Prairie View hosts 55th annual Ministers' Conference

The annual Ministers' Conference hosted by Prairie View A&M University began Feb. 5 and continued Feb. 6 in the Willie A. Tempton Sr. Memorial Student Center's Opal Johnson-Smith auditorium.
 The conference brought hundreds of men and women of God across the nation who came to fellowship to receive clarity and wisdom on "The Urgency of Prophetic Preaching," the theme of the conference.
 The opening session featured Charles G. Adams, senior pastor at Hartford Memorial Baptist Church in Detroit, Mich. "Responsibility: Receiving and Sharing All Things from God," was his subject.
 In his message, Adams emphasized that he wanted to "challenge those who have too much to give to those who do not have enough."
 As the excitement continued during the conference, all of the men and women swiftly moved from lunch back to the auditorium to hear Thomas Louis-Brown Sr. of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church in Jackson, Miss.
 He directly addressed the theme from the biblical perspective of the three major prophets in the Holy Bible, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel.
 During his lecture, Louis-Brown Sr. said, "Prophetic preaching is addressing people's tendency to live in denial and despair by offering them hope from the Lord."
 At the end, he encouraged the crowd to be prophetic wherever they preach.
 The last speaker of the first night was Damian M. Epps, pastor of Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
 Also at College Night before the speaker was introduced, the Prairie View Baptist Student Movement sung "There is No Way" by Ricky Dillard. His topic was "Wrestling with an Unseen Enemy" at College Night, a portion of the conference directed toward the students on campus. From the amount of crowd members standing on their feet in agreement, he spoke with power.
 Dr. Epps said, "Jesus was struggling with agony as he inquired the Father to 'let this cup pass from me' but He never had a problem submitting to his Father."
 The purpose of his sermon was to reveal what took place the night before Jesus' crucifixion that enabled Him to make it to the cross, so that there would be a Sunday morning, the day that Jesus is believed to have resurrected.