Wellington Boone

Bishop Wellington Boone is an African-American evangelical Christian leader who was ranked by researcher George Barna and co-author Harry Jackson, Jr., as the #1 Black American leader in racial reconciliation of the 20th Century.[1]

Ben Carsondescribed Boone's book Black Self-Genocide: What Black Lives Matter Won't Say as "riveting" and "sage advice for how to empower the black community in America".”

Bishop Boone is the founder and chief prelate of the Fellowship of International Churches and has been a successful church planter for more than 40 years.

Bishop Boone has been married to his high school sweetheart Katheryn for 44 years.

History

Bishop Boone was born in 1948 and came of age during the Vietnam War, where he served in the United States Army in-country in 1968.

He was ordained into ministry in 1973 and began his ministry with Word of Faith seminars and churches he founded in Ettrick and Richmond, Virginia, combining articulate biblical content with a disciplined Christian lifestyle in the holiness tradition. His approach had a strong appeal to athletes and students at historically black colleges and universities and other college campuses so he founded New Generation Campus Ministries beginning at the nearby Virginia State University and Virginia Commonwealth University.

In 1983 he incorporated the Living Word Evangelistic Association, and later changed the name to Wellington Boone Ministries. His first church was Manna Christian Fellowship of Ettrick, Virginia, and the second church was Manna Christian Fellowship of Richmond, Virginia which was incorporated in 1985. After transitioning from Richmond, Virginia, to Atlanta, Georgia, in 1995, he founded The Father's House Church[2] in Atlanta, Georgia, and served as senior pastor until March 2015 when he commissioned Bishop Garland Hunt to replace him as senior pastor, along with his wife Pastor Eileen Hunt.

In 1995, the Southern Baptist Convention celebrated its 150th anniversary by issuing a "Resolution On Racial Reconciliation" that stated, "Our relationship to African-Americans has been hindered from the beginning by the role that slavery played in the formation of the Southern Baptist Convention." To further demonstrate their commitment to racial reconciliation the Southern Baptist publishing arm of Broadman and Holman published the first book by Wellington Boone called Breaking Through: Taking the Kingdom Into the Culture by Out-Serving Others. Bill Bright, late founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, stated, "America's need today is for revival that comes from fasting, prayer and seeking God's face. Wellington Boone is modeling and preaching this mandatory message."

The next two books by Wellington Boone were published by Doubleday: Your Wife Is Not Your Momma (1999) and The Low Road to New Heights (2002). Also in 2002 he published the first edition of his Christian self-accountability journal My Journey with God that has since been revised and expanded in other editions such as Your Journey with God and A Man's Journey with God. In 2009 he published Dare to Hope where he challenged readers to learn how to say, "I will never go another day in my life without hope!" This was followed by Holy Ghost Is My Friend in 2011.

When Bishop Boone wrote Your Wife Is Not Your Momma to show men how to change their ways to "really love your wife," they encouraged him to write a book for women and that became Women Are Kingmakers! and launched a national women's movement. One reviewer wrote on Amazon, "I enjoyed the book on my own, and as part of a Bible study. The layers of wisdom within these pages kept unfolding when I discussed it with others. This book will inspire and energize you to serve because you will understand, not only the eternal purpose behind serving as a kingmaker, but the effectiveness of doing so. This book is more than just information; it is indeed revelation. If every woman was a kingmaker, what a wonderful world this would be."

In October 2016, after 30 years of preparation, Bishop Boone was a TV guest of Fox & Friends when he debuted his book Black Self-Genocide: What Black Lives Matter Won't Say. The message and his explanation of the content immediately prompted intense debate on social media. Another TV interview with the author was called "Reversing the Curse of Black Self-Genocide" and shown on CBN News. The book quickly rose to the leading best-seller on Amazon in four different categories of book sales as people of all races made a commitment to be problem-solvers for the Black community and take revival to the inner-cities. The momentum is still building in a movement for Black Americans to become international ambassadors for their country.

Although Bishop Boone is a Black American, people of all races applaud him because he is culturally conscious but not culturally controlled. More than 20 years ago, during a Promise Keepers meeting in Indianapolis that is available on YouTube, he declared before 70,000 mostly White men, "We are one!" Wave after wave of applause and celebration followed his call to unity. His messages on racial unity in America elicit the same response from people of all races today.

He has been a host and guest on the Christian television networks CBN and TBN, and has been a platform speaker for Promise Keepers, Focus on the Family, American Association of Christian Counselors and the Family Research Council. He has also been a member of the board of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability and the Board of Trustees at Regent University.

He founded the Network of Politically Active Christians (NPAC)[3] with headquarters in Washington, DC; Kingmakers, a national ministry of Christian women in leadership where Pastor Eileen Hunt is president; The Fellowship of International Churches,[4] Goshen International, which established Learning Centers in South Africa for Black African and Colored children, and Global Outreach Campus Ministries.

Bishop Boone is the Founder and Chief Prelate of the Fellowship of International Churches founded in 1994 when the founding pastors conferred on Pastor Boone the title of Bishop Boone.

Views

Bishop Boone has said that Black Americans are suffering from "self-genocide" because many more Blacks are killed by other Blacks than by policemen, especially through abortion and inner-city murders.

He has also stated that "I want to boldly affirm Uncle Tom. The black community must stop criticizing Uncle Tom. He is a role model."[5][6][7] One of the first magazines to publish this revolutionary message was Ministries Today, where Bishop Boone challenged Blacks to read the book Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe where the character of Uncle Tom gave his life to save other slaves. He was a real Christian following the example of Jesus Christ.

Bishop Boone said of African-American slavery in the United States, "I believe that slavery, and the understanding of it when you see it God's way, was redemptive."[5] As a pastor, he has emphasized that bitterness and resentment are not solutions. He has encouraged states to apologize for slavery and presents honest historical facts about America's faults, but he also urges those who have been wronged to forgive others even if they do not apologize, or to accept the apologies instead of saying "too little too late." Bishop Boone has been describe succinctly by his critics - of all races - as a "preternatural Sambo for white folks, uncanny in his self-hatred for blacks, and a debased booty scratcher for white supremacists."

He has been critical of comparisons between the Gay Rights Movement and the Civil Rights Movement.[8] He called it the "Rape of the Civil Rights Movement".[9] As a biblicist, he understands the difference between race and gender. They are not the same, according to creative order based on the Bible.

Bishop Boone has been a keynote speaker for these and other national and international organizations:

Publications
  • Basic Black Journal
  • Black Self-Genocide
  • Breaking Through: Taking the Kingdom Into the Culture by Out-Serving Others
  • Women Are Kingmakers
  • Your Wife Is Not Your Momma: How You Can Have Heaven in Your Home (ISBN 0-385-49417-3)
  • Breaking Through
  • Your Journey With God
  • Low Road to New Heights

References
  1. Barna, George (2005). High Impact African American Churches: Leadership Concepts from Some of Today's Most Effective Churches. United States: Regal. ISBN 978-0830738984.
  2. Archived September 14, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  3. Archived June 17, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  4. The Fellowship of International Churches, Wellington Boone Ministries
  5. "Who Are Justice Sunday's Ministers of Minstrelsy?". Huffington Post.
  6. Archived December 3, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  7. "The Preachers: Mini-Profiles".
  8. Archived September 29, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  9. "Wellington Boone: Refuting Gay Marriage".
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