COMMUNITY INTERVIEW

Gliston Morrisey, Pastor at Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church (MMBC) and Corrections Officer

I talked with Gliston Morrisey who lives in Hampstead and has a full time job as a state corrections officer. He is an associate pastor at Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church (MMBC) in central Wilmington, also assisting at Rieglewood MBC about 25 miles west of Wilmington. Both churches are predominately African American.

While Rieglewood is a small congregation with an elderly membership, MMBC is a large congregation with membership of around 1,200.  The makeup is about 30% from youth up to young adults, 30% middle aged and 40% older aged.

Pastor Bell is the lead pastor and has been there for over 30 years. His wife has accompanied him as a licensed pastor along with a number of others. They have experienced significant growth over the past 10 years. MMBC with its size has many ministry programs directed to many differing demographics. They do not have a day school or preschool program but feel this area is covered by their youth programs.

Mr. Morrisey’s general opinion is that there are enough or too many churches in the area and feels that the existing churches should work harder on outreach.

Kenneth Krug