“But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel;
And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy […]”
Acts 2:16-17a KJV

What a difference a year makes!
Last January, the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc. (NBCUSA), the National Baptist Convention of America (NBCA), the Progressive National Baptist Convention (PNBC), and the National Missionary Baptist Convention (NMBC) gathered together in Memphis, TN, for the 2024 National Baptist Joint Board Session. As the Bluff City thawed out from a winter storm, hours-long registration lines and a contentious NBCUSA presidential election added a chill to the atmosphere.
But many hearts were strangely warmed by the prophetic fire The Reverend Dr. Gina Stewart, pastor of Christ Missionary Baptist Church in Memphis, offered as she preached Jesus on the second day of the meeting. Dr. Stewart's sermon was stain-glass shattering, as she was the first woman to preach in a National Baptist Parent Body session. While delivering her historic sermon, she also served as the president of Lott Carey, a missionary convention that splintered from the National Baptist Convention in 1897. Missing the first part of the service, I made my way into the convention hall just in time to hear her salutations. Stewart has long been an impressive preacher to me and most suitable for the task. Though, it was more than her sermon that blessed me and countless others that day. As I reflected in a January 23, 2024, Facebook post:
I simply celebrate how her scholarship and spiritual fervor; prophetic critique and pastoral care; and womanist hermeneutic and worshipful posture propelled our time into something I’ve never experienced at a convention meeting. Not only was this a historic moment; it was a paradigmatic one.
Today, Dr. Stewart, the president of the Lott Carey Convention, tutored all the Baptists in the room with her embodiment and modeling of Bapticostal excellence.

There was an in-breaking. We experienced “supernatural joy” in what WEB DuBois called “the frenzy.” Dr. Stewart spoke in tongues during a high-praise moment following her sermon and affirmed, “Yeah, I'm Baptist, but I'm charismatic. I believe in the power of the Holy Ghost!" Such a confession was bold, brave, and bridging. And it was music to my ears.
In 2018, I created the Word and Spirit Baptists Facebook group after much prayer and conversation with Pastor Dwight McKissic, Dr. Marcus Jerkins, and others. It was a needed intervention that helped charismatic Black Baptists feel an unapologetic sense of community within conventions that didn’t fully embrace our kind of Baptist identity. The group also serves as an educational resource, helping National Baptists see through scholarship and data that charismatic Black Baptists have been and will continue to be significant contributors to Black Baptist life. What President Stewart facilitated in that kairotic time was like a mountaintop experience.
To be sure, Dr. Stewart’s presence and pneumatological conviction were controversial. She occupied a space that had a mixed reaction to a preaching Bapticostal woman. Some protested her presence, while others praised God for answered prayers. I was in the latter camp. Years of prayer and conversation were crystallized in that moment. That was January 2024.
A year later, the “problem” of preaching/pastoring women and Bapticostals in NBCUSA felt more like a gift than a burden celebrated in the same context that previously seemed resistant to both modalities. The NBCUSA's Midwinter Board Meeting, convened this month in Birmingham, AL, was replete with women clergy in visible roles and several charismatic expressions. Honestly, as someone who avidly supported Dr. Claybon Lea’s presidential candidacy, I came to Birmingham hoping for the best from the new administration but wasn’t clear on what I would experience. What I experienced gave me hope for our future, especially for a frustrated fellowship that long alienated women preachers and charismatic Baptists who were essentially told pay up but shut up. So far, President Kimber has made good on his promise to elevate the leadership of women and Millennials, and has even made the convention's stage more friendly to charismatic Baptists. To God be the glory!
During the iROCK Revival Pop-Up, Minister Robin Sellers opened the service in intercession. After saying the names of Denise McNair (11), Addie Mae Collins (14), Carole Robertson (14), and Cynthia Wesley (14), the four girls killed when 16th Street Baptist Church was bombed by terrorists in 1963, Rev. Nicole Guns, NBCUSA assistant secretary, preached a mighty word from Deuteronomy 1 about our having stayed to long at this mountain. A blend of National Baptist and Full Gospel singers set the atmosphere and tilled the soil for the Bapticostal fusion we would experience the next night. God was moving.
16th Street, the setting for the iROCK service the night before, again served as the host church for the installation service for Dr. Boise Kimber, the convention’s 19th president, a program that featured four women clergy. The Reverend Dr. Shevalle Kimber, our first lady, sat beside him in the pulpit as a visible sign that she, too, is ranked among ordained clergy. The School of the Prophets, the Young Pastors Division formerly known as the Spirit of Timothy, has two preaching women on its leadership team. Prophesying daughters were granted the visibility and leadership opportunities they long deserved.
Given my doctoral research and personal interests, I was most intrigued by the presence of Bishop Joseph Warren Walker, III, at the installation program. Doctor Walker, the presiding bishop of the Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship International (FG), led the procession of greetings from the Baptist fellowships that emerged from NBCUSA. Also included were greetings from Lott Carey, NBCA, PNBC, and NMBC representatives. Notably, each greeter spoke in the order of founding year except for Walker, who leads the youngest of the five organizations.
Earlier that day, during the annual board meeting, an appeal was made to support the renovation efforts for the Baptist World Center in Nashville. Doctor W. Franklyn Richardson spoke about the formation of the name "World Center," noting that the name demonstrates the openness and solidarity of this denominational headquarters to the ecumenical Body of Christ. However, part of Walker's story is such that when his church, Mt. Zion Baptist Church, rented the space in the 1990s, their charismatic evolution inspired influential individuals to force them out of this place of worship. This decision helped to move Walker and the church into fellowship with Bishop Morton and Full Gospel. For years since then, thousands of National Baptists have been forced out of positions due to affiliating with Full Gospel. I joined the fellowship after the pandemic, appreciating Walker as a charismatic intellectual and transformational leader whose mentorship would cultivate my gifts in a greater way. Soon thereafter, I was invited to join the International Young Pastors Council, a role I still humbly serve in today. Being dually aligned with both FG and NBCUSA makes sense for my journey, and experiencing my bishop and my president in a conciliatory manner was a dream come true.
Indeed, many National Baptists or Baptists who are otherwise aligned are charismatic but not Full Gospel. Claude Alexander, Danielle Brown, Marcus Cosby, Charlie Dates, Donald Hilliard, Claybon Lea, Dwight McKissic, Brianna Parker, Gina Stewart, Walter Scott Thomas, et al. are Bapticostals but not Full Gospel. However, many National Baptists are also Full Gospel; therefore, what happened during Kimber's installation service was monumental for many others in the room that night. It was a full-circle experience. Doctor Stewart's historic moment and message was a breakthrough for the convention. A year later, we saw women clergy and Bapticostalism on full display. These signs give me hope for the direction of NBCUSA. I noted the following in my book, Deeper Still: Ministry Empowered by the Holy Spirit:
Growing numbers of Gen X and Millennial preachers and pastors within the various National Baptist Conventions are unapologetically expressing a deepening appreciation for the Holy Spirit’s power and presence in Gospel ministry. They are less reticent to publicly express their Baptist convictions while simultaneously describing some experiences more associated with Pentecostals and Charismatics, sensing no contradiction between Baptist distinctives and tongues, divine healing, and prophetic words. Hence, the term Bapticostal is sometimes playfully or seriously used to distinguish these Baptists from cessationist brothers and sisters who deny the ongoing presence of all the spiritual gifts Paul lists in 1 Corinthians 12-14. (5)
When Bishop Walker stood at the sacred desk to greet delegates on behalf of FG, several in the sanctuary, presumably also members of NBCUSA, shouted, "That's my bishop!" Later in the service, during an unhurried praise break, some around me exclaimed, "This is the NBC I remember." Beyond Bishop Walker’s remarks and a full-throttle Pentecostal experience during the installation, there were other moments in prayer, song, and nomenclature (think “Morning Glory” service) that signaled a kind of Bapticostalization of the convention. Bishop Johnny Youngblood, in his remarks before his installation sermon, said the convention doesn't need a friend, it needs a president. The Lord willing, Kimber's presidency promises to be friendly to Bapticostals, knowing that cessationism is not a prerequisite article of faith for National Baptists.
The Reverend Dr. Jerry Young, immediate past president of NBCUSA, contended back in 2015, “We Baptists who have stopped by Calvary for pardon must also stop by Pentecost for power!” In the decade since those words were uttered we have seen glimpses of Pentecostal power during convention meetings, some of which were brought forth by the advocacy of myself and others at the vangaurd of this conciliatory movement. Maybe now we are seeing with the new Kimber administration a fuller fulfillment of this. This is that, I pray.
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