Pentecostals get their name from the Bible events in Acts chapter two. One hundred and twenty of the Lord’s disciples had gathered after His resurrection in an upper room to pray and wait for the ‘promise of the Father.’ (You can read this story in Acts chapters one and two). When the promise came it was on the Jewish holiday called Pentecost. All one hundred and twenty were ‘filled with the Holy Ghost’ and began to ‘speak with other tongues’ in that upper room. When the revelation of speaking in tongues came to the modern church around 1900, those who accepted the use of speaking in tongues began to call themselves Pentecostals.

All Pentecostals, it seems, can trace their roots to events in Topeka, Kansas and the Azusa Street mission in Los Angeles, California. The outpouring of the Holy Ghost spread across America like wildfire at the turn of the 20th century as believers responded to the supernatural events surrounding the Day of Pentecost in the Book of Acts. “Tongue-talkers” were once a small minority but now make-up the greatest percentage of all Christian believers.

TurnPoint was born out of the Apostolic Pentecostal movement that spread through Ohio in the 1920’s and 1930’s. Apostolics were distinctive from other Pentecostal groups for their belief in One God, tongues as initial evidence of the Holy Ghost, and baptism in the Name of the Lord Jesus. Men like W. T. Witherspoon and Bishop Carl Smith founded mighty churches in Columbus that affected this whole region. S. R. Hanby traveled to many small towns in central Ohio planting churches. Pastor Paul Cook’s grandfather, Ralph Gleason Cook, led a thriving work in Lancaster for about thirty years. TurnPoint’s own Elder Pastor P. H. Cook fostered a church in Circleville and then led a group in south Columbus that became the seed group that is TurnPoint today.

Pastor Paul M. Cook began leading TurnPoint in October of 1998 when the congregation was averaging 250 worshippers. Pastor had been giving leadership to a thriving young work in Atlanta, Georgia for ten years but was drawn here in hopes of watering the seeds of past revivals that were still in the soil of the Columbus area. His father and grandfather had invested over 50 years of ministry in central Ohio and pastor was uniquely prepared to capitalize on that investment.

TurnPoint changed its name in 1999 to reflect its vision for our city, our nation, and our world. The name of the church is a response to the development of the statement of purpose.