WS Chronicle

Rev. Dr. Lamonte Williams, president of the Ministers’ Conference of Winston-Salem and Vicinity (MCWSV) and senior pastor of Diggs Memorial United Holy Church, recently celebrated his ninth pastoral anniversary.

For this anniversary, the committee decided to commemorate the occasion with a week-long celebration. The committee invited several of Dr. Williams’ close friends and colleagues in the ministry.

“The pastoral anniversary committee got together and they thought that I had been impacted by so many pastors through the Ministers’ Conference, it was difficult to narrow them down, so they thought why not bring them in for a week-long celebration,” said Williams. “They did that so more of the collaborative work that I had done in fostering relationships with these pastors could be echoed through the various services.

“Several of the pastors are members of the Ministers’ Conference,” he continued.  “The week just represented the collaborative work of all the pastors.”

Dr. Williams stated that the week-long celebration was brought to a close in grand fashion by Rev. Dr. Cardes Brown of New Light Missionary Baptist Church in Greensboro. Williams felt that Dr. Brown would be the best person to do so because Brown was one of the first individuals he reached out to when he became president of the MCWSV.

“When I came into office, I reached out to him because his church is a part of the Greensboro Ministerial Alliance,” said Williams. “We brought him over, asked him to preach, and it was just a wonderful connection to be able to see that integrated into an actual worship service in our local church.”

Williams said that Brown brought over a large number of individuals from his congregation to join in on the final service of the celebration. 

“I could not have asked for a better climax service, he sung his heart out and his choir was phenomenal,” Williams said.  “His sermon, ‘God’s Gift of Grace, ‘what an amazing sermon. He talked about the pastor being God’s grace to the people.”

Williams says he even took the microphone to do a little singing himself. During his final remarks, he performed the hymn “You Won’t Leave Here Like You Came.” Williams performed the song so well Brown invited him to come over to his church to preach, along with singing the song.

Williams wanted to thank all of the pastors for their “prophetic” sermons throughout the week.

Williams was also thankful for the members of the Ministers’ Conference who just stopped by to give congratulations. Pictured in the “The anniversary allows your colleagues to come and celebrate the work you have done,” he said.  “The Bible says that it’s better for another to speak highly of them than it is of thyself, so that’s where the pastor’s anniversary comes from anyway.”