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Digital magazine for 6-21-09
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Sixteen years ago, Bishop Paul S.
Morton, a successful New Orleans-
based pastor, stepped out on a
limb to establish a vision he
called "The Full Gospel Baptist
Fellowship." Morton's vision was
to see Baptists embrace the
"fullness" of the Holy Spirit--
including speaking in tongues
and dancing in the Spirit.
Though he was pastor of a
Baptist church, Morton had roots in the
Church of God in Christ. After
traversing the country to invite other
Baptist pastors to join him in the
movement, the first conference was
held in the city of New Orleans.
This week, Morton will lead
the Full Gospel Baptist Church
Fellowship in it's 16th annual
conference. The group will meet in
Atlanta, GA for its annual conference.
The Full Gospel Baptist
Church Fellowship will once more offer
outstanding preaching, phenomenal2
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singing, and ecstatic praise to attendees. The line up for the
main sessions includes: Pastor Paula White, Pastor R. A.
Vernon, Dr. Carolyn Showell, Pastor Jerry Black and
Bishop Oscar Brown. Complimenting the main session
speakers will be exciting psalmists that include: William
Murphy, Marvin Sapp, Byron Cage, P. J. Morton and
Stephanie Dotson. Young people have a good deal to look
forward to with the likes of Overseer Terrance Johnson,
Overseer Christopher Harris, Tye Tribett, Canton Jones
and Johnathan Phillips.
The theme for the conference is, “More of the Glory.”
Pastor Paula White@ Full Gospel This Week!
�By Bishop Andy C. Lewter, D. Min.
Full Gospel Meets This Week!More of the Glory!
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On March 13, 2000, a Washington
Post headline screamed, “The Exodus
With An Unhappy Genesis; Amid
Discord in Shaw, Metropolitan Baptist
Is Pulling Up Stakes.”
The lead line of the story explained,
“The Rev. H. Beecher Hicks Jr. is outta
here. The 6-foot, 225-pound, gray-
bearded pastor of the District of
Columbia’s largest black church—and
one of its oldest—is uprooting
Metropolitan Baptist from its historic
site in the 1200 block of R Street NW
and moving its 6,500-member
congregation toward the suburbs. It’s
nothing immediately imminent. No site
for the new church has yet been found.
But the decision, approved by
Metropolitan’s members in December
after a dispiriting fight with the
church’s neighbors in Shaw, is
irreversible, Hicks says.”
Nearly a decade later, “irreversible”
is a matter of
semantics. Hicks,
who is undeniably
one of the nation’s
most brilliant
orators and
authors is in the
midst of a storm.
In 2006,
construction
began on the
congregation’s
dream complex in
Largo, Maryland—a $30 million
campus with a 3,000-seat church, an
education center and an 1,100-car
parking lot.
In 2008, the congregation sold its
church in Washington and made
preparation to move to what leaders
had taken to calling “God’s land in
Largo.” Everything seemed to be going
well and then the recession hit like a wrecking ball.
The fallout was catastrophic. Construction costs
soared while congregational giving plummeted.
Shortly before the end of the year, the financing for
the project was put on “hold.”
The church is caught between the proverbial,
“rock and a hard place.” Building efforts have been
stalled and the church’s historic home sold, now the
congregation has temporarily taken its weekly
cont. on p. 7
Dr. H. Beecher Hicks Weathers Another Storm
Faith and the Economic Fallout�By Bishop Andy C. Lewter, D. Min.
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by Bishop Andy C. Lewter, D. Min.
Retooling for the Future...
Most Pentecostal, Charismatic and Evangelistic
denominations trace their origins to the Azusa Street Revival
Movement that took place at the turn of the previous century
(1906) on the west coast in Los Angeles under the leadership of
William Joseph Seymour. However, history reveals that there
was a tongue-talking movement with an emphasis on “holy
living” that got its start almost ten years earlier on the east coast.
In 1897, in South Carolina, William Edward Fuller, Sr.
experienced the Baptism of the Holy Ghost, with the evidence
of speaking in tongues. The following year, he organized the
Fire Baptized Holiness Church of God of the Americas.
“Bishop Fuller, Sr. was part of a group early holiness
personalties that included the likes of G. B. Cashwell, Benjamin
H. Hardin and A. S. King that brought the fire of the Holy Ghost
experience to the southeastern region of the United States
toward the close of the 19th century,” reports William Edward
Fuller, III, grandson of Bishop Fuller, Sr.
Last week, on the campus of the Fuller Normal
Industrial Institute in Greenville, SC, this 100-plus year old
pioneering holiness church
organization, now under the leadership
of Bishop Patrick Frazier, met for their
annual Leadership Retreat (inclusive of
sessions, classes and workshops for the
elders, pastors and denominational
leaders of the church). The group also
discussed how they might re-tool the
church for the future.
“We have to get ready for the
future by getting back to God and
teaching our members the importance
of living “Fire Baptized” said Bishop
Frazier, adding, “Over the next 5 to 7
years we are going to become a
teaching church with expanded
tenants to help people understand who
and what we are.”
Fire-BaptizedHoliness Church
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Hicks..conte. from p.4
worship services to the Dorothy I. Height campus
of Kent Amos Charter School in Northwest DC.
“All churches rely upon philanthropic funds
for their well being; and understandably the
church relates to finance with “faith language,”
explained Dr. Hicks. “There is an appeal to
members regarding tithes and offerings that is
Bible-centered and faith based.”
The recent events with the national
economy, however, have caused the normal
revenue stream that most churches depend upon
to be interrupted to some degree. The degree or
severity of interruption varies among churches; at
any case the impact upon ministry can be
devastating.
“When resources for the provision of daily
bread shrinks, the pew is forced to make a
conscious choice between the biblical mandate to
give and the need to provide food and shelter for
their families.” reports Dr. Hicks.
Hicks’ predicament isn’t an anomaly.
Churches have long been regarded as one of the
safest loan recipients, however, in the current
economic climate, many religious institutions are
seeing the attitudes of lending sources change.
“Many banks are turning down loan requests
from even their best customers; it is not just
churches that’s being affected.” explains Dr.
Hicks.
Metropolitan is currently engaged in
conversations with several lending institutions in
an attempt to secure new funding. Dr. Hicks says
that amidst the challenges, the church has
maintained its financial commitments.
“We are blessed by the consisting giving
patterns of the congregation,” he says. “While we
have physically moved into temporary worship
facilities, our congregation remains strong and
committed—which has strengthened my resolve
to continue in this great work for Christ.”
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This month, Gospel Today Magazine featured
President Barack Obama and his daughter on the
cover. In light of Father’s Day, which was
celebrated this past Sunday, the view of Barack
Obama as a dutiful father in addition to the
country’s chief executive, is an ideal basis for a
discussion about the importance of fatherhood
in our community.
Freelance writer, Rachel Vassel pointed out
in the cover story article, “Twenty-first century
dads understand the value of having an active
relationship with their children. This means not
only taking on the traditional male roles of
provider and disciplinarian, but also creating
and maintaining a level of intimacy with their
offspring that wasn’t expected or demanded
generations ago. These days, dads talk with
their children about their mistakes and life
lessons. They know their kids’ shoe sizes, and
attend school plays, recitals and sporting events
and, like the dad at my church, are not afraid
to take their children out without help.”
In a speech delivered last year, the
president spoke seriously about how fathers
should make a difference in the lives of their
children. “Of all the rocks we build in our lives,
we are most dependent upon the family. The
family is that most important foundation. We
are called upon to recognize how important
and critical every father is to that foundation”
said president Obama in a Father’s Day speech
delivered at the Apostolic Church of Christ on
Chicago’s south side last year.
Dad’s Make a Difference
Surely the image that President Obama has
offered the public goes along way in encouraging
fathers to assume their parental responsibility.
“The President makes attending his daughter’s
soccer game seem equally important to meeting
on the crisis in Iran” says Bishop Stephanie Green
of New York.
In a time when teenage pregnancy has become
commonplace, where 80% of African American
children can expect to spend part of their lives
away from their father and there are more Black
males in prison than in college, the role of
meaningful fathers in the lives of children is more
important than ever before.
President Obama Inspires Fathers
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