Chapel Today – Bill McGill

The Rev. Dr. Bill McGill is Senior Pastor of the Imani Baptist Temple in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Called to the ministry while only a junior in high school, he has been in the preaching ministry for more than four decades. He also serves as the Executive Pastor of One Church-One Offender, a nationally recognized faith-based alternative sentencing program, is Past-President of the Fort Wayne-Allen County Branch of the NAACP and is a member of the Indiana Advisory Committee of the United States Commission on Civil Rights.

Dr. McGill has long been recognized as a leader in the faith community’s response to the various social dilemmas confronting our nation. In November 1993, he was one of only 14 clergy invited to a White House breakfast meeting with President Clinton for the specific purpose of developing a faith response to the HIV/AIDS crisis. Since April 1999, his focus has been on restorative justice and under his leadership One Church-One Offender has enjoyed a cumulative success rate of 93%. In 2003, the Nobel Laurent Archbishop Desmond Tutu praised his program as one that “brings tears to the eyes of God.”

A frequent keynoter at regional & national conferences, Dr. McGill often suggests that social outreach and the work of the local church are natural ties rather than conflicting ones. It is his contention that “the whole tradition of Biblical theology is wrapped up in the principle of compassion for individuals who are suffering. And like the lepers of old, those suffering from various social and economic ills have been relegated to the very fringes of modern society and God holds the Church responsible for serving as their balm in Gilead.”

Dr. McGill had undergraduate studies at Liberty University and is a graduate of the 2001 Summer Leadership Institute of the Harvard School of Divinity. In 1996, the then Aspen College of the Bible & Theological Seminary awarded him the Doctor of Letters.

Rev. McGill will be preaching from 1 Tim. 4: 12-14 and 1 Peter 4:10 with his message, “Don’t Allow Your Gift to Drift!”