Columbus pastors get Lifetime Achievement Award from Obama

Marshall McGill was horrified as he watched a group of teens pummel an elderly man sitting on a bench.

McGill was a young boy at the time visiting his grandmother in Boston.

“Can we help him?” McGill asked as they strolled along the street.

She squeezed his hand and they continued walking.

He cried all the way home.

“I knew then that what I wanted to do with my life was help people,” said McGill, the founder and senior pastor of Kingdom Metropolitan Worship Centre in Columbus.

And he was encouraged to do so by the elders in the small Baptist church in Ohio he attended.

“I thought I would be a lawyer,” the bishop said.

But McGill chose the pulpit over the courtroom.

Nothing has been more important through the years for McGill and his wife of 29 years, Pastor Teresa McGill, than service to others.

At a March ceremony in Atlanta Metropolitan Church, the couple, parents of four sons, was among a group of individuals presented with the Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award, a high honor bestowed upon a citizen for their contribution to the nation.

The McGills were nominated for the honor by staff at Trinity Broadcast Network.

“I didn’t even know there was such an award,” McGill remarked.

In a letter from former President Barack Obama, he thanks the honorees for addressing “the most pressing needs in your community and country.”

“In my Inaugural Address, I stated that we need a new era of responsibility, a recognition of every American that we have duties to ourselves, our nation and the world. These are duties that we do not grudgingly accept, but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that these is nothing so satisfying to the spirit than giving our all to a difficult task, Your volunteer service demonstrates the kind of commitment to your community that moves America a step closer to its great promise,” Obama writes.

McGill said the award “brightened our life.”

“Doing service is not about getting awards. You serve because you love God,” Teresa McGill said. “We didn’t know there even was such an award.”

Her husband talked about people and the importance of service, especially around Easter. He said people can’t serve with a selfish purpose.

“We want our lives to matter. It’s the reason we do the things we do. We chase promotions and leadership positions because we want to make a difference. We encourage our kids to go to college, get a good job, and makes lots of money, in hopes that they, too, will make a difference. But there is nothing like serving others. Studies have shown that volunteering is so good for the mind and body that it can ease symptoms of stress and depression. Tapping into our gifts and passions builds self confidence, energy and strength. Serving others can also be the best distraction from our own worries.”

The non-denominational church on Airport Thruway is mission oriented. McGill said it has been among the first to provide aid when a catastrophe has occurred such as Hurricane Katrina in this country and Hurricane Matthew in Haiti.

It is also multicultural as he feels all churches should be.

“That is what heaven is going to look like,” he said. “People must embrace diversity and work together in making where we live at better for the next generation.”

McGill met his wife at Alabama A&M where he ran track. The Army brought him to Fort Benning and he fell in love with Columbus. He said he has studied at Oral Roberts University and the Billy Graham School of Evangelism.

He has been honored before for his service. In 2010, Georgia Congressman Sanford D. Bishop Jr. honored McGill with a resolution in the Congressional Record.

In that resolution, Bishop said McGill “possesses an incredible love for children and young adults, a desire to help the needy and to empower people to reach their full potential.”

McGill has served as chaplain for Columbus Council and for the Muscogee County Sheriff’s Office.

The founder of the Bainbridge Christian Centre in Bainbridge, Ga., and the Tallahassee Christian Centre in Tallahassee, Fla., he is a sought after international conference speaker and teacher.

He is the overseer of the Grace Church in Barcelona, Spain, Kingdom Church International in Monrovia Liberia, Faith Chapel in Mannheim, Germany and Go Ye Nations in Nagercoil, India. He said he is in the process of launching a new church and counseling center in Freeport Bahamas.

His commitment to helping the handicapped and underprivileged children led to an orphanage, the Marshall McGill Children’s Home in India, being named in his honor.

More than 300 children are given food and shelter at the home.

“Nobody wanted to care for these children,” he said.

McGill is a motivational speaker and teacher who has worked around the world in places such as Egypt, Israel, France, Germany, Spain, South Africa and Swaziland.

Talking about his work overseas, he said he meets with political leaders to get help for the needy because that is the most effective way to get things done.

The walls in his Columbus office are filled with items he has been presented from foreign leaders.

He has begun a global bible school, a training program for ministers.

“Love is a fruit that is in season at all times” reads a sign that greets visitors to his church here. He has ministries in town working with college students and the military.

Of the biblical counseling he gives, McGill said, “We have complex issues that proceed beyond the church, therefore we must be extremely generational, diversified and global minded to serve these issues.”

About helping others, McGill said people need to go to community leaders and ask where they can go, what they can do to make the community better.

“What never goes away is the ability to give hope to people,” he said. “Hope is what Jesus gave us.”

This story was originally published April 14, 2017 at 7:30 PM with the headline "Columbus pastors get Lifetime Achievement Award from Obama."