Please share about your spiritual journey. When I think about my spiritual journey, I identify its genesis with parents who bathed my existence with specific and intentional prayers and implanted in the womb of my reality the unbreakable belief that impregnated my sense of self to such a degree I still cannot separate my sense of self from the sense of God’s call on my life. My father was a pastor for 39 years in the Allegheny East Conference and my mother was a teacher who planted and seasoned the sense and love for God’s call with family worship, Sabbath games, Pathfinders events, and active participation in the life of the church. From my early years I was blessed by preachers like Elder E. E. Cleveland and Elder C. E. Bradford. And I was blessed by others who visited our home because of their relationship with my father. They created respect and awareness of the sacredness, passion, and prioritized focus needed in working for the Lord.
Then there were family members whose examples still follow my spiritual journey in the halls of blessed memory. Elder J. H. Wagner Sr., who was president of the South Atlantic Conference, patiently placed a desk in his office for me as a child to sit and watch him in the busyness of his day-to-day responsibilities. Our family get -ogether on Christmas would be attended by relatives who invariably were ministers. They would gather and fill the room with conversations concerning their work. The first school I attended was started by my parents and still operates to this day in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. as an expression of my family’s commitment to Christian education. I graduated from Pine Forge Academy, which was founded under the leadership of Elder J. H. Wagner Sr., the first president of Allegheny Conference. It further shaped my respect for Christian education and its importance in guiding youth to divine destiny.
The miraculous moment of confirmation came in Petersburg, Virginia, where my father was pastoring. I remember asking God to please confirm or reveal my calling. It was a youth Sabbath and I was asked to speak. I studiously prepared all week. The panic came after about 10-15 minutes when the notes had ended and time remained. It felt like the answer to my prayer was confirmed that God had other plans for my life, and just as I was about to take my seat and accept this reality my mouth opened and words began to pour out that I had no control over. The congregation began to awaken, and a sense of the power and presence of the Spirit permeated the atmosphere as it became evident that it was God speaking through me. An appeal was made and the front of the church was filled with surrendered lives. I knew then that God had a place and a work for me.
What message would you like to share with members of your ethnic communities? The message I have for the wonderful members of the Central California Conference, and in particular the Black ministries church family, is that our best days are yet to come! They are in front of us, not behind. We have the promise articulated by the Old Testament prophet Joel and echoed and endorsed with pentecostal passion by the Apostle Peter. “And afterward, I will pour out My Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on My menservants and maidservants, I will pour out My Spirit in those days,” (Joel 2:28-32).
What is your vision for your ministry? The vision for the short-term future is to minister where God has planted us. This means the changing communities that surround our churches and present diverse opportunities and challenges are our new frontier we are purposely positioned and planted to reach. To be effective we must incorporate the use of new technologies, intergenerational participation and partnerships, and social media. This will all be bathed with prayer for discernment so we are working where God is working in ways that are efficient, effective, and pleasing to Him.
Finally, we must access the promise of evangelistic success by remembering the Biblical formula that guarantees success. We must be faithful with what God has already given! We cannot ask God for more when we have not been faithful with what He has already bestowed. We must reach the missing and inactive members in our churches and be faithful in our sacred responsibilities of discipling and shepherding them. As we move forward, we can have the assurance of the blessed promise, “Thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many.” We move the cart before the horse when we seek to evangelize without having been faithful with the flock God has already entrusted to us. We must be seen as faithful. The vision for our constituency is first a call to faithfulness.
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