“Everyone who knew you
will be amazed at how God
did a transformation in your
life. I am here to tell you,
don’t settle for less.”
April 2020 — pg. 14
VITALSigns
Upon $nishing the program at Teen Challenge, I moved
to Oklahoma to attend Mid-America Bible College. I met
Estelle Harris (who is now my wife) at the school, which
was jokingly but $ttingly referred to as Mid-America
“Bridal” College.
I began serving as the $rst youth pastor at Prayer of
Faith World Outreach in Oklahoma, a church with a
predominantly Caucasian congregation. Today, I laugh as
I look back on those days serving with the church’s pastor.
I taught him to sing soul and he taught me to sing country.
!at was just one of many experiences throughout my
ministry where I felt the Lord move me out of my comfort
zone.
I believe God is always preparing us for the next place He
wants to take us in ministry. For me, it was preparation for
serving people of di"erent cultural and ethnic backgrounds.
From Oklahoma, we moved to pastor a congregation in
St. Louis, the Lighthouse Free Methodist Church, where we
served throughout the 1990s. Next, we relocated in 2000 to
Maryland were I served as the lead pastor at New Vision
Fellowship Free Methodist Church for 15 years and planted
a church in the inner city of Washington, D.C. — New
Vision in the City. In 2015, the Lord called Estelle and me
to serve in Indianapolis at the John Wesley Free Methodist
Church where we are “an international congregation with a
global mission.”
I have an old photo, which captures a prophetic moment
with my grandmother and me. !is is priceless. She is
looking directly at me, but through me. My grandmother
told me right at that moment how she could see me
preaching the gospel to thousands of people. She knew
then my destiny was to become a preacher long before
the manifestation of God’s saving grace and transforming
power had completely changed the trajectory of my life. She
looked beyond what I couldn’t see, and she saw what was
already hidden in me, my destiny and the greatness within
me to serve God in His kingdom.
Called With Purpose
You were called from the womb with purpose. God has
prepared a plan for you to follow, an assignment, to be fruitful
and to multiply. He has equipped you with everything you
need to be successful in life, to be a blessing as you navigate
through the stages of life. God places unexpected blessings
in your life to let you know that He is not done with us. His
calling on you, even before you were born, is still alive and
well — no matter what you’ve been through, no matter what
you are facing now.
Now that you’re here, right now in this moment, you are
surrounded by the voice of the Lord calling your name,
calling you (and me) with an assignment in life. It’s to tell
our story how God stepped in and changed our direction,
changed our minds, touched our hearts, and now we can
see in another dimension what others can’t see because they
are spiritually blind and spiritually deaf. You are now in the
right place at the right time for a right word because God
has you on His mind right now to reveal to you that there is
greatness in you — greatness to be revealed in serving God
and serving others.
Mercy Moves
!is is a call to shi# your thinking, to be empowered by
the Holy Spirit to do great things and realize that God is
doing a great work in you. God is going to use your life like
a river that %ows out of your innermost being (John 7:38).
Everyone who knew you will be amazed at how God did a
transformation in your life. I am here to tell you, don’t settle
for less.
God has so much more for you to be and to see. He has
crowned you with spiritual blessings, with grace and mercy.
Grace and mercy are following you. When you turn, grace
turns. When you move, mercy moves.+