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We are putting the focus on New Hope Baptist Church of East Orange. They're celebrating the first female in their history to ever be elected to the top leadership role. And that honor goes to the Reverend Thurs C Williams Shim div pastor elect. Thank you. What was the path like to get here and tell us about the challenges and the preparation involved? Certainly. Um Well, some of the first uh the, well, the path uh again, I was uh raised at my home church with which was the New Hope Baptist Church of Newark, New Jersey. Um One of the first challenges uh is that for this role that I am in when I first acknowledged my call to ministry, women pastors were not something that was normally seen. So, um I first accepted my call with the limitations in what I see, right? Because representation means everything. Exactly. And so if you don't readily see it right now, certainly we can count off maybe the few women that were leading in that way, but you sometimes believe, well, maybe that's a one off, maybe that's just for them. It wasn't something that I readily saw. So my church did a great job of equipping me, but it was actually in the growth beyond um that I begin to see more possibility and more opportunity um for me in pastoral roles, um which then led to the executive pastorate and then that opened the door to the senior pastorate. Um But some of the challenges that even existed, even going all the way up to this point was that people were saying like, oh, well, you know, um, not a woman and I'm not talking about our church, my, my, you know, our church readily receives me, but there were still people and that's a real reality that some people still did not see a woman and I don't even wanna call it the top seat but in the seat of leadership and really in the seat of servanthood uh to God to lead God's people. Yeah.

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The Reverend Thurs LC Williams M div Pastor Elect of New Hope Baptist Church in East Orange is my guest today. Let us talk about the support system that has helped lift you up to where you are. Absolutely. Uh I always say that when your support system is solid, it makes the shaky places in ministry possible. Yeah. Um So I would say, first of all, um it starts with all of the beautiful people uh in my family. Those again, like I said, my great grandmother that I never even knew um I come from a family um that has always been emerged in the church and whether they were leaders or not, they were always somewhere right in of uh fellowship with the church. So my greatest support comes from my family. Um and that now includes husband, Children, my parents, uh my siblings. Like I mean, I, I'm really blessed in that way. I have AAA plethora of cousins uh throughout this nation and certainly in the great state of New Jersey. So that uh helps but also solidarity in terms of support system, being a woman leader. And that's what we're talking about on today. Um of both solidarity with both women in ministry, men in ministry and also church women and church men. And what I mean mean by that our church leadership, right? Um that you need people that will stand with you and support the vision that has been given to you. And whenever you are a first at something, it is imperative to have support systems built around you. I would consider myself as blessed again. I say I have an amazing husband, Children, parents, my family, but I have been blessed to have people always, even if someone said you can't do this here, but I believe you can do it. So I always have people who believed in me. But there was just a culminating of the belief in me and the belief in the space to do it.

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New Hope Baptist Church of East Orange celebrates the first female in their history to ever be elected to the top leadership role. That honor goes to the Reverend Thurs C Williams M div Pastor Elect, welcome. Thank you. Thank you for having me Della and congratulations on your honor. Thank you. I am so excited for this season and my life and the life of the New Hope Baptist Church of East Orange and as a Jersey girl, everybody's proud of you. Hey man, it is uh first of all, I believe that the best people in this world come from the great state of New Jersey. That's why you can find us everywhere and there is a strength and a resiliency. I believe that comes in being a New Jersey and um a Christian first but New Jersey and second. And I'm just honored to serve in this time. And where do you hail from in the garden state? Well, uh we've journeyed a little bit. I was born in Jersey City, which is the gateway right to the Americas. Um I was raised uh middle school uh at the g in the great city of Newark, New Jersey and I actually went to high school in East Orange and I bet everybody loves that. You've come full circle, haven't you? Yes, it is. It is a full, very full circle moment that I am now the senior pastor around the corner from where I went to high school. Don't you love what life brings you? What does that honor mean to you? Uh It means everything to me, uh, to be able to serve in the way that I know that God has called me to serve uh to be the first woman. If I was in a secular setting, it would be a glass ceiling that was broken. But in the sacred setting, I have broken a stained glass window, stain glass windows. Yes. Yes. That enables me to serve as the first woman pastor of this church. That means so much to the community. I'm just excited about it in this beautiful year. I actually celebrate 20 years of gospel ministry, 20 years of preaching and I've served in many ways, pastor of college ministries, uh minister of uh evangelism, uh director of evangelism. We can worship coordinator, um uh executive pastor. And now the opportunity to see your pastor and that's only about five positions that I've held in this 20 year span. Um But because I remained open to what God had for me. And so I believe when you stay open to what He has for you in your course that uh it will help to make all of the rest of the navigating a little smooth. I'm not gonna say it won't be rough because it will be, but it will help to smooth out some of those areas.

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We are featuring New Hope Baptist Church of East Orange and their leader, the Reverend Thorsell C Williams M div Pastor Elect. Thank you, Della. It's my pleasure having you here. Thank you. Let's talk about your community impact. Oh, wow. Um So community impact again, um going all the way back to my family, uh We've always been engaged in community um when I was raised um um at my home church, the New Whole Baptist Church of Newark, New Jersey. Um We were always engaged every election, anything that went on all the way down to um when the community began to change in terms of um you know, the thoughts of gentrification and the movement of people. We were engaged in those. So I bring all of that experience. Um I, I then went from Newark up to Inglewood um and served at the um Mount Calvary Baptist Church of uh Inglewood, New Jersey. And um shout out to all of my pastors, Thomas uh Carter uh uh Walt and uh Gill. Um uh they were always people who were community engaged and so I got to model and walk after those who did well um in that way. And so in terms of that now in East Orange, we, we, we are partners. We, we are, we, we are uh locked into the work together. Shout out to Mayor Tate Green, all of our council persons. Uh our chairman, uh even um the Democrats that is there, Chairman Leroy Jones. Um and then in other ways across the state, I'm engaged with a group as well called I am. I serve as the interfaith caucus chair of the Democrats because I believe that a good Christian is a voting Christian, right? Um And so these are all ways that we impact but not just on the grand scale. Um One of the loves that I had for new hope and I fell right into the work. Um, our food pantry, which I believe was a fee there, but we wanna go a little bit further. Right. I come from churches that had housing in the seventies. It's now 2024 and people are still in need of affordable housing. What are we doing with those who are going to college coming away with debts, reteaching people about money. That is community engagement. It's not just about what they do with the 10, but also the 90 that they walk away with.

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New Hope Baptist Church of East Orange has its first female in history to ever be elected to that top leadership role. And that honor goes to the Reverend Thurs C Williams M div Pastor Elect. Congratulations. Again, I can't say that enough. We are so proud of you. Thank you Della. I'm, I'm, I'm just amazed and I'm grateful, tell us about the lessons you've learned. So the lessons that I've learned um when you are a first, um and I think we kind of went through some with the study with preparation. Um So I prepared myself for the journey. Uh I went back, I was always an avid reader, but I went back to school. I prepared myself um to be ready for this moment. Uh Once I realized where it was, it was going, right? Um And I realized that where I was, was not where it was ending that there was more that I was being called to. So what I did was to II, I went back and I studied and then I also expanded my view right? Again, as I said, since a child, I've always been an avid reader. Um and in this season, not only did I read books, but I expanded my view of those who were in leadership and the ways that they went there. And so I studied some of the greats across this nation. Um I, again, I don't wanna start calling names but some that are right here from the great state of New Jersey. So many beautiful women pastors and then also our allies. Um I think one of the great things that I learned is that everyone might not be for you, but everyone is also not against you. Because when you develop the mindset that everyone is the enemy, you will stand the opportunity of blocking some blessings that God actually has for you along the way. Um I think one of the greatest lessons that I learned and as I've talked with so many of my sister, pastor, friends in the area now is that we all have a different journey here. So if there is one that is watching on today that says, hey, I'm a first on my job in my church, in my community uh in my family, don't worry about charting your course, like everyone else, but go ahead and let God show you how beautifully unique your journey is. And then when you find that um that you will be able to see what the the challenges were about, right? That the triumphs were about. And then also the milestones

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Rev. Thurselle C. Williams joined News 12’s Della Crews to speak about the history of the New Hope Baptist Church in East Orange. 


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