The Sovereign Grace Baptist Church, at George Hill, has taken a step towards the continued development of its ministry and succession planning by ordaining two new Pastors.
One is Mr. Quincy Gumbs Jr and the other is Mr. Andrew Blake. They have been serving as preachers on rotation for some time now.
The charge was delivered to them by Pastor Cecil Richardson, of Outreach Baptist Church and a long-time friend of Sovereign Grace Baptist Church.
“I think it is a very important step that you have both taken,” Pastor Richardson told them just before officially delivering the charge regarding their responsibilities. “I commend you for being sensitive to the moving of the Spirit upon your life as you offer yourself to serve the Lord Jesus Christ.”
The sermon was preached by Pastor John Gumbs, uncle of Quincy Gumbs Jr, and founder of Sovereign Grace Baptist Church. He has been pastoring there for the past 45 years and is the longest religious broadcaster on Radio Anguilla.
In his introductory remarks, he told the congregation and a number of visitors: “This is a great opportunity and a blessing for me. It is the second opportunity in the forty-five years of the ministry of this church that God has allowed us to lay our hands on young men. We have not been disappointed by the first two and I know, by the grace of God, that these two will take the church to the next generation and at another level. I have great faith in Brother Blake and Brother Quincy. I have seen these young men grow in this church and I have seen their dedication. They were given an opportunity to start preaching and they are great preachers – and I can only but challenge them to continue to serve the Lord.”
Mr. Quincy Gumbs Jr
Drawing from his four-and-a-half decades as a well-known and respected Preacher, Pastor John continued: “The ministry is not going to be easy. After forty-five years, there were a lot of times I felt like giving up. I felt as though I was alone and a lot of times I felt that God had forgotten me. But, because greater is He that has been in me, I am still here forty-five years later. As I begin to go through the door, we are giving way to a new generation of preachers.”
In his sermon, taken from the Apostle Paul’s admonition to Timothy, in the Book of Acts, Pastor John told the ordination candidates in part: “God has chosen you two young men as soldiers, and He requires of you dedication and separation for a life-long journey. You are called to the service of God. You are receiving, in the relay race that was started by the Lord Jesus Christ, the baton in your generation. You must run the race that was set before you, and at the end you must be willing to pass that baton to another generation. But the only way you can do that is if you have equipped that generation to whom God has given you authority. Therefore, you are being called upon to feed the sheep and you are required to serve the Lord with humility of mind.”
Pastor John, other leaders of Sovereign Grace Baptist Church, visiting Pastors Cecil Richardson of Outreach Baptist Church and Pastor Gareth Hodge of Hilltop Baptist Church, joined in laying their hands on the two ordained Pastors.
Both Quincy Gumbs Jr and Andrew Blake are married with families attending the Sovereign Grace Baptist Church. Quincy’s father, Quincy Gumbs, Sr, is an ordained Pastor who served in Dominica before returning to Anguilla and joining the Sovereign Grace Baptist Church as one of the senior leaders – along with Mr. Richard Hobson.
Commenting on his ordination, young Quincy told The Anguillian newspaper: “What God has done in my life, in the past two years, I cannot put it in words or in feeling. All I can do is trust Him, grow in grace and knowledge, and follow in His Way. I do not have another explanation as to how today came into being for me.”
In his secular activities, among his many chores, he is the Operations Manager of Fairplay Group of Companies, established by his parents, Mr. Quincy Gumbs and Mrs. Sonia Gumbs. He is a graduate of the University of East London where he studied International Business Management in the Class of 2013.
Mr. Blake, his ministerial colleague, said of his ministry and ordination: “While at the Central Baptist Christian School, I was exposed to quite a bit of ministry work in different forms. That was my driving factor in maintaining and staying in the ministry. I became a Christian at the age of nine, so I have been working in the ministry in different aspects from a very early age, but not preaching. I was always a very shy person. It was only when I started serving at the Sovereign Grace Baptist Church that Pastor John Gumbs invited me to take the opportunity to deliver my first sermon. I enjoyed it and I am now responsible to be the speaker at the church on every fourth Sunday.”
Mr. Blake is the Founder and Principal of Blake’s Academy, a well-established school; a former Principal at Central Baptist Christian School; and a former Systems Analyst at Cable and Wireless Call Centre in Anguilla. He also serves as a computer specialist on the island. He is a graduate of St. George’s College in Jamaica, in the Class of 1994.
