[8] From the inception of the Joint College of Bishops, Ellis, alongside the organization's co-founders—Wilbert Sterling McKinley, Roy Edmond Brown, and Paul Sylvester Morton—have been labeled as "leaders in the shift" among African American Pentecostals for introducing liturgical order and identity among Pentecostal or Full Gospel churches and denominations.

[9][10] As a promoter of ecumenism, Ellis placed Pentecostalism as manifested among African Americans in conversation with the broader Christian community around the world.

During his teen years, Ellis attempted to establish a relationship with his father by attending a Nation of Islam mosque.

[14] His father told them Jesus was the "white man's god and Christianity was a trick designed to enslave black people.

"[17] Ellis began attending the Christian Tabernacle Church of God in Christ under the pastorate of Bishop R.T. Jones, Sr.[18] One night at the church Ellis professed Christianity and claimed his father physically abused him for rejecting Islam (see also: apostasy in Islam).

[19] In his early adulthood, Ellis joined the United States Air Force and attended the Church of the Nazarene.

[26][27] The Joint College of Bishops originally functioned as a High Church Pentecostal body, later expanding into other Protestant traditions through Doye Agama and the Apostolic Pastoral Congress.

Through Ellis, the Joint College of Bishops reappropriated the history and purpose of vestments and the episcopacy for Pentecostals in contrast with their initial users in Roman Catholicism and Anglicanism.

[32] The college also upheld that the fascia was the "towel used to wash His [Jesus] disciples feet,"[31] though it was worn by all Catholic clergy since 1624.

[42] In 1995, Ellis was fired after briefly serving as a city police chaplain for his comments toward Muslims, stating Islam was "bloody and dangerous" at worst.

[48] Following his death, Bishop Woodson of the PCC's Mid-South Episcopal Diocese was elected as new presiding prelate for the Pentecostal Churches of Christ.

Because of that contention, we hold dear our Apostolic Succession which we claim through Augustine of Rome, who was sent by the 'Holy See' to England to establish the English Church.

They also claimed this succession converges in Schlossberg and Burgess, as well as numerous lineages deriving via Hugh George de Willmott Newman (Mar Georgius).

According to Ellis, members of his denomination and the Joint College of Bishops, "use this means to herald the privilege of the unbroken chain of Historical Succession."

Claiming both "western and eastern streams of apostolic succession" for himself and the United Pentecostal Churches of Christ, however, and being Oneness Pentecostal, according to Michael Ramsey—once the Archbishop of Canterbury (1961–1974)—the validity of someone's apostolic succession pertains to continuity of teaching, preaching, governing, ordination and grace.