RHOADS TERRACE BIBLE FELLOWSHIP
OUR PASTOR
E. D. Charles
Pastor Charles was born and raised in Shepherd, Texas, a small rural town 65 miles north of Houston, Texas on US Highway 59. Pastor Charles attend Texas Southern University in Houston, Texas from 1964 to 1966. In 1966 he joined the US Army where he served until 1968.
Shortly after being discharged from the army, he met Erla Jean McGowen and they were married in October of 1969. Pastor and Erla Jean, whom he affectionately calls Jean have been married for more that 50 years. Pastor and sister Charles are the parents of two sons, Roderick and Vincent, and the grandparents of two boys, Quinton and Joseph.
While working and raising his family in Houston, Texas, Pastor Charles enrolled in Houston Baptist University and completed his undergraduate studies, earning a BA degree in Psychology and in Religion. He later earned a MDIV degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (1986) in Fort Worth, Texas. He is also certified in Reality Therapy through the William Glasser Institute.
Pastor Charles is the founder and Pastor of the Rhoads Terrace Bible Fellowship Church (March 1984). He has served enthuastically in the South Dallas community, helping those who have been left behind to discover and experience the full and complete life that God has provided for His people in Jesus Christ. Pastor Charles is committed to standing in solidarity with the oppressed people in the world in order to aid in the liberation and reconciliation of both the oppressed and the oppressor.
Pastor Charles committed his life to Christ and was baptized in 1964 under the ministry of Rev. William Lawson of the Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church in Houston, Texas; after he was discharged from the military he became a member of and served under the leadership of Rev. J. H. Brown of the Fontaine First Baptist Baptist Church in Houston, Texas; served and apprenticed under the late Dr. A. L. Patterson of the Mt. Corinth Baptist Church in Houson, Texas; and served under the leadership of the late Rev. Nehemiah Davis of the Mt. Pisgah Baptist Church in Ft. Worth, Texas.
OUR PURPOSE
Our purpose , "to help men and women to discover and experience the full and complete life that God has provided for his people in Jesus Christ, to nurture them to maturity in the faith, to equip them for the work of the ministry and to send them out to bear witness unto The Lord Jesus Christ, in words and deeds."
Our goal is to insure that the culture of our church and in our homes, irrespective of what others may say, is a Christian culture, a culture that reflects the Christ who lives in us, a culture characterized by loving and serving God and our fellowman, a culture which will truly enable us to appreciate our uniqueness as African Americans - a people descended from Africa, a culture that is pro-Black, pro-Christ, and pro-Cross; a culture that acknowledges the beauty of our blackness, a culture that truly empowers us to impact the community where God has place us to serve.
Going forward, we will no longer take our cue from the world or from those who profess to be Christians whose goal is to destroy us by dehumanizing, demonizing, dominating, and degrading us. We reject and renounce anybody or anything or any effort that attacks our humanity, that is, anybody or anything or any effort that assault the image of God in us.