Spokane pastor nominated to world board

A Spokane pastor has been nominated to a leadership position in the Church of God in Christ, the largest African American Pentecostal body in the United States.

The Rev. Ezra Kinlow, pastor of Holy Temple Church of God in Christ, 806 W. Indiana Ave., is among five pastors worldwide chosen to stand for election to the church’s International Judicial Board, the last court of appeal for intra-denominational disputes.

The Church of God in Christ has 3.7 million members and nearly 10,000 churches throughout the world, according to the Handbook of Denominations. The church regards itself as the largest Pentecostal group in America.

As many as 10,000 ministers, ordained elders and laypersons will vote to fill two of the Judicial Board’s nine positions during the Church of God in Christ’s annual convocation in Memphis next week.

Kinlow, 68, a respected elder among Spokane African Americans, has been pastor of the 125-member Holy Temple for 25 years.

“When it came to human rights for everyone, he was always in the background or foreground,” the Rev. Percy “Happy” Watkins, pastor of New Hope Baptist Church in Spokane, said of his peer. “We have marched together, worked together and sat down at the table of brotherhood together.”

Kinlow has been active in many ministerial or civic organizations, including the Interdenominational Ministers Fellowship and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

He and his wife of 43 years, Eleise Kinlow, have six children.

Kinlow said that when his peers from other Washington state Church of God in Christ congregations asked him whether he would accept the nomination, he answered, “With God’s grace, I will.”