Five Pastors Ordained to Gospel Ministry

Story by Debra Anderson

The Potomac Conference recently celebrated a busy season of ordinations. Since the beginning of the year, five pastors have been ordained to the gospel ministry: Cheryl Wilson-Bridges, Isaac Hanna, Carlo Duran, Jesse Nascimento and Chris Cheatham.

Wilson-Bridges serves as Sligo church’s associate pastor for music and worship in Takoma Park, Md. Hanna, district pastor for Culpeper, Orange and Stafford churches in Virginia, as well as associate pastor for the Fredericksburg (Va.) church, emigrated to the United States from Egypt five years ago. Duran oversees the Bealeton, Culpeper, Reston and Sterling Spanish churches in Virginia. Additionally, Duran and his wife, Carolina, produce and air a children’s online program called TheolKids. Nascimento, originally from Brazil, serves as the pastor of the Richmond Brazilian Community and Petersburg churches and the Living Word Mission group, all located in Virginia. Cheatham pastors the Pennsylvania Avenue church in Capitol Heights, Md.

“Each time there is an ordination of one of our pastors here in the Potomac Conference, it serves as a powerful reminder of the call that God has placed on each of their lives,” says Charles A. Tapp, president. “Not only upon the pastor, but the people that the pastor has been called to serve as well. It is reminiscent of the call that came to Moses from the burning bush—a call to follow God’s leading in their lives, along with the promise to His people that the ‘I Am’ will be with them every step of the way.”

Rick Labate, vice president for Pastoral Ministries, remarks on the incredible blessing of having so many pastors accept God’s call into ministry: “These pastors are a shining example of what can happen when men and women respond to what God has asked them to do with their lives,” he says. “The diversity of pastors in Potomac, especially as represented by these ordinations, is something we absolutely love and delight in. We look forward to the day when the other 25 pastoral interns in our conference will be ordained as well.”