On noisy, crowded NY street, God spoke to him

youngstown

The Rev. Emmitt L. Nevels Sr. didn’t set out to be a preacher. But he now is bishop-designate of the Ohio West Jurisdiction of the International Churches of God in Christ.

“It’s not an occupation but a vocation,” said the minister of 44 years.

As a young man, he tried different lines of work — as a salesman, singer and other ventures he’s forgotten. But he met with no success.

“One day I was walking along Jamaica Avenue in New York City — but you don’t really walk there; you get carried along,” Bishop Nevels said. “I didn’t know God at the time.”

He said his life was a bit in disarray; he and his wife were on separate paths. He noted that when people don’t have God in their lives, “They don’t think right.”

But on that noisy, crowded street, the longtime minister said he “heard a voice” speak to him. He listened. And he returned to Youngstown, where he had lived as a boy and his father, Robert, had worked at U.S. Steel.

“I went to church, and something happened to me,” he recalled. “God turned my life around.”

Read more of his story in today's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.