The Lord Will Provide: The Life & Times of Rev. William H. Copeland

by William H. Copeland Jr., Monica R. Fountain

Overview

PASTOR. THERE ONCE WAS A TIME when that word alone was held sacred. A time when being a pastor was not a vocation but a calling. Not so much a profession as a confession of the faith and purpose held by those divinely called to the ministry of servant leadership.

“The Lord Will Provide: The Life & Times of William H. Copeland Jr.” is a reminder of those times. A reminder of the men—and women—who embraced that sacred calling at a time in America when the role of pastor, particularly in the African-American community, entailed wearing the hat of community leader, public servant, spiritual counselor, social advocate and being the unflinching face and voice that spoke truth to power. It was a weighty and perhaps unenviable mission—regarded as both sacred and monumental.

Reverend William H. Copeland Jr. is a fighter. Not in the brutish or violent sense. He is not a pugilist in the ring. Not a street brawler. He is a warrior. God’s warrior. A fighter for the Kingdom and for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. A fighter for civil rights. A defender of the powerless, the poor, the hopeless and disenfranchised. He has been a fighter for as long as he can remember.

The youngest of 14 children born in Dodson, Louisiana, he had to fight with unrelenting purpose all his life. He was a sickly child. An answer to his mother’s prayers for a son, he teetered between life and death, cradled by the winds of hope and the prayers of ancestors who endured the Middle Passage and tortuous American slave plantations with a fervent faith in God and their eyes set on the prize.

Born and raised in the segregated South, a black boy, he learned to fight to survive. Through segregation, Jim Crow and the Civil Rights movement, he has fought with every fiber of his being.

This book is the story of his American life. A memoir of the Life & Times of Reverend William H. Copeland Jr., as told to his daughter Monica Fountain, journalist, writer and formerly a reporter for the Chicago Tribune.

A pastor’s story, it is a personal human journey about the sacrifices, struggles, triumphs and even the failings of a good man with a heart for God. It is the story of what it truly means to be a pastor, to love the people of God.

It is one man’s story and yet reflective of the journeys of a generation of pastors who preceded a new dispensation of prosperity doctrine, mega-churches and preacher as celebrity.

It is a personal story that, at its heart, calls the church to reflect and to return to its roots of steadfast faith, uncompromising truth, deep spirituality, and social justice. It is a story that calls upon the church to be the church, unwavering in principle and standing unmovable on biblical promise. To stand on four words that for William H. Copeland have shone like diamonds, even in the darkest hours, all of his life: “The Lord Will Provide”

Product Details

BN ID:	2940163407927
Publisher:	John W. Fountain
Publication date:	12/04/2019
Sold by:	Smashwords
Format:	eBook
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

For almost 50 years, Rev. William H. Copeland, Jr. has been a shining star in the Kankakee community. Called to pastor the Morning Star Baptist Church in 1971, Rev. Copeland has consistently shown his concern not only for the souls and the spiritual wellbeing of mankind, but also for the social conditions people daily face. Rev. Copeland has battled for the rights of every child to have equal access to a quality education. He has organized marches against gangs and violence and helped to negotiate gang truces in the Kankakee community. He has been a leader in the fight against racism and injustice throughout the Kankakee community and his service and accomplishments have been recognized nationally. Born in Winn Parish, Louisiana, to Georgia Ann and William H. Copeland Sr., Rev. Copeland was the last of 14 children. After completing high school in Winfield, Louisiana, he earned a bachelor’s of science degree from Missouri Western University in St. Joseph, Missouri. He has also been awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Divinity degree from Morris College, Sumter, S.C. (1975) and McKinley Theological Seminary, Jackson, Miss. (1977). Rev. Copeland is a veteran of the U. S. Army and served in the U.S. Army Combat Engineers from 1952 to 1955, including eighteen months in Germany. He was honorably discharged in 1955. In February 1967, Rev. Copeland was called to pastor the First Baptist Church of Elwood, Kansas. He served in Elwood for five years. Rev. Copeland also worked as an elementary and junior high school teacher and has teaching certificates from the State of Kansas and Missouri. He coached football and basketball in Elwood. In 1971, Rev. Copeland was called to pastor the Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church. Under the tenure of Pastor Copeland, the Morning Star purchased land and erected a half-million dollar edifice in 1976 for which the mortgage was fully satisfied in 1986 and purchased and renovated what now serves as the Morning Star Community Center. Pastor Copeland is married to Leola Copeland. He has two sons, Walter Klein and Kenneth Edward Copeland; and one daughter, Monica Fountain.

A 1986 graduate of Kankakee High School, Monica Fountain earned her bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude, in news-editorial journalism from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Fountain also studied Spanish at the University of Seville in Spain. In 1992, she was awarded a British Marshall Scholarship and studied politics and economics at the University of Sussex in Brighton, England where she earned a bachelor’s degree in politics. Fountain is the Director of Communications for Matteson School District 162 and Southland College Prep Charter High School in Richton Park, Illinois. She is also executive editor of WestSide Press (www.wspbooks.com), an independent publishing house, specializing in non-fiction literature. Fountain’s work appears in the latest book from WestSide Press, Dear Dad: Reflections on Fatherhood. As a writer, Fountain has interviewed prisoners and presidents. She has written for some of the top newspapers in the country including The Washington Post, The Chicago-Sun-Times and The Chicago Tribune. As a staff writer at the Tribune, she covered a variety of issues including politics, crime, health and human services and social issues. As a freelance writer, Fountain’s work has appeared in The Chicago Tribune where she has profiled celebrities and newsmakers from Rosa Parks to Queen Latifah. She has also written for the Washington Post Style section and Black Enterprise magazine. Fountain was the Assistant Director of Advancement at the University of Illinois Laboratory High School, one of the top high schools in the country. Before joining University Laboratory High School, Fountain was a lecturer and coordinator of the Professional and Technical Writing program at Chicago State University and a consultant to Chicago State’s student newspaper. Fountain was also a director of the Roosevelt University High School Journalism Workshop in Chicago. Fountain conducts a mentoring program for middle school girls. She has also given parent workshops on topics such as being an advocate for your child and has been a guest speaker at local schools. She has been a featured speaker at churches, women’s retreats, seminars and prayer breakfasts. Fountain is currently working on several books including a devotional book for women and a children’s book.