From The Bishop’s Desk
The experience of spring is in the air. Persons are making plans and activities are being scheduled. The cool weather is giving way to gentle breezes and longer days. It is a season for us to maximize for the Kingdom. I am working hard to see what God would have us do to empower the people and to lead persons to Jesus Christ. In fact, I sense and believe we are poised for a great revival. The times are so bad that persons will cry out for Christ and we must be ready to hear their cry. There was a time when I used to think that the community should be responding to what we offer, but I have come to understand that we don’t go to the community to get members. We go to the community because we can help. We have the name of Jesus and the miracle power He has given us. We can tutor, aid in caregiving, teach relationship, and educate about finance. We can be the miracle so many need to see.
This is the anchor idea behind our conference this year, “Equipping The Remnant To Ignite Revival.” I am inviting you to bring your leaders, ministers, and members to Baltimore from July 16th-18th at the Morningstar Baptist Church where Bishop Dwayne Debnam is the Pastor. We will explore tools and strategies that will enable us to rethink many of our efforts and hopefully see more lives changed. Be sure to sign up today at our website, www.kingdomassociation.org. Our members need to study and grow together. They will be encouraged to see others facing similar struggles and ready to work on meaningful solutions. I feel we are a part of this revival fire and we must prepare ourselves. I do not know when it will begin, but, my friends, I feel it is coming, and we must be ready.
Be ready to meet in Baltimore, and let’s ready ourselves to ignite revival!
Bishop Walter S. Thomas, Sr.
Presiding Prelate
Hello,
I greet you in and with the joy of the resurrection. Easter is the time of new life imagined as Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead. The weight of Good Friday and the anguish of the cross have given way to new opportunities and possibilities as God has blasted open the doors of disappointments and caused the hope of eternity to once again be in our midst.
I am confident that on Sunday you heard inspiring preaching about He who Is “the Resurrection and the Life.” Let the joy and the grace of this season ignite a new fire in you. Christ is alive forevermore. Your ministry, your life, and your relationships are not in the tomb; they have come forth, triumphant with power.
Have no doubt, I have been praying for you during this season, and now I announce to you, “He is Risen!” Our hearts now point toward Pentecost and our Summer Conference. The Conference will be held in Baltimore at Morning Star Baptist Church. Sunday, April 28th will be KACP Registration Day, and we will have special promotions at many of our churches. Complete registration information is available at www.kingdomassociation.org. Be Blessed and Stay Encouraged.
Bishop Walter S. Thomas, Sr.
“… these men who have turned the world upside down have come here too …” Acts 17:6
July 16th – 18th, 2019
The planning is underway, and we are believing that this year’s Kingdom Association of Covenant Pastors Conference will be ministry changing. Our conference is being tailor-made to strengthen our churches and our members to win this battle of spiritual warfare. It is clear that we have taken some hits, but God is saying we are still positioned to win.
In order to maximize our conference experience, we are asking that every church would be engaged in the planning and the execution of the conference. One of the first steps that I am asking from each of you as members is to appoint an internal KACP Committee within your church that we can channel information to. This group of persons/individual will be responsible for registering your members for the conference as well as making sure that pertinent information gets to the right people.
We believe that the proper structure will ensure that KACP continues to be a significant resource for churches and leaders who are determined to give GOD our best. Submit the names of the persons who will serve on the KACP Committee from your church to the following email addresses Rfulton@newpsalmist.org and Rbrown@msbcministries.org.
Our website has been updated with all of this year’s Conference information, including an on-line registration link and detailed information regarding Conference sponsorships. Check out the site at www.kingdomassociation.org.
This year’s conference is a “can’t miss” moment for you and your congregation. With so much happening in this world, we really need the information that will be shared at Conference 2019. Again, you don’t want to miss it!!!
Bishop Walter S. Thomas, Sr.
Dear KACP,
We are getting ready for our annual KACP Conference! Our team has been working hard to put everything in place for a great experience in July. As I travel around the country, I am seeing the heavy weights people are carrying. Our churches are facing struggles that are not going away anytime soon and members are struggling to keep up with their lives. This year’s conference experience is geared to address this reality.
The Christian Church was born in struggle and in flames. The early Christians found themselves confronting issues that could cost them their lives. Yet, the Apostle Paul wrote the Corinthian Church and said “Rejoice!” The key to their strength being activated in their reality was linked to their ability to rejoice. Some of us hear this and say it’s easier said than done; that is true, but it still must be done. Our strength is released when we rejoice. The Old Testament put it this way, “The joy of the Lord is our strength!” Our joy is the energy that charges through in every challenge we face.
This year our theme is “Reset, Recharge, Rejoice.” I know we have to encourage and support one another and the conference is designed for us to gather to do just that. We also want to equip our leaders and churches with the tools necessary to continue the work and to be effective for the kingdom. We think this theme moves us in that direction. We have to reset our program, recharge our ministries and rejoice in the God of our salvation.
Registration is open now. You can register on the website www.kingdomassociation.org and obtain the hotel and other pertinent information. Registration is moving swiftly and hotel rooms are limited. Please secure your rooms today. We have a powerful lineup of speakers and preachers and your members will be inspired and empowered. I am believing if you invest you will see change when they return to the church on fire. We will start with the Crab Feast on Monday, July 16, 2018, and Opening worship service on Tuesday evening July17th.
Join me in praying for our conference. God has a word for us and I want us to be in the house to receive it. Our churches have a tremendous challenge ahead and we must call a lost world to Christ and empower them to grow in their relationship to Christ.
I am look forward to seeing you all in a few weeks.
Bishop Walter S. Thomas, Sr.
I have waited until today to send this note to all of our KACP and churches concerning the horrors we witnessed last weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia and the response to such actions by the leaders of the free world. I have concluded that the final withdrawals were made this week from the moral bank of America. It is now insolvent. For some years now we have watched great withdrawals being made without any deposits of righteousness and fairness to replace them. We witnessed the horror of Katrina and the near collapse of the financial system with blame being placed on the shoulders of poor people and people of color. This week we saw the ageless face of racism and white supremacy seizing control of our nations consciousness as it was given moral standing by a sitting president. The failure to call such ideas reprehensible makes the words of Maya Angelou stand out, “when someone tells you who they are, believe them.”
Yet he is not the only one telling us who he is. Business leaders rose to tell us they are not in that camp. Yet the voices of those who sit on his Evangelical Council have not found a voice with which to cry aloud and spare not. They have showed us who they are by their silence and continued association. Many who have been sent to Washington and now control the three branches of government have spoken with despair about the comments but have refused to demand a change in both pronouncements and the policies. I have been heartened by those voices willing to cry against evil and speak against such moral comparisons. God is opening our eyes to the perils of the times. We have to believe people when they tell us who they are.
What then does this mean for us? We cannot be sidetracked into discussions about monuments; it is not about that. Robert E. Lee spoke to these venerable monuments in a letter to a friend, “My conviction is,” Lee wrote, “that however grateful it would be to the feelings of the South, the attempt in the present condition of the Country, would have the effect of retarding, instead of accelerating its accomplishment; & of continuing, if not adding to, the difficulties under which the Southern people labor.” It is about a return to an America where all men are not created equal and where people of color are marginalized back into oppression. This is not the time to mute our voices and just listen. We must join the conversation and assert that not everyone will allow this to happen. We must stand up. Do I think we are in peril? Absolutely! The American model that evolved in its thinking is like an experiment that a scientist no longer wants to continue. The actions of this government seem to say this loud and clear. It is time for us to rise up candidates and to push them into doing their civic responsibility. We need new leadership.
Last weekend a young woman died as a result of hatred and indifference. The response has been strange, but not unanticipated. Our hearts grieve for all those hurt both in body and in spirit but we thank them for exposing the underbelly of our nation. May we find that the disease has not overwhelmed the body system of our nation and may we trust that God still has our back and still with us.
This week we saw the ugly stance of ageless hatred taking control of our consciousness and even religious leaders who associated with this movement even tangentially have found themselves important and co-opted to the same spirit they once denounced…at least publicly.
Bishop Walter S. Thomas, Sr.
Presiding Prelate