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Maryland
How this Maryland pastor ended up leading one of the fastest-growing churches in the nation
![How this Maryland pastor ended up leading one of the fastest-growing churches in the nation How this Maryland pastor ended up leading one of the fastest-growing churches in the nation](https://www.thebaltimorebanner.com/resizer/aQJv0nZsdqAY7T6pzIq54vwGifc=/657x0/filters:quality(70):format(url)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/baltimorebanner/W4GIXJACN5GE7GS5YB7K6WQBDY.jpg)
The Rev. Matthew L. Watley says it’s not happenstance that his suburban Maryland congregation, part of the historically Black African Methodist Episcopal denomination, landed at the top of a list of the fastest-growing churches in America.
From hearing his call to ministry while dancing with his Step Afrika troupe in South Africa to giving up his law school aspirations and enrolling at the Howard School of Divinity, all paths led to the pulpit — and eventually Kingdom Fellowship AME Church — for this son and grandson of AME ministers.
“There’s a phrase that says, ‘In America we believe in God, but in Africa, they depend on God,’” said Watley, who also met his wife, a lawyer and federal lobbyist, at Howard. “I had never seen faith like that before.”
In 2019, the year Kingdom Fellowship AME was founded, the church had about 3,000 members and an average weekly attendance of about 1,800 people, according to the church’s figures. Today, membership has swelled to nearly 8,000, and its weekly services draw about 2,500 attendees altogether.
On a recent Sunday morning, Watley, 50, preached to a packed sanctuary from the Gospel of Luke about Zacchaeus’ transformative meeting with Jesus. The short and corrupt tax collector changed his ways after climbing a tree to see Jesus over the crowd.
“When Zacchaeus climbed that tree, that was his way of doing what he needed to do to become whole — to become healed from the stuff he’d been carrying his whole life,” Watley said.
Afterward more than 20 people, some with tears in their eyes, retreated to an intake room for new members. Kingdom Fellowship is averaging about 110 additions per month, according to the church’s count.
Before Kingdom Fellowship, Watley built a robust following for years through a ministry called Power Lunch, the first of which drew about 300 people. These were midday worship hours held in the District of Columbia and the greater Washington metropolitan area that provided attendees with a to-go meal before they headed back to work.
Watley also brought a church to the people, taking note of the scores of Black Americans relocating from D.C. to the suburbs and in need of a place to worship. Although outside the district, Watley and Kingdom Fellowship have remained in the capital’s political orbit, sharing his pulpit with Baptist pastor and U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Georgia, and hosting Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff for the inaugural service in its new church building. They have also welcomed Angela Alsobrooks, the Democratic U.S. Senate nominee challenging former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, among other politicians.
But Kingdom Fellowship still wants to be identified with its homespun hospitality and a culture that puts its members on equal footing regardless of what they do outside the church.
“We appreciate that you’re the CEO, whatever. We need some help on the parking lot. It’s great you’re … the head of the ER medical unit. We need somebody to hold this door. And that’s the culture,” Watley said.
Kingdom Fellowship began as a satellite campus of the growing Reid Temple AME Church in nearby Montgomery County, which is where Watley served as executive pastor, overseeing the budget, local ministries and its 132,000-square-foot-facility featuring a sanctuary, credit union and bookstore that was completed in 2004. Watley also served as the de facto chief of staff for Reid Temple’s senior pastor, the Rev. Lee Washington.
“He had a lot of ideas,” said Washington, who recently retired. “I gave him the freedom and the flexibility to do what he thought was best.”
With Washington’s blessing, those ideas included launching Reid Temple North with a small contingent of volunteers. They held the first worship service in 2006 in the Montgomery Blair High School cafeteria, where they met until 2010. The growing congregation moved into a renovated building in Silver Spring, Maryland, where Watley added a second Sunday service in 2011 and a third in 2013. The campus eventually became financially self-sufficient.
Instead of naming Watley his successor, Washington with an eye on retirement chose to spin-off Reid Temple North as an independent church. It was renamed Kingdom Fellowship AME, and Watley became its inaugural senior pastor in 2019.
“Our church was growing by leaps and bounds, and I did not believe in hoarding,” Washington said. “I believe in sharing.”
Watley, even as a young leader, was noticed within the denomination for his maturity and strong opinions, said Bishop James Levert Davis, the presiding prelate for the AME district that includes Kingdom Fellowship. Davis has selected Watley to be part of his district’s delegation to the forthcoming AME General Conference, at which the denomination’s ban on same-sex marriage is expected to be debated — an issue Watley hopes won’t cause a schism.
“I tease Matthew constantly, telling him that he’s the oldest young person that I know,” Davis said. “Between his father and his grandfather, he has been anchored and nurtured by the best of who we are.”
Watley’s role as the first leader of Kingdom Fellowship also came with a nerve-racking capital project — building a new worship center with sky-high ceilings and an amphitheater-style sanctuary. Not only was there a recent example of a similar project falling apart at another church in the region, but Kingdom Fellowship was preparing to break ground when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
“I was very cognizant of that. Absolutely,” Watley said.
But no one pulled out: neither the bank nor the contractor or the congregation. Instead, members of Kingdom Fellowship increased their giving, and the congregation celebrated their first service in the new worship center in 2022 for Easter. Recently, Outreach magazine named the church the fastest-growing, a ranking based on a self-reported Lifeway Research survey that compared average weekly in-person attendance for February and March 2023 to 2022 numbers.
In the U.S., Black Protestants’ monthly church attendance declined 15% from 2019 to 2023, a larger drop than in any other major religious group, according to a 2023 Pew Research study. They are also more likely than other groups to take in religious services online or on TV, with more than half (54%) saying they attend services virtually.
The pace of growth at Kingdom Fellowship AME has been rapid but seamless, said Sharon and Billy Watts of Upper Marlboro, Maryland. What has remained constant is the kindness and care of church staff, they said.
The couple previously attended Reid Temple North, where they got to regularly witness Watley’s gift for preaching and reaching people. Watley inspires outside the church, too, said Sharon Watts, noting the speech the pastor gave at her husband’s retirement party that had the crowd of soon-to-be retirees wondering how and where they could hear Watley again.
“It’s something about that man and what he brings forth in his preaching,” said Sharon Watts, who first noticed that Watley’s knack for drawing crowds in the Power Lunch days. “To me it seems like we’re called to bring the community together, to hear the word of God, to not just prepare them spiritually, but to prepare the whole person.”
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Maryland
Maryland Ranks as 2nd Happiest State in Country
![Maryland Ranks as 2nd Happiest State in Country Maryland Ranks as 2nd Happiest State in Country](https://www.mymcmedia.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/maryland-road-sign-picture-id92404548.jpg)
WalletHub’s “2024 Happiest States in America” report, released Monday, ranks Maryland as the second happiest state in the United States.
To determine happiness, WalletHub compared states across three key dimensions: well-being, work environment, and community, using 30 metrics.
Maryland ranked in the top five for several metrics, including the fourth-lowest suicide rate and an unemployment rate of 2.9%.
Maryland leads the nation in households earning over $75,000, and its residents rank third in job satisfaction and motivation.
A panel of experts, including Peter Harms, a professor at the University of Alabama, answered questions about happiness. Harms noted, “Money doesn’t bring happiness, but a lack of money brings unhappiness.”
Wondering which state is the happiest? Hawaii ranked number one.
Maryland
Mother of murdered Maryland mom Rachel Morin to testify on Capitol Hill on immigration policies
![Mother of murdered Maryland mom Rachel Morin to testify on Capitol Hill on immigration policies Mother of murdered Maryland mom Rachel Morin to testify on Capitol Hill on immigration policies](https://assets1.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2024/09/10/b2ef5987-1986-4249-986c-a944a45ea9bd/thumbnail/1200x630/5f0eac877aa8dc7be0a6f1f4f18a1a12/morin.jpg?v=631cf5f2b4e8db7f9bc428589402864d)
BALTIMORE – Patty Morin, the mother of murdered Harford County resident Rachel Morin, is expected to testify on Capitol Hill on Tuesday on the U.S.-Mexico border crisis and Biden Administration immigration policies.
Morin, a mother of five, was killed off the Ma & Pa Trail in August 2023 allegedly by a man who was in the country illegally.
After a 10-month nationwide manhunt, Victor Martinez Hernandez was arrested in Tulsa, Oklahoma in June. He was extradited to Maryland where he has been charged in Morin’s murder.
Martinez Hernandez, who has been indicted by a grand jury and awaits trial, allegedly left his home country of El Salvador in February 2023 after an arrest warrant was issued for the murder of a woman, according to law enforcement. He was also connected to a home invasion and assault of a child in Los Angeles.
Patty Morin will testify before the House Committee on the Judiciary at a hearing titled “The Biden-Harris Border Crisis: Victim Perspectives.”
She will provide her insights as a mother of a victim of an alleged illegal immigrant.
According to her attorney, Patty Morin will “honor Rachel’s memory and address how current border policies contributed to the devastating loss of her daughter.”
“Patty’s courage in speaking out during such a difficult time is admirable,” said Randolph Rice, the Morin family attorney. “This hearing provides a crucial platform to shed light on the consequences of our nation’s border policies, and we hope her voice helps create meaningful change.”
Patty Morin sat down with WJZ’s Jessica Albert for an exclusive one-on-one interview after an arrest was made.
Maryland
Arrest of illegal immigrant previously convicted of rape in Maryland marks record for ICE
![Arrest of illegal immigrant previously convicted of rape in Maryland marks record for ICE Arrest of illegal immigrant previously convicted of rape in Maryland marks record for ICE](https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/09/ice-copy.jpg)
Immigration authorities in Baltimore, Maryland, have arrested 153 illegal immigrant sex offenders this fiscal year, a record, with the latest being a Honduran man who was deported from the United States after he was previously convicted of raping a Maryland resident.
The Enforcement and Removal Operations branch under U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said last week that Madai Gamaliel Amaya was taken into custody on Aug. 29 in the suburb of Montgomery Village.
MIGRANTS FORM ‘CONSTELLATION’ OF TENTS OUTSIDE OF MEGA SHELTER IN NEW YORK CITY: REPORT
Madai Gamaliel Amaya, a convicted rapist, has been deported from the United States multiple times, authorities said. (ICE)
“This is a landmark arrest for ERO Baltimore, in that they secured a record 153 noncitizen sex offenders arrested in their area of operations during a single fiscal year, but more importantly, there are 153 victims who need not fear their predators because of ERO officers,” said ERO Executive Associate Director Daniel Bible.
Amaya initially illegally entered the U.S. at an unknown date and place years ago, ICE said. On Jan. 8, 2009, he was arrested by Montgomery County police and charged with second-degree rape.
NYC SECURES $106M IN FEDERAL FUNDING FOR REIMBURSEMENT OF MIGRANT COSTS AFTER MONTHS OF DELAYS
He was convicted months later and sentenced to 10 years in prison and three years of supervised probation upon his release. Two years and six months of the sentence was suspended by a judge. ICE filed a detainer request in 2010 with local authorities and Amaya was deported in 2013.
On July 27, 2016, Amaya was caught trying to illegally enter the U.S. by U.S. Border Patrol agents near Hidalgo, Texas. He was convicted of unlawful entry in 2017 and sentenced to 30 months in an Oklahoma federal prison.
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He was deported once again in 2018. He then entered the U.S. again at an unknown date.
His most recent arrest came last month and he remains in custody pending deportation proceedings, authorities said.
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