring, teaching, and writing.

It all began when I was sixteen years old. As I participated in a prayer meeting at about one or two o’clock in the morning, the Lord gave me a desire to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. My early training came from men like Clyde J. Haney, Paul Dugas, and other faculty members at Western Apostolic Bible College in Stockton, California.

In 1968, the year after graduation from WABC, I accepted an invitation from J. O. Wallace to work with him as the first Director of Promotions and Publications for the General Sunday School Department of the UPC. At that time, the headquarters of the organization were located at 3645 South Grand Avenue in Saint Louis, Missouri. This is the city where I was born.

During the time I served in this capacity, the UPC began publishing the first full-scale Oneness Pentecostal Sunday school curriculum under the banner of Word Aflame Publications. My responsibility was to function as the editor of the Junior High materials.

From 1970 until 1975, I worked as the Minister of Christian Education for a local church in Maplewood, Missouri, while at the same time developing promotional materials for various departments of the UPC. Then I accepted the pastorate of the First Pentecostal Church in Dupo, Illinois, staying in this role until 1982.

During the spring of 1982, Kenneth F. Haney invited me to become the Executive Vice-President of Christian Life College. I accepted, returning to Stockton as the administrator and chairman of the department of theology for the same school where I had been trained when it was known as WABC. When Brother Haney was elected as the general superintendent of the UPCI, he asked me to assume the role of president for CLC. I served in this office until 2007, when I returned to St. Louis to teach at Urshan Graduate School of Theology.

I retired from full-time work at UGST on July 1, 2018, becoming professor emeritus.

This is a kind of “bare bones” description of my life in ministry to this point. Along the way, I have written twenty-two books, and I am now working on the twenty-third. I have been the Bible teacher at eighteen camp meetings, and I had the privilege of preaching for the general conference of the United Pentecostal Church in Australia.

As the days of my life have progressed, I have had the opportunity to complete further education, earning the Master of Arts in Exegetical Theology and the Master of Theology degrees at Western Seminary as well as the Ph.D. in Renewal Studies with dual emphases in Christian History and Christian Theology at Regent University School of Divinity.

None of us knows the future. But if the day should come when I receive a Ministry Milestone for seventy years of service, I will be approaching ninety years of age!

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