Rev. Dr. Cleophus J. LaRue (photo courtesy of ptsem.edu)
Rev. Dr. Cleophus J. LaRue (photo courtesy of ptsem.edu)

Second Baptist Church will celebrate the 30th anniversary of Pastor William Saxe Epps on Sunday, March 26, at the 8 a.m. and 11:15 a.m. services. Epps is the eighth pastor to serve the church.

As part of the celebration, the Diaconate and Trustee Ministries invited Rev. Dr. Cleophus J. LaRue, the Francis Landry Patton Professor of Homiletics at The Princeton Theological Seminary will deliver the message at both services.

LaRue, an ordained minister in the National Baptist Convention of America, has served as pastor of churches in Texas and in Jamaica, Queens, New York. He received both his M.Div. and PhD. from Princeton Theological Seminary.

An author and scholar, his latest book is “Colored Preaching: The Shape of Christian Proclamation in the Global South.” Last year, he released “Rethinking Celebration: From Rhetoric to Praise in African American Preaching.” La Rue has published six additional books during his pastoral and professional career.

Second Baptist Church is located at 2412 Griffith Ave., in Los Angeles. For information, call the church office at (213) 748-0318.