New Bethel Apostolic Assembly
Our Church History
Church History
New Bethel Apostolic Assembly was founded January 23, 2005. Elder Thomas and Lady Alice Franklin and a few faithful followers held their first [i]service in a conference room at a Moss point MS hotel. Things were going well until the hotel came under new management. When the new management wanted to charge them almost double, Elder Franklin moved the congregation to a hotel that charged a lesser amount. As the congregation continued to grow, there was a need to find another location.
Then came Hurricane Katrina which devastated much of the Gulf Coast, particularly Moss Point. Nearly all of the town was under flooded or the buildings sustained wind damage, scattering even the congregation. The displaced congregation moved into the home of its pastor. From there the ministry convened it’s services at a local center for about a year. But God...
As God would have it, the Griffin St. Baptist Church had placed their church on the market. Soon the two boards met to negotiate a price. In June, a representative of the church came to one of New Bethels service with good news. Pastor Franklin invited him to the front. The Griffin St. Baptist Church congregation had voted to give the church and its contents to New Bethel: musical instruments, food in the freezer!! A building appraised for $1,000, 000.
Our facilities include a sanctuary which seats around 600 worshipers, numerous classrooms and offices and two sizable paved parking lots. The entire building is WiFi capable.
Pastor and Lady Franklin led the congregation until his health began to fail him. In 2013, Pastor Franklin transitioned from this life. In the interim, NBAA was led by the ministry of its ecclesiastical staff, eventually coming under the pastorate of Bishop Clifton Jones, its diocesan bishop in the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World Inc of which it has been part of since the church was founded.
Bishop Jones began to immediately search for a shepherd after God’s heart and who loved God’s people. Within a few months, Suffragan Bishop John and Lady Valerie Fonzer were introduced to the congregation. The connection was instant and the board and congregation accepted the bishop’s choice. Bishop Fonzer preached his first sermon as the senior pastor elect the first Sunday of April 2014.
Lady Franklin continues to serve God and New Bethel in various key capacities. She is a model member and a true spiritual mother.
If where we’ve been and how far we’ve come is any indication, where we are going, 1Co 2:9 … Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. A modification of an article originally written by Erica Scott.