Reverend Bernice Williams Kirkland
Senior Associate Pastor
Reverend Bernice Williams Kirkland -
Senior Associate Pastor
The Reverend Bernice Williams Kirkland is an ordained elder in the North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church and a native of Greenville, MS. She is also a second career pastor who acknowledges, however, that her ministry has been life-long. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing from Dillard University in New Orleans, LA. After practicing critical care nursing and diabetes education in Atlanta for fourteen years, she answered the call to ordained ministry. This transition began at Ben Hill United Methodist Church, under the leadership of the Reverend Dr. Walter L. Kimbrough, in 1994. She received a Masters of Divinity from The Interdenominational Theological Center in 1999 and was valedictorian of her class. Her seminary training was enhanced and transformed when she was awarded a fellowship in community service through the Ford Foundation.
Engaging the mysteries of ministry is one of her passions. She served as a chaplain resident at Emory University Hospital in 1999 prior to relocating to Knoxville, TN. She continued another year of residency at the University of Tennessee Medical Center in 2000. In 2001, Bernice received the call to serve First Farragut United Methodist Church in Knoxville, TN as the congregations’ first associate pastor and the first African-American in this church. Together, the church and Reverend Kirkland grew in spirit and the church grew in numbers as they celebrated the richness of diversity. After five years, Bernice returned home to Atlanta, with a deep sense of calling to servant leadership in the church and in the world.
She has been married for twenty-four years to Darryl Edgar Kirkland of Detroit, MI who is employed with Coca-Cola Enterprise, Inc. of Atlanta. Their daughter, Jasmine Darniece, is a pre-nursing student at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga who proposes to become a neonatal nurse practitioner. Their son, Derek Eugene, is a student at Harrison High School where he plays football and runs track and field. He is also a percussionist. The family resides in Acworth, GA.
Bernice is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. and Chi Eta Phi Nursing Sorority, Inc. She enjoys music, traveling, gardening and reading. She states, “The Lord has done great things for me – To God be the Glory.”
Reverend John Roger Brown
Associate Pastor
Reverend John Roger Brown -
Associate Pastor
The Reverend John Roger Brown, Sr. is the former pastor of County Line United Methodist Church and is a part-time faculty member in the Department of Philosophy and Religion of Morehouse College. He is well trained and is known for his teaching, preaching, and administrative abilities. He was born and reared and received his formal education in Hogansville and LaGrange, Georgia.
Reverend Brown is a multi-talented, gifted and well-trained man of God. He holds a Bachelor of Science in education from Albany State University, Albany, Georgia; Master of Education in counseling from Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia; Master of Divinity in ethics and practical theology from Howard University, Washington, D.C.; and a Master of Sacred Theology in missions and practical theology from Yale University, New Haven Connecticut. He also studied abroad several summers in special programs at the Ecumenical Institute under the World Council of Churches in Geneva, Switzerland and at Vatican in sessions with the Pope and staff in Rome, Italy. From September 1, 1997 through December 20, 1997, Reverend Brown lived in community of the Ecumenical Institute at Bossey, Switzerland with persons from fifty (50) countries around the world and completed an intensive post-graduate program in ecumenical theology through the University of Geneva, World Council of Churches and the Ecumenical Institute.
After receiving his call to preach in November 1978 and completing the United Methodist Church process for the ordination of deacon (1981) and elders orders (1984), he served as the pastor at churches in Georgia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. He has preached in churches in Africa, Europe, and across the United States. His ministerial experiences also include political and social action ministries in New Haven, Connecticut. He and his wife Cynthia were missionaries in residence to Zaire, Africa in 1982. Additionally, in 1999, Reverend Brown served as a short-term missionary in Zimbabwe, Africa.
Reverend Brown has traveled extensively in the United States and around the world. He is well experienced in pastoral ministry and in ministry beyond the local church. His other experiences include: university professor; research associate; teacher and counselor in the public school systems in Georgia and Washington, D.C.; administrative positions in the private/business sectors and with the state of Georgia; and for more than ten (10) years, he was executive director of a multi-national, multi-state, multi-million dollar federally funded training program, with a staff of more than 100 across seven states.
Over the years, Reverend Brown has earned a reputation for extensive involvement in evangelism, church planting and revitalization, stewardship, missions, Christian unity, social concerns, research and church construction. He built and consecrated a 2.5 million dollar worship and ministry center November, 1999 in Silver Spring, Maryland. Moreover, Reverend Brown and Dr. John Stanfield completed an oral history research project on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., 2001. He also completed research on “The Effectiveness of Supportive Services” in the highway construction industry and researched and published a standardized procedural manual for on-the job training for the Federal Highway Administration. Reverend Brown was cited among Outstanding Young Men of America, 1983, and is a member of the Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc.
Reverend Brown is married to Cynthia Joan Hemmings Brown, a native Washingtonian who is a graduate of Trinity College and Yale University. She is currently an educator in the Cobb County School System. They are the blessed parents of four children, Peyton Jon, Shayla Nicole, Roderick Maurice, and Ronzo Delivechi, and three grand children.
Reverend Terrilyn Davis Lemons
Associate Pastor
Reverend Terrilyn Davis Lemons
Associate Pastor
Reverend Terrilyn (Terri) Lemons is the daughter of Milton and Loretta Davis. She was born and received her formal education in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. A second career commissioned pastor with expertise in administration, and healthcare. She has a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from University of Louisiana, Lafayette, Louisiana; and dual masters from Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia one in Master of Public Health Administration and the other in Master of Nursing - community health. Terri is a Board Certified Registered Nurse and a Board Certified Primary Care Family Nurse Practitioner. With more than twenty (20) years of nursing and administrative experience, she has provided healthcare services at Georgia State University and Clayton State University, where she developed the first student Health Clinics and served students, staff, and faculty.
God’s awesome power was revealed to Terri at the age of twelve through answered prayer. Terri’s ultimate desire is to be in the perfect will of God by preaching, teaching, praying, and sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She has been an active member of Cascade United Methodist Church since 1990. Pastor Lemons graduated with honors and received her Master of Divinity degree from Gammon Theological Seminary at The Interdenominational Theological Center in May 2007. She received the Gammon Theological Seminary Highest female G.P.A. Award in 2007. Reverend Lemons served two years as the Student representative for the Gammon Seminary Board of trustees. On June 11, 2007, she was commissioned and ordained as a probationary elder by the North Georgia United Methodist Conference and appointed associate pastor at Cascade United Methodist Church. She serves in the pulpit ministry at Cascade as a member of the pastoral leadership team and liturgist during the Sunday morning worship services. She serves in the Wednesday Worship service by leading scripture and prayer. She provides pastoral leadership to the Care and Nurture division which includes the following areas: Prayer Ministry, Caregivers Ministry, Marriage Ministry, Christian Education, Sunday School and Resurrection Ministry. Pastor Lemons has served as a speaker at the Ousley UMC women’s conference, preached at Owl Rock UMC, and at Andrew’s Chapel UMC Women’s conference, guest preacher at Beech Grove Baptist Church of Baton Rouge, Louisiana and People’s Chapel African Methodist Church, Dallas, Texas.
She has been cited among Outstanding Young Woman of America, is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Terri is the wife of Lovell Lemons, director of the Office of Civic Engagement at Georgia State University. Lovell is a native of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. They are blessed to have one daughter-LaShuandia Lewis.
Reverend Joyce E. Banks Gross
Associate Pastor
Rev. Joyce E. Banks Gross
Associate Pastor
The Reverend Joyce E. Banks Gross was born in Denham Springs, Louisiana to Eilor and Leanna Cobb Banks, her first role models. She was educated in the Livingston Parish School System and continued her higher education at Southern University in Baton Rouge, LA where she earned a Bachelor of Science in music, a Master of Education in administration and supervision, and a specialist degree in reading. Before coming to Atlanta for seminary training, Joyce enjoyed retirement as an educator/administrator from the East Baton Rouge Parish School System. She also served her community as a member of the Kiwanis Club, the American Heart Association and the Chamber of Commerce.
Early in her life, Reverend Gross sensed the call to ministry. Following the deaths of her husband of thirty years, Willie Gross, III and her sister, she accepted her call and began the United Methodist Church process for elders orders. Joyce was an active member of Roberts United Methodist Church where she was director of music and served as pianist and choir director. Additionally, she gave leadership in worship and music for the Annual W. T. Handy Convocation, New Orleans, LA and the 2001 session of the Louisiana Annual Conference. As a worshiper, she proclaims, “I will praise the Lord no matter what happens. I will constantly speak of God’s kindness to me.” (Psalm 34:1)
Joyce’s seminary experience in Atlanta presented many opportunities to share her gifts and graces, especially her gift of music. She was inducted into Theta Phi National Honors Society and became the first Gammon seminarian to receive the Fellowship Seminarian Award. In May 2006, Joyce graduated with honors from Gammon Seminary at The Interdenominational Theological Center, where she received a Master of Divinity. Realizing that her call necessitated change, she transferred to the North Georgia United Methodist Conference in 2006. On June 11, 2007, at the North Georgia Annual Conference, Joyce was commissioned as a probationary elder and appointed associate pastor to Cascade United Methodist Church.
Pastor Gross is passionate about several areas of ministry. In 2006, she served as a PRN Chaplain at Southern Regional Medical Center, and was later invited to do a chaplain residency at the same facility. Pastoral care is one of her passions. She believes a major part of her ministry is to facilitate renewal, rebuilding, and restoration by being a presence and source of support to the Body of Christ (patients, families, congregations) in daily issues involving loss of hope, despair, sickness, death and dying, and bereavement. She confidently believes, “If I can help somebody…my living will not be in vain.”
Reverend Gross is a proud mother and grandmother. She has two sons: Marc and Chris Gross; a daughter, Marlena Gross Taylor; and four grandchildren: Marc and Imani Gross, and Daniel and Collin Taylor. Additionally, she is a golden life member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. and Theta Phi National Honor Society.