Some leaders inherit a ministry. Apostle Johnny L. Kemp Sr. was there when it was born.
- TitlePresiding Bishop & Overseer, MEC Global Ministries
- MarriedPatty Smith, March 11, 1972
- Pastor of M.E.C.Since 1977
- FoundedMEC Training Center, 2005
- AuthorSowing Seeds for a Miracle
There at the beginning
In the early 1970s, Johnny L. Kemp was serving as a deacon at The Church of God in Coconut Grove under Reverend Earl Wallace. When Mother Virginia Smith's knee slipped out of place one night, she called him to her home. As he helped her, God dealt with her about starting a ministry — and when she said yes, she asked him to help prepare the storefront building for worship services.
He married her daughter, Patty Smith, in 1972. In 1977, the Kemps relocated from Orlando to take up leadership of M.E.C. Ministries. Shortly afterward, on September 4, 1977, Mother Smith went home to be with the Lord, and the mantle of her vision rested on them.
Building the vision
Under Apostle Kemp and Pastor Patty L. Kemp, the ministry grew from a small congregation into a network of churches and ministries. M.E.C. was incorporated in 1995 at its headquarters on Northwest 95th Street. In 2005 he founded the MEC Training Center in Fort Lauderdale, fulfilling one of the founder's earliest mandates: a ministry that trains laborers in the Word of God.
Today the work reaches Miami, Pompano Beach, East Tampa, and Charleston, and he serves as Presiding Bishop and Overseer of MEC Global Ministries.
Faith plants. God multiplies. Miracles manifest.
Sowing Seeds for a Miracle
Across decades of pastoring, teaching, and building ministries, his message has stayed consistent: faith is not a feeling you wait on — it is a seed you plant. His book, Sowing Seeds for a Miracle, puts that teaching in writing so it can travel further than one Sunday.
Why we honor him
Apostle Kemp has called Mother Virginia Smith one of the greatest spiritual warriors he ever knew.
This Clergy Appreciation Month, we honor Apostle Kemp for his faithfulness to the mandate he received — and for carrying forward the work Mother Virginia began.