Anthony George - Man For All Seasons
Many words have been to describe the pastor of the Gouyave Open Bible Standard Church, Pastor now Bishop Dr. Anthony George.
Some of the adjectives which everyone seem convinced, fits comfortably into the character of the unassuming person are; unselfish, kind, big-hearted, humble, generous, without malice, teacher, counselor, guide and the list goes on.
The ceremony held at the church in Gouyave to symbolically bestow Dr. George’s credentials on him was also graduation time for more than 60 students of the Ministry Empowerment Program which was introduced to the western town by him years ago.
The atmosphere was heady with outpourings of love, joy, gratitude, friendship, reverence, celebration, togetherness, brotherhood and a host of other positive emotions.
The love, respect and admiration which Bishop Dr. George’s congregation held for him were almost tangible and were certainly the first thing recognized by newcomers and visitors.
In the presence of his congregation, friends and well-wishers including fellow pastors one of whom was the Chairman of the Grenada Conference of Churches, Reverend Osbert James. The terminal degree was bestowed upon Bishop George by Professor Dr. Jim Cramies of the Newport Tendale University School of Global Leadership.
A very humble man, one who does not sing praises to himself and does not like praises sung to him, Dr. George’s contribution to the church in Grenada and the personal achievements he has made cannot go unnoticed and are impossible to ignore.
He has led others and helped them to develop by example. He has never demanded respect but has earned the profound respect of all whom he has come in contact with; has never sought emulation but always sought to do what he was convinced God wanted him to do to benefit his community, his country and mankind in general.
True by his own admission there have been some serious challenges along the way and thoughts of giving up would have crept in. however not being made of the stuff that quitters are made of, Pastor George plugged on to his goal and with no doubt continues to plug away to even more achievements in spreading the word of God and making a difference in the lives of people.
Leo Anthony George was born on April 10, 1956 in the fishing village of Gouyave and made his commitment to God by getting baptized in 1978.
In 1993 the young man of God accepted the challenge to become Pastor of the Gouyave Open Bible Church but between his joining the church and his acceptance of the calling he held may positions and contributed in many capacities to the church and by extension the people.
Pastor George also served as Pastor of the Independence Baptist Church when that entity needed a leader and later became General Director of the Open Bible Standards Churches of Grenada.
A former student of the St. John’s Roman Catholic School and the St. John’s Christian Secondary School, his persistent quest to be better prepared for God’s work led to Bachelors’ Degree in Biblical Studies in 1979, a Masters’ Degree in leadership in 2003 and now his Doctor of Ministry terminal degree, a Doctorate in Global Leadership.
In presenting Dr. George’s documents Professor Dr. Cramies was high in praise for the persistence and commitment of the man of God.
Professor Cramies, himself described as a great man of God has done extensive studies, research and writing on biblical topics and is a published author of several books and congratulated Dr. George on achieving his final termination degree in the field of pastoral ministry.
Professor Cramies in his comments said God’s ultimate purpose was that he wanted sons and daughters to populate the earth and share in his nature. His intention was to create a people for himself.
He said God’s nature is goodness and it was personified in his son. Jesus is worthy to receive honor and glory because he is the one who saved us.
Professor Cramies said the honor that is being bestowed on Dr. George is because he put in the countless hours of study, research and reading. He made the sacrifices and manifested the commitment necessary to reach this stage.
He said Dr. George’s honor is earned not fake just as Gods glory and honor is earned because of who he is and what he has done and continues to do for mankind.
The professor said, the glory that God has he got it in order to do the work he has done. It is the confirmation of his love.
The Ministry Empowerment Program (MEP) was brought to Gouyave by Pastor George in 2005 to encourage the people to become more qualified and therefore empowered in ministry.
Since then there have been a total of 77 courses over a period of 6 semesters in several areas including Praise and Worship, Bible Study methods, Leadership, Communication and Interpersonal Skills, Team Building and Christian Ethics.
Sixty- two persons graduated at the ceremony, persons who would have completed one or more of the courses. These persons were not necessarily members of the Open Bible Church as the courses were made available to others as well.
On the achievement of his terminal degree Dr. George said it is all the Lord’s doing noting that this awareness is a cornerstone scripture of the church.
He said once again the scriptures have lived up to the test and thanked God for the strength, health fortitude and protection.
Dr. George thanked all who would have helped in any way during the course of hi studies and said although this phase has ended the journey has just begun. Interview with Dr. Anthony GeorgeTell me a little about the road to the doctorate, how difficult it was and what prompted you to make the decision in the first place to acquire the doctorate?
One of the problems we face in Grenada is that we as pastors in the pulpit did not have much opportunities to raise our level of professionalism.
In my case when I started to do ministry one could only do up to a certain point and it was difficult to break that pattern. In other words I had reached a plateau and I said to myself there must be a way to get beyond. Ministry is more than that. Jesus Christ’s ministry was exciting; the Apostle Paul’s ministry was exciting.
It dawned on me why not seek my education and then I heard by chance of the Masters program and that there was a degree offered in global leadership so I took the challenge, went down to Trinidad and enrolled in that university and man it was cutting edge information.
 DR. ANTHONY GEORGE PASTOR OF GOUYAVE OPEN BIBLE STANDARD CHURCH
So I’ve gained the knowledge then I started to do training with my leadership team letting them know that I had a new vision, a new concept to take the church into the community to make it relevant to the community so that people can know there is a church that is active. A church that is alive and has the power of the gospel that not only changes lives in a spiritual way but we want to do it holistically and so they grasped at that concept. They were pleased with the training receiving it graciously and today we are a household name in Grenada.
Our strong point is on training because as we train our leaders, they in turn train other leaders under them and so we are able to go into the community. So that propelled me to go to the higher level and as soon as I completed the masters the doctorate was staring me in the face so I said why not give it a try?
It was hard and tough, many times I wanted to give up but I got encouragement from my team, my wife and family, from pastors who had that kind of vision like Reverend Osbert James and I have a good friend, a hairdresser Dr. Marcus Sinclair who was always at me to go for it. So I took the challenge and Sunday gone was the climax of it and even though I have accomplished and have a title to my name that is not what counts where I am concerned. What counts is the knowledge gained that I can empower my people and we can go into our community in even a more dynamic way. I am looking at kingdom; I am looking at Grenada and beyond.
Now that you have the doctorate what is the next step?
The next step, I am thinking very, very seriously of establishing a school to take our leaders to that level because we do not have a school. I have been having dialogues with my professor and we are looking at some plan to see how we can establish a school so we can get other leaders and it doesn’t have to be leaders in the pulpit but leadership in general in whatever sector NGO’s and so forth. They can come on board, learn that cutting edge information and go out there and make a difference.
Will the information be about religion only or are your leading people who will be leading other people in general?
No it’s not religion only but leadership in general. In fact a lot of the textbooks that we used, are the textbooks used in most of the universities in America and some in the University of the West Indies.
There has been a problem with leadership in the wider church because many persons saw church as just a formal grouping of people to praise God but as time becomes more difficult and reaching man becomes more complex because of the different theories and so on how would your knowledge help simplify the doctrine and release people who have found themselves stuck in those situations?
Sometimes we look at church as a club. A place where believers come to just have a wonderful time and enjoy and worship God but church is more than that.
In fact the great commission of the church is to go into all the world and preach the gospel. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.
But after salvation there come training, equipping, empowerment in their lives and then we will release these people back into society so that they can go back and be disciples so it’s more than just a club.
I say too long we have been in church like a club and we are losing the focus of what the gospel is all about and I think it is time that we should point people in that direction so that they can go out evangelizing, winning souls, make the ministry relevant to the word of God and to our society today.
Looking down the road apart from the school what are the immediate benefits of your doctorate to the country in general?
I would say the aspect of leadership because in a sense even as I am training other leaders empowering them they in turn are going into the communities. We have taken up some of the slack from government because we are into some social activities for example at House of praise we have adopted the Florida Government School and we give them not only spiritual covering but there are times when they need some financial covering. At times they need somebody with an expertise and our church has quite a number of them. For example there is Sister Denise Brathwaite who is in charge of the Yes I Can program in the Ministry of Education so sometimes she gives of her spare time to the school.
So it’s more than the norm. We are able to help in the communities; we have the sick and shut in who are visited from yet another team from our church, we have the puppet ministry which we make available and many schools especially pre-primary have called on us and we are going there.
It does not involve the government but as a church we are doing our part for our society and our community.
Most of the training that is being done now is done by secular leaders. How importance is the role of the church in leadership and how important is it for the church to have trained leaders to go out there and train people to teach Grenadians how to be better persons under God?
One of the positives for the leadership within the church, after we are trained is not only the aspect of leadership but the most important slant is from a Christian standpoint. So we are able to train leaders but also from a church standpoint with the gospel we are able to give gifted or spiritual types of leadership for example we have leaders in counseling and we are able to use the gospel, use the Holy Spirit and the bible to give direction so we have an advantage knowing that we have the spirit of God with us to lead and direct us.
Society teaches leadership from a different point of view. How important is it for the church to get deeper into the teaching of God’s word so that morals, values and standards can be brought back into the society?
The teaching of God’s word is so very important. Society can only do from the knowledge they have. If we from a spiritual standpoint as leaders go out we have the advantage of using the principles of God’s word. In fact if you look under every governmental system of every religious system it takes you back to the books of Moses where the laws were established and almost every entity like government or religion have some kind of foundation in the Books of Moses.
So here we see they are using the principles from the Book of Moses, the law and the prophets we are able to give direction.
You know morals have deteriorated so far in our society that it takes someone with some spiritual insight to bring them back there. With the proper measure of leadership combined with God’s word we are able to make a difference so that our society can once again be arrested from the decays that are happening where morality is concerned.Click Here: Year of Divine Favour at House of Praise
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