In March of 2022, Dr. William Turner Jr. will retire as Senior Pastor of New Revelation Missionary Baptist Church of Pasadena. The Iconic Pastor is saying goodbye to the only church he has ever pastored after better than Fifty-Years Years of leadership in the greater Pasadena Community. Ecclesiastes 3rd chapter says, “there is a time and a season for all things”, and Pastor Turner is no exception. He joins several iconic local Pastors which have decided that their time had come, and it was time to pass on the ministerial torch. Dr. Turner announced to his congregants that “as of March 2022 I will hand over the reins of a very fruitful ministry, with a great edifice, to God’s next chosen man for leadership.” “There comes a time that New Revelation needs a new voice, a new direction and a new vision.” He pronounced So, Turner will hand the reigns of the church that he built both physically as well as spiritually, to a new pastor.
Pastor Turner has used an iconic style of preaching and a no non-sense ministry to move barriers of injustice throughout the City of Pasadena. He laid a foundation and gave a voice to the voiceless throughout Pasadena’s African American community. But Turners voice was much louder than just the local Pasadena community. He impacted and touched lives throughout the region and uplifted the Christian community nationwide.
Since 1967, Dr. William Turner, Jr. has been guiding the ministry of New Revelations and built the church located on Pasadena’s historic Orange Grove Blvd. into a beacon of hope and an institution within the city. He along with his church members and community volunteers built the church sanctuary which now seats almost 1000 congregants. Along with the sanctuary, Turner has increased the capacity of the entire New Revelations facility which now includes a middle school, a resource development center, a family services facility, the churches business offices an activity center and a full-size gymnasium. Pastor Turner’s mantra and vision has always been “Until the Whole Man Is Served, Our Mission Remains”. He believed the role of the church extends beyond the faith community, with its Spiritual Revelations, but also the Social-Economic Empowerment of its residents. “The members of New Revelation Missionary Baptist Church are grateful to God and Glorify his Holy Name for assigning to them a leader of Good Report, Full of Wisdom and Full of the Holy Ghost, to shepherd them for 57 years. It is indeed an end of an era”.
During Pastor Turners tenure, the church has seen a plethora of accomplishments. New Revelation was the first Africa American Church to receive a $100,000.00 loan from Prudential Insurance Company for the construction of New Revelation’s as well as the enlargement of the church’s facilities. Under Turners leadership the church has also purchased several properties in Pasadena which became sites for community-based programs within in the community. Pastor Turner is also known as a pioneer in church transportation, purchasing a 48 seat Grey Hound Bus for the New Revelation Transit Services, that served the membership as well as neighboring churches, businesses, and organizations in the greater Los Angeles area and abroad. Turner has served on both state and national boards within the Baptist convention, serving as President of Western Baptist State Convention and as a Vice-President of the National Baptist Convention USA where his impact has been felt Globally.
Despite an ability or a desire to extrapolate his many accomplishments over fifty-seven years, Pastor Turner says his greatest achievement is his place in the Lamb’s Book of Life. He boasts of nothing except being a humble servant of God, who made full proof of his ministry and fulfilled his divine appointment to his purpose on this earth. Turner says he has tried to live his life from the words of his favorite negro spiritual; “If I can help somebody as I travel along. If I can cheer somebody with a word or a song. If I can show somebody he is traveling wrong, then my living shall not be in vain”. Turner says that he has lived a full life and at this point the only achievement he would truly desire, is to hear God the Father say, “Well Done, Thy Good and Faithful Servant, Come on Up to the Place I’ve Prepared for You.”
“Pastor Turner has fought a good fight, he has finished his course, he has kept the faith. We as the Christian Community and the members of New Revelation Missionary Baptist Church, do salute you today, and say, Job Well Done. The sermons you have preached, the leadership you have given, the numerous men you have mentored, and the example of reaching toward a Christian Standard, will never be forgotten. Thank You Pastor William Turner Jr. As you prepare to pass the torch, we acknowledge your 50 years of toting that same torch and representing the cause of Christ. We will miss you, among the ranks. Your legacy is well in takt. May God Bless your next endeavors as you continue to press toward the mark of a higher calling in Christ Jesus”.
