American Baptist pastor (born 1950)
Paul Sylvester Morton (born July 30, 1950) is an American Baptist pastor, Gospel singer and author. He is also a founder of the Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship.[1]
Biography
Born into a Christian family, his father pastored two congregations, one in Windsor, Ontario and the other in Detroit, Michigan.[2]
Ministry
In 1972, Morton moved to New Orleans, Louisiana and to the Greater St. Stephen Missionary Baptist Church (now known as Greater St. Stephen Full Gospel Baptist Church) under the pastorate of Reverend Percy Simpson, where he became an associate pastor. Upon his ascension to the senior pastorate, Morton introduced Pentecostal and Charismatic elements to the church.[3]
Shortly after his appointment as senior pastor of Greater St. Stephen, Morton married the former Debra Brown. Together they have three children: Jasmine, Paul Jr., and Christian. His son Paul Jr. later became a Grammy Award-winning musician under the name PJ Morton.[4][5]
During his pastorate at Greater St. Stephen Full Gospel Baptist Church, Morton established the Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship which initially began as a Charismatic Baptist movement within the National Baptist Convention, USA.[6] The movement became its own separate denomination in 1994 after Morton and those affiliated with the fellowship "were lovingly advised to resign their posts with the NBCUSA before they were kicked out."[7] National Baptist leadership feared the movement would develop into a separate denomination, urging members to either remain within the convention or leave.[8]
Morton was consecrated into the episcopacy by George Augustus Stallings in New Orleans, and by 1997, Greater St. Stephen grew to 18,000 members in 3 locations under his pastorate.[9] In November 1993, he—along with J. Delano Ellis, Wilbert Sterling McKinley and Roy Edward Brown—established the Joint College of Bishops.[10]
In 2005, Morton founded Changing A Generation Full Gospel Baptist Church in Metro Atlanta.[11]
In 2013, he announced his intent to retire as Presiding Bishop of the Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship.[12] Two years later, in 2015, he retired from his office as leader of Full Gospel.[13]
