| Bishop Hezekiah Walker | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Hezekiah Xzavier Walker, Jr. |
| Born | December 24, 1962 |
| Origin | Brooklyn, New York |
| Genres | Gospel |
| Occupations | Bishop, Pastor, Overseer, Choir Director, Songwriter, Singer, Musician, Author |
| Years active | 1985 - Present |
| Labels | Sweet Rain Benson Music Group Verity |
Bishop Hezekiah Xzavier Walker, Jr. (born December 24, 1962, in Brooklyn, New York[1][2]) is a Grammy Award-winning gospel music artist, founder and leader of the Love Fellowship Choir (LFC), and Pastor and Bishop of the Love Fellowship Tabernacle, with locations in Brooklyn, New York, and Bensalem, Pennsylvania, in the United States. Bishop Walker is also the Founder and Overseer of the Covenant Keepers International Fellowship, which spiritually covers, giving guidance and direction to, numerous pastors and their churches in the US - including multiple Love Fellowship Tabernacle - The Kingdom Church, with locations throughout the US and in South Africa.
Walker is the visionary, founder, and Bishop of the Love Fellowship Tabernacle - The Kingdom Church churches, with locations in Brooklyn, New York, and Bensalem, Pennsylvania, in the US. As pastor, he shepherds a growing and multi-cultural flock of members varying in age, race, and socio-economic background. Born and raised in Brooklyn in the tumultuous Fort Greene public housing projects, he has risen to found, build, and lead a significant ministry.
He catapulted into recognition in 1985 for his singing ability with the Grammy Award-winning Love Fellowship Crusade Choir. It was his travels with the Crusade Choir that enabled him to reach people from all walks of life who he had never encountered while growing up in the projects. This, unbeknownst to him at the time, would be the start of his pastoral training, for many of his choir members would eventually become his church members. It was under the tutelage of Pastor Wilbur Jones, of the Beulah Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and Bishop Kenneth H. Moales, the Presiding Prelate of the Pentecostal Churches of Jesus Christ, that Walker received his confirmation and ordination into the pastoralship.
Love Fellowship Tabernacle was birthed in April 1994, located at 2425 Pacific Street, under the leadership of Elder Hezekiah Walker; which is the cradle of the Tabernacle with its humble beginnings of only eight members. The church, located in the East New York section of Brooklyn, congregated with young adolescent parishioners was dedicated to winning souls for Christ. As a result, many young people turned from a life of drugs, crime, and sin because of his ability to preach, teach, and “rightly divide” the Word of God without fear or reservation. The messages were, and still are, hardcore that the rap world responded to the realness of it and deemed him as the “Pastor of Hip Hop.” In the first year of the church’s ministry, Peter Jennings of ABC World News Tonight, covered a report on the 30% drop in crime in the East New York area because of the existence of Love Fellowship Tabernacle, according to the local 73rd and 75th precincts. Walker received an award from the local precincts and was also cited in 1995 by the Council of the City of New York for his outstanding work in the community.
The need for souls to be saved was always a priority for Walker, so on Easter Sunday 1996 Love Fellowship Tabernacle relocated to 464 Liberty Avenue. What had begun with only eight members had quickly blossomed to over 2,000 plus members. The vision God gave to Walker was founded on the three “P’s:” Prayer, Preaching, and Praise. As he led the people of God into prayer and praise, he labored diligently in the preaching of the gospel to ensure that people of all ages receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. His ability to motivate, inspire, and empower through the Word of God drew people from all walks of life to Tuesday night’s prayer and Bible study, now known as the “Prayer Capital of New York City.” Presently, Walker and the Love Fellowship Tabernacle church family are seeking the Lord for a mega-church facility to accommodate the overflow of souls in Brooklyn.
Recognizing the need for God’s power to be manifested throughout the nation, Walker, in 1998, established the Love Fellowship Tabernacle in Willingboro, New Jersey. Shortly thereafter in November 2000, it relocated to a sprawling edifice at 5918 Hulmeville Road in Bensalem, Pennsylvania, a 2.4-acre facility.
Walker is ministering nationally and internationally at churches, revivals, convocations, and conferences and is repeatedly asked to share with some of today’s most dynamic ministries. He has been alongside Bishop Kenneth H. Moales, Sr., Bishop T.D. Jakes, Bishop Noel Jones, Bishop John Francis, Dr. Marvin L. Sapp, Pastor Marvin L. Winans, Pastor Shirley Caesar, Pastor John P. Kee, Pastor Jackie McCullough, Pastor Rod Parsley, and Dr. Juanita Bynum.
Walker attended Long Island University, majoring in Sociology. He also attended Hugee Theological Seminary, and the New York School of the Bible. Currently, he is attending the Philadelphia Biblical University in Langhorne, PA. Walker is the president and founder of the Love Fellowship Bible Institute and the Youth Pastor of the Pentecostal Church of Jesus Christ.
On December 18, 2003, Walker was ordained Overseer by the Honorable, The Late Bishop Kenneth H. Moales Sr., during the 10th Founders Week Celebration of the Love Fellowship Tabernacle. In his new elevation, Walker began a covenant relationship with other pastors in the northeast of the US, and in South Africa, under the title of the Covenant Keepers International Fellowship.
On August 3, 2008, during the 89th International Holy Convocation of the Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ of the Apostolic Faith, Inc. in Atlanta, Georgia, Walker, after 14 years of pastoring one of the fastest-growing churches in the New York City area and in Bensalem, Pennsylvania, and having fellowship churches in Long Island, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and recently a Love Fellowship Tabernacle “The Kingdom Church” in Cape Town, South Africa, was chosen to be consecrated into the bishopric by Bishop William L. Bonner, Chief Apostle of the Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ of the Apostolic Faith, Inc., and Senior Pastor of the Greater Refuge Temple COOLJC (the organization's headquarters church) in Harlem, New York.
"Pastor Walker is a son of the Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ," said Bonner, adding he recently heard Walker preach, and was "impressed with the appeal Pastor Walker had in drawing a younger generation into the Kingdom of God." "This honor means so much to me but also to my churches. Words cannot express how I feel to receive this elevation from Bishop William L. Bonner, truly this is a blessing from God,” stated Walker.
In December 2008 Bishop Walker received his affirmation to the Bishopric by The Late Bishop Kenneth H. Moales Sr., Presiding Bishop of the Pentecostal Churches of Jesus Christ and was appointed 1st Vice Bishop of that reformation during Holy Convocation 2009.
On June 12, 2011, Bishop Walker was officially enthroned and installed as the Presiding Prelate of the Pentecostal Churches of Jesus Christ, as the successor to His Grace, The Late Bishop Kenneth H. Moales, Sr.
Chief Consecrators were Bishop J. Delano Ellis, Bishop Alfred Owens, and Bishop Huie Rogers. Bishop John Francis of London, England, delivered the homily.
Bishop Walker states, “We were in our Annual Convocation (2010),” recalled Bishop Walker, “and Bishop Moales was ministering about succession. He was saying that many leaders fail because they don’t have a succession plan. Then, at the end of his message, he turned and began to set things in order. He told us, ‘If God should call me home, this is what I want done.” He told us what to do for his wife (Lady Peggy Moales), and what to do for his home church (Prayer Tabernacle, Bridgeport, CT). Then he looked at all the pastors and he looked at me and said, ‘Bishop Walker will become the new prelate of the Pentecostal Churches of Jesus Christ.’ I was in a total state of shock!”
Eight months later, Bishop Moales died.
Bishop Walker remains confident in this one fact: “And Because God Is The Greatest Power, We Shall Not Be Defeated!”
Walker has released several albums on the music labels; Sweet Rain Records, Benson Music Group, and Verity Records as Hezekiah Walker & The Love Fellowship Crusade Choir, Hezekiah Walker & The Love Fellowship Choir, and more recently (since 2005) as, Hezekiah Walker & LFC.
Walker's efforts have seen him win Grammy Awards for Best Gospel Album By Choir Or Chorus twice: once for Live in Atlanta at Morehouse College (1994), and once for Love Is Live! (2001).
Separate from The Love Fellowship Choir, Walker's Love Fellowship Tabernacle Choir (LFT Church Choir) has released albums entitled Recorded "Live" at Love Fellowship Tabernacle in 1998, and Love Is Live in 2001.
In 2003, Walker wrote his first book, entitled Destiny: Dream It, Declare It, Do It, published by Whitaker House.
Walker is also the host of his own radio show, Afternoon Praise, which airs during weekdays from 2pm-7pm on the only 24-hour Gospel Station in New York City, 1190 WLIB.
Bishop Walker is a family man and the father of one child; daughter, KyAsia Monét Walker.