God’s Presence • God’s Guidance • God’s Promise
Mission Statement:
We are committed to compelling the lost, and dedicated to worshipping and glorifying God through His perfect gifts.
Vision
Pillar of Fire Church and ministries is a leading and dynamic vehicle to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with conviction, excellence and creativity. We are in the world but not of the world. We are entrepreneurial soldiers advancing God’s kingdom, and we add value in every setting, for the purpose of glorifying God. As it is documented in Exodus 13:21, that it is the Lord who led, and provided guidance and light in the night through His embodiment in the Pillar of Fire. This is the call and purpose of Pillar of Fire church and ministries, to embody the leading, guidance and light of God to His people.
Pastor Quinton – Founder & Senior Pastor
Biographies and resumes are the beautiful places where glory and triumphs are shared. I could tell you how I’m a man of faith, husband, father, college graduate, ordained minister, and a vice president for a faith-based university. There are awards, career accolades, and highlights of my special talents and hobbies. Then there is this new season in my life. This is the season when my wife and I accepted our divine assignment and relocated to the St. Louis area. While these things help you to get to know me, they are not my whole story.
I grew up as the son of a pastor, which established a great spiritual foundation. At the age of 12, I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior (John 3:16-18; Romans 10:8-10) and received the precious gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:36-39; John 14:16-17). Despite support and guidance from wonderful, authentic, and astute Christian parents, I have still struggled through life in conflict with my purpose, gifts, and the standard of life God was calling me to compared to the standard I was comfortable with.
Through all of my sins, failures, and low moments, God never let me go! I know what it is like to live as someone who was chosen, yet also felt alone and rejected. At times I was passionate about becoming who God was calling me to be, and many times I failed and felt like a hypocrite. For many years, I couldn't give myself the permission and grace for a lifelong journey of becoming. I often asked myself, ‘I couldn't meet my own expectations, how could I even come close to living up to God's’?
Through many ups and downs, I finally embraced a complicated truth. I discovered that a perfect God selects the flawed and imperfect (Romans 9:20-23) for a greater purpose, and as He sees fit. For nearly 20 years, I wrestled with God’s call on my life. Although I found other ways to exercise the gifts God has given me, I was often unfulfilled and unable to achieve the totality of my true calling. I’ve never felt worthy or justified for such a great call, and I often sought an easier path, outside of the spotlight and beneath God’s standards.
I’ve come to understand that genuinely accepting and committing to God’s call is about faith in His plan and not my worthiness. It is I who has needed and continues to depend on God’s leading through darkness and uncertainty. This is where God revealed His assignment for my life, to serve, and Pillar of Fire Church was birthed.
Exodus 13 reveals how God lead the Hebrew nation from Egypt during the day with a pillar of cloud and at night with a pillar of fire (Exodus 13:17 & 21). With my focus on God and faith in His plan and leading, Pastor Karen and I now launch Pillar of Fire Church.
Pillar of Fire Church was not birthed to be a ‘different’ church. Pillar of Fire is not a perfect church, social club, nor fraternal group. Pillar of Fire Church is a spiritual family bonded in service to God, committed to compelling the lost, and dedicated to worshipping and glorifying God through His perfect gifts.
Pastor Karen
The surface of success looks great, and generations of women and men have been trained to desire ‘the look’ of success. As an Oncology Pharmacist, I know very well that the surface of a person can mask the most life-threatening diseases, and even as it relates to healing, the surface may never match the strength of what lies within. God doesn't want us to simply look successful. He wants to transform our lives and lead us into the authentic and best version of ourselves (Romans 12:2).
From the outside, the surface view of my journey lacks the true details of the transformation process that God has done and continues to do in me. In college, I was an Honors Biology student, president of a student organization, and engaged, at age 20, to my future husband. One may assume that I was a young woman who knew who she was, where she was headed, and who didn't have a care in the world. I may have even tried to convince myself that this was the case. Beneath the surface, I was a young woman in a war with her past, and anxiously clenching onto the what I felt was stability in the present, but still very uncertain about my future. I desperately needed and still need God to guide me.
I thought I knew God. I grew up in a Pentecostal church and a Christian home. My father was a preacher, and I used to sing in church and dance on the praise team. However, starting at a young age, I began to experience what felt like constant waves of church-hurt. I can’t recall when I started feeling like a target, but I didn't feel emotionally safe in church, and a thick wall went up to guard my heart and mind. I knew there was a big difference between the love of Jesus and the hurt I experienced from some of the people in church. I often wondered how people could say that they love and follow Jesus, yet behave so badly toward me and countless others. It is funny how the disciples and even relatives who walked with Jesus struggled to know and embrace Him in full truth and glory.
I'll never forget, it was near the end of my undergraduate career when I had an unforgettable and miraculous encounter with the Holy Spirit, which began to break down the walls in my heart and mind. I attended a revival with my future husband, and received prayer. In that church service, the Holy Spirit embraced and filled me (Acts 2:36-39; John 14:16-17) and my relationship with and knowledge of God reached new depth and direction! Since then, it has been a nonstop journey with many incredible twists and turns. Later, I accepted God's call for me to preach the Gospel, and fully engaged my passion for empowering others to look and dig beneath their ‘surface’ to find healing, purpose, and fulfillment. It was God’s grace and will for me to persevere through my fiery trials and triumph in order to be ready for what He would have me to do.
Now, Pastor Quinton and I have relocated to the St. Louis area on divine assignment from God to serve. I recognize and embrace that God did not call us to establish Pillar of Fire Church simply as a ‘different’ church, or perfect church. Pillar of Fire Church is a spiritual family bonded in service to God, committed to compelling the lost, and dedicated to worshiping and glorifying God through His perfect gifts.
We, too, are on a journey, and like Paul, we have embraced our purpose of guiding others as we follow Jesus (I Corinthians 1:11), the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2)