The Bethel Mission: Goals for Beginning

Where There Is No Vision the People Perish

If the year 1972 marked the birth of The New Greater Bethel Ministries and the Pastorship of John Haywood Boyd Sr., a compassionate and humble man whom God called and commanded to preach, teach, and lead His flock. As God's command began to penetrate his spirit, Pastor Boyd went forth in obedience to His voice. Our first Gospel Tent, was erected in that same year, and since that time, God has instructed Pastor Boyd to take this ministry into the streets and the communities of New York, where thousands have been saved, healed and set free from bondage.

Under the direction of the Holy Spirit, Pastor Boyd was led to a building on the corner of 221st Street and Linden Boulevard in Cambria Heights, New York. There the church grew in stature and spirit under the leadership of God. On Easter Sunday 1975, with perseverance, determination, prayer, and fasting, the "Little Bethel" Family acquired the Cambria Heights theater complex, including a movie theater, a suite of offices, a pool room, a liquor store and a construction company. The New Greater Bethel Ministry became a living reality!

After much renovation at a cost of many hundreds of thousands of dollars, this complex now houses the New Greater Bethel Ministries, consisting of a main sanctuary, a recording studio, a modern suite of offices, the Bethel Christian Learning Center with pre-kindergarten through sixth grade, and the New Greater Bethel Bible Institute.
We also maintain a food pantry and soup kitchen, housed in a separate facility, which is one of the largest in the Metropolitan New York area, distributing emergency food and serving hot, wholesome meals to hundreds of homeless daily; our Set Free Prison Ministry, which tends to the spiritual needs of our incarcerated brothers and sisters; a 24-hour prayer line with counselors who are ready to minister day and night to all in need; our Ferndale House facility, providing care for people who are incapacitated or ill for an indefinite period of time; and a series of radio broadcasts that span the globe, reaching nearly 3 million persons weekly.

Today, the New Greater Bethel Ministries is expanding its borders to include our new sanctuary location at 215-32 Jamaica Avenue, Queens Village. This site houses our new Christian Literature and Media Center, the GB Printing & Copy Shop, and the Bethel Christian Academy with grades seven through twelve. Our new sanctuary will hold approximately 1200 people to the glory of God.

On the horizon for tomorrow, the vision lives on with the New Greater Bethel Life and Convention Center, a facility which will seat 10,000; a state-of-the-art TV recording and editing studio with a 48 track digital and analogue recording studio; a new Christian school ranging from pre-kindergarten through junior college; an adult education program specializing in General Equivalency Diploma training; and a job training and literacy facility. The Christian Life Center will include an Olympic-size swimming pool, a gymnasium with a regulation basketball court, a weight room, a racquetball court, an indoor track, and aerobic equipment.

"And the Lord answered me and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time. But at the end it shall speak, and not lie: Though it tarry wait for it, because it will surely come, it will not tarry."

- HABAKKUK 2:2,3

NEW GREATER BETHEL MINISTRIES
(718) 978-4357