HISTORY OF THE CHURCH

Guiding Light Ministries was incorporated on January 2, 2003. It consisted of the following members: Pastor Jessie L. Nightingale Jr., Lady Terri C. Nightingale, Jordan B. Nightingale, Taylor A. Nightingale, Daniel C. Nightingale, Netia Haywood, and Tarik A. Lawson.

We began the ministry with an annual theme the “Year of Release”, and a sub-theme of the “Time of Release”. The theme was given to the original core members of the church following prayer and consultation from the Lord. This is when the Lord promised to release us from our oppositions.

The first service was held on Easter Sunday, April 20, 2003. Since we did not have a permanent place of worship, we held services at the Lane Avenue Days Inn Hotel. There were approximately 45 people in service that day.

Shortly after the first service, the Lord established the street ministry, and members began to go to the Paxon Plaza to witness to lost souls.

With the ministry on the rise, we began to conduct praise team and choir rehearsals, and bible studies at the home of Deacon Ricky and Minister Janice McClenton. We thank them for allowing God to use them and their property for His purpose and glory.

The first members to join this ministry were Jarrel Nightingale and Kristy Simmons. The Lord quickly shinned his light within Kristy’s life, and she began witnessing and winning other souls to Christ. At this point Samantha Watson, Jarren Nightingale, Ranier Rackley, Ian and Meagan McClenton, Ebone Francis, Tawanda Williams, and many others visited, received of the Lord and joined the church as well.

These young people were faithful, and excited enough to go tell of the good news of Jesus Christ. They invited their parents and other family members to subsequent services.

We continued having services every Sunday at the Lane Avenue Days Inn Hotel. We faithfully packed, unpacked and repacked all of the church’s equipment, and supplies each Sunday until the one Sunday when the hotel could not accommodate us. They advised GLMI that we would not be allowed to use their facility to have service on July 26, 2003. They stated that they had pre-booked the banquet room for another event.

Prior to that weekend, Pastor and some of the members traveled to Miami Florida to be with Pastor Glenda Collier for her Pastoral Anniversary. God used the Man of God to speak a prophetic word to our pastor concerning our new building. After this trip, Pastor and his family went on their vacation. When they came back, the hotel manager gave us the “GOOD” news about July 26, 2003. This prompted us to start looking for our new building.

At this point, we were shaken, but not moved. It was at this time that the Lord confirmed the necessity of a permanent place of worship for this ministry. The leaders of the church went out and found a building. We held a business meeting to establish the financial goals and needs of the church. The meeting was held at the future home of Guiding Light Ministries, Inc. —7029-2 Commonwealth Avenue, Jacksonville, Florida 32220.

During the stage of establishing the location for the place of worship, Samantha Watson’s parents surprised everyone by showing up to the church’s first business meeting. Although they were clearly coming to check out the objectives of the church, they have been a tremendous blessing to the ministry by showing outstanding support.

Prior to moving into our new building, we had our final service at the hotel. During this service, eleven people joined the ministry. This service, the “Marriage Supper”, was actually a vision shown to our Pastor as a means of winning souls and for the further development of the church. This event continues to be a blessing to the community and families within the outreach ministry.

After deciding that this would be our new place of worship, we had our first bible study at the Commonwealth location. It was during this bible study that our first adult male joined the church. Our first church service was held on September 21, 2003. We toiled night and day to prepare this once known office/warehouse into a sanctuary of praise for Jesus. This includes painting, carpeting, and cleaning the edifice for service. One week following the first service, the Lord added another soul to this great establishment. Sister Joyce Thompson joined the church. Sister Joyce Thompson had been a GLMI Supporter prior to joining the church. A month later Carrie Cotton and Jaron Dobard joined the ministry.

Now that the sanctuary was in use for worship, we still needed to have extra commodities within the sanctuary. Such commodities included: air conditioning, dropped ceiling, pulpit, partitions and sound booth. McClenton Enterprises and other contractors were hired to come in and complete these commodities for the church.

We would like to encourage those who are in the building process to believe God in spite of how things look. On July 26, 2003, our Pastor presented a two phase vision to the church that had an estimated cost of $15,000 for phase one. The meeting was held in our current building which we were claiming by faith. Our membership at that time consisted mostly of high school and college students. We also had a few faithful supporters. One of our supporters, who attended the business meeting, was wondering how these young people were going to pull it off. I truly believe that her faith and our faith has grown to another level throughout this process.

We also thank God for the faithfulness of Sister Henrietta Frances who traveled and transported people from Georgia to be in the services.

The year of 2004 began with a bang for GLMI. Pastor Nightingale’s burden of the ministry became stronger, so the Lord allowed the Pastor and First Lady to move back to the city of Jacksonville, FL.

Sincere Cotton was the first baby born into the GLMI ministry, he is the son of GLMI member Carrie Cotton.

Pastor Nightingale performed his first wedding ceremony as Pastor on January 3, 2004. He and Lady Nightingale traveled to South Carolina for this wonderful occasion. The groom Mr. Marcus Nightingale is the cousin of Pastor Nightingale.

In mid May, Pastor Nightingale spoke at Harvester Tabernacle in Savannah, Georgia. GLMI traveled along with the Pastor to this anointed service. During the service he proclaimed that the Lord had led him to place our ministry under the covering of Pastor Jean Dimmock. This proclamation bought great joy , love and unity to both GLMI and Harvester Tabernacle.

In February 2004, GLMI was invited to form a 5th Weekend Fellowship which was initiated by Pastors William and Yvette Montgomery. The fellowship really encouraged the church in its infancy. With such hunger to “Tear Down the Walls of Separation”, GLMI had a great desire to host a Fifth Sunday Fellowship. At this time the Lord allowed the church to host its first Fifth Sunday Fellowship. This anointed gathering included Deliverance Time Ministries under the leadership of Pastors William & Yvette Montgomery, and True Holiness Deliverance Tabernacle Inc. under Pastor James A. Buie (Overseer Carrie B. Bryant) and New Life Tabernacle under the leadership of Bishop Jasper Rolle (Founder Ethel Nightingale Isreal). Also during that month our first college graduate, Sis. Netia Haywood, completed her B.S. in Psychology.

We would like to encourage those who are in the building process to believe God in spite of how things look. On July 26, 2003, our Pastor presented a two phase vision to the church that had an estimated cost of $15,000 for phase one. The meeting was held in our current building which we were claiming by faith. Our membership at that time consisted mostly of high school and college students. We also had a few faithful supporters.

On the fifth Sunday in May, GLMI completed its first Fifty Day Consecration on Pentecost Sunday. The church began the fast on Easter Sunday 2004. This sacrifice allowed several members of the church to receive power from on high. At the end of this fast, everything we were praying for started to manifest. The presence of the Lord was so high that one of our visitors fell to the floor and rolled around praising the Lord during our praise and worship.

During the month of May, Pastor Nightingale became a registered counselor in the state of Florida. This was an overflow blessing during the marriage training for the second ceremony our Pastor performed for a new couple—Harold and Classie Beasly. Harold and Classie were joined together in Holy Matrimony on May 15, 2004.

In the month of June, we hosted our first Annual Summer Fest Revival. The revival was a God-given vision to Pastor Nightingale. The purpose of this Holy Ghost filled revival was for members to identify and position themselves for servant-hood in ministry. There were several seminars held in yield to the theme of Servant-hood. These seminars were divided by church auxiliaries. Such seminars included topics for ushers, alter workers, ministers of help, deacons, church administrators and ministers/evangelists class. The seminars were very successful and included members and instructors from other churches.

There were three high school graduates in the month of June. They were Sis. Samantha Watson, Bro. Jaron Dobard, and Bridget Bloodsworth. Thank the Lord for such accomplishments. Sister Samantha is currently enrolled at FSU. Brother Jaron Dobard is currently enrolled at FCCJ.

In the month of July, our Pastor performed the first Baby Dedication at GLMI. Little Brandon Farrish was dedicated to the Lord. The parents of Brandon, Avery and Kimberly Farrish, entrusted Sister NeTia Haywood to be his God-parent.

Later in the summer, the couple who had originally came to our first business meeting, Mr. and Mrs. Samuel and Vivian Watson, obeyed the Lord and joined the church. Praise the Lord! We appreciate the Lord for their support and are glad they heeded the call to servant-hood.

The Lord was not finished yet, the father of Pastor Nightingale, Mr. Jessie L. Nightingale, Sr. both accepted the Lord into his life and joined the church as well. The Lord brought him through open heart surgery and gave him a “clean heart” in the process. Although Mr. Nightingale attended church and served in the church frequently, this move of God was certainly another great opportunity for the church to slap the devil in the face.

Both Bro. Jarren Nightingale and Sis. Kristy Nightingale answered the call into ministry of evangelism. They recently preached their trial sermons here at GLMI. Along with Jarren and Kristy, both Bro. Samuel Watson and Bro. Jessie L. Nightingale Sr. were candidates for ordination during Celebration Weekend 2004.