Long participated in the formative years of the Two by Twos, the Elim movement and Pentecostalism in Ireland and Great Britain.
[1] From the age of seven, he worked digging peat during the summer months and attended school during the winter.
[2] During an 1897 study of the Gospel of Matthew, Irvine challenged Long as to whether the command to go out preaching without any financial support, possessions, etc.
[1][5] In 1907, Long was publicly excommunicated from the Two by Twos for refusing to damn all non-Two by Two clergy, including Methodism's founder John Wesley.
[2] After his expulsion from the Two by Twos, John Long joined the Elim Evangelistic Band (an early Irish Pentecostal movement), where he was highly regarded among its leaders.