USC Cecil Murray Center for Community Engagement is preparing clergy and lay to help African Americans and other minorities become financially secure through wealth building sessions.
Under J. Edgar Hoover, the agency’s inaugural director, African Americans were hounded, targeted, discriminated against and treated with contempt. In the minds of many Blacks, little has changed over the years and the FBI is still considered “the enemy” or at least, “not a friend.”
The Rev. Deborah Manns was appointed to lead Ruach Christian Community Fellowship on June 1. While she is a first-time pastor, she is not new to the ministry. Licensed and ordained in 2008, Manns comes equipped with a deep faith in God, ministerial degrees, and a strong background in church administration that she learned from working with several notable pastors over the years. Trusting that those factors have prepared her, Manns said with excitement, “I accepted this opportunity and God has blown my mind with miracles, signs and wonders ever since. I have a small church, but with amazing, loving
Founding Pastor Najuma Smith-Pollard and WOE congregation plan breakfast celebration In 2014, after four years of much prayer and preparation, the Rev. Dr. D. Najuma Smith-Pollard founded Word of Encouragement Community Church (WOECC) in Los Angeles. At the time, she told the Sentinel, “The new assignment has been a passion brewing in my heart since 2010. But, I was clear then that I needed to remain steadfast where I was and wait on the timing of the Lord.” When God gave the sign, Smith-Pollard launched WOECC and now, she and the congregation will mark their 4th year of Christian and
Proverbs 4:1 – “Listen, my sons, to a father’s instruction; pay attention and gain understanding.” When I was a child, I was a bonified ‘Daddy’s Girl.’ Even though I did not grow up with my father in the home, Richard W. Smith was regularly in my life. In my eyes, he was a hero and no man could compare to him. One very vivid childhood memory, was at about the age of 12, Dad took me to see the movie ‘Tap,’ with Gregory Hines. It was a very happy and exciting day, me and my Daddy, out on a date.