The Rev. Lindsey Napier Sr.

Williams Tabernacle C.M.E. Church will celebrate its 124th Founders’ Day at 4 p.m., on Sunday, March 11, with the Rev. Lindsey Phillip Napier Sr. delivering the Founders’ Day address.

The Warner Robins C.M.E. Church choir will render the music. This year’s theme is “Seeking God’s Heart in 2012.”

Napier is serving his sixth year as a “Servant for Christ” at the Warner Robins Christian Methodist Episcopal Church. He is a native of Worth County, Ga. He is the second of three sons born to the late Rev. Lonnie L. Napier Sr. and the late Mary Jane Napier Parker.

He graduated from Worth County High School in 1971, with honors. He received his undergraduate degree in biology from Paine College in Augusta, Ga.

Upon graduating from Paine in 1976, his plans were to attend Ohio State University and become an entomologist. He, instead, enrolled at the Interdenominational Theological Center at Phillips School of Theology in Atlanta, Ga. In 1981, he received a Master of Divinity. After relocating to Thomasville, Ga, in 1985, he was offered a teaching position at Thomasville Middle School in 1987. He then did further studies at Valdosta State College toward certification. In 1991, he relocated to Columbus, Ga., where he obtained a master’s degree in education and an educational specialist degree form Troy State University at Phoenix City, Ala.

His first work in the ministry, at 21, was at Williams Memorial C.M.E Church in Augusta, Ga., under the pastorate of the Rev. Gene R. Dean. He was licensed to preach in 1976. He was ordained deacon, in 1979, by late Bishop Joseph C. Coles Jr. He received his Elder’s orders, in 1981, and was admitted in to Full Connection by the late Bishop Joseph C. Coles Jr.

From this time, his ministries has included Livingston Chapel in Covington, Ga.; Israel C.M.E. Church in Jackson, Ga.; West Point Circuit-New Harmony C.M.E. Church and Emanuel Chapel C.M.E. Church in West Point, Ga.; Clifford Temple C.M.E. Church  in Thomasville, Ga.; and the Holsey Chapel C.M.E. Church in Columbus, Ga. He was appointed by Bishop Othal Hawthrone Lakey, in 2001, as the Presiding Elder of the Macon-Barnesville District. In 2006, Bishop Lakey was in need of a minister to serve the parishioners at Warner Robins Christian Methodist Episcopal, and he called on Napier. He accepted the appointment to Warner Robins C.M.E. Church. In July 2006, he preached his first sermon as the newly appointed pastor of this flock. He also serves as the chairman of the Joint Board of Finance for the Central Georgia Region. He is the principal of Twiggs County Middle School in Jeffersonville, Ga.

In 1987, he married the former Phyllis Waitts of Thomasville, Ga. He has three children, Lindsey Jr., Lynstancia and Linden “Kelsey.” His also the grandfather of Lindsey Phillip Napier III “Trey.”

The Rev. Rufus R. Jolly is the pastor of Williams Tabernacle C.M.E. Church.