{"id":16652,"date":"2025-07-17T19:39:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T19:39:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/?p=16652"},"modified":"2025-07-17T19:39:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T19:39:11","slug":"st-paul-mbc-pastoral-appreciation-sunday-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/17\/st-paul-mbc-pastoral-appreciation-sunday-service\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Paul MBC Pastoral Appreciation Sunday Service"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
First Lady Linnie and Rev. James Willis<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Truth Staff<\/em><\/p>\n

Following a Saturday night of celebration at the Premier Banquet Hall for the 22 years of service of rendered by Pastor James and Frist Lady Linnie Willis, the St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church\u2019s congregation honored the couple the next morning during Sunday service.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s pastoral appreciation theme was \u201cA Man of God Worthy of Double Honour\u201d- 1 Timothy 5:17-18, 1 Thessalonians 5:12-13, Jeremiah 3:15.<\/p>\n

The deacons thanked the Lord for bringing their pastor to St. Paul for helping him \u201cbe the leaders that he is.\u201d Said Ray Wood during the praise and worship: \u201cWe want to give him his flowers while he can still smell them.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the Praise and Worship opening by the Deacons, Sis. Deborah Gardner presented the stirring musical selection and then the honorees, Pastor and First Lady Willis, were escorted in by grandchildren Jackson and Jace Willis.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Sis. Deborah Gardner<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sunday\u2019s speaker, as he was on Saturday evening, was Rev. Kevin Bedford. Rev. Bedford, a Chicago native, has served since 2013 as senior pastor of Progressive Baptist Church of Aurora, Illinois. However, prior to his move back to the Chicago area 12 years ago, he was senior pastor of Toledo\u2019s Historic Third Baptist Church from 2004 to 2013.<\/p>\n

During Bedford\u2019s time in Toledo, he was also president of the Toledo Branch NAACP, the African American Leadership Council and actively participated in a number of initiatives that addressed criminal justice reform, academic improvement and economic development for poos and underserved communities.<\/p>\n

Bedford\u2019s academic accomplishments include a bachelor\u2019s of Arts degree from Union University of Jackson, TN; a master\u2019s of Divinity from Memphis Theological Seminary and a master\u2019s of Science Degree in Organizational Management from Eastern Connecticut State University.<\/p>\n

After the celebratory message delivered by Rev. Bedford, Sunday\u2019s service concluded with a musical selection, the recognition of guests and remarks by Rev. Willis thanking the congregation for the recognition.<\/p>\n

\u201cDear Beloved Members and Friends of St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church, Gace and peace to you in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!,\u201d wrote Pastor James and First Lady Linnie Willis in a letter to the congregation. \u201cIt is with full hearts and deep gratitude that we write to express what a true joy and blessing it is to serve in this community and to walk alongside each of you as part of the St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church family \u2026 thank you for allowing us to serve\u00a0 you \u2026 \u201c<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Truth Staff Following a Saturday night of celebration at the Premier Banquet Hall for the 22 years of service of rendered by Pastor James and Frist Lady Linnie Willis, the St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church\u2019s congregation honored the couple the next morning during Sunday service. This year\u2019s pastoral appreciation theme was \u201cA Man of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16655,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[250],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[302],"class_list":["post-16652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16652"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16652\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16656,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16652\/revisions\/16656"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16652"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=16652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}