Interview with Rev. Beverly Powell
In this episode, we will uncover 3 keys:
- From Real Estate to Reverend
- Reverend Powell’s Holiday Outreach
- Navigating Storms: Ministry in the Time of COVID
A Podcast Transcription
Episode 34: How We Can Give Back at Christmas Time ~ Rev. Beverly Powell
Intro
Odiva Vasell: (00:00)
I’d love for you all to welcome back with me a very special guest, Beverly Powell, who I know as Rev. Bev. And today we’re going to talk about her true passion, her passion for ministry and Christmas. This is the season where a lot of people are in need, and we’re going to talk about the kind of work she does with people all over her city. Welcome back, Rev. Bev.
Beverly Powell: (00:34)
Thank you so much for having me back. I appreciate that so much. I’m excited.
Odiva Vasell: (00:39)
So that’s such a big question. The work that you do and you inspire so many people. What got you started into ministry?
From Real Estate to Reverend
Beverly Powell: (00:55)
Now that’s a really long story, so we won’t be able to tell the whole story. But let me see if I can surmise and summarize. I have been attracted to God all my life. Even as a kid, I can remember when I was growing up, things that the other kids were doing on the block. And don’t misunderstand me; I’m not saying I was perfect because I was not perfect, but the things that the kids on the block were doing, I had no interest in doing. I stayed close to home. My mom even used to try to push me out of the house, “Go outside and play with your friends, go do this.” And I’m like, “I don’t want to, I want to stay here.” So I would always just stay close to my mom. So they say I have an old soul because I listened to everything she said and did on the telephone and all that. But I’ve always had this desire to be in church. I found when I went to church as a young girl that I was at a peace that I never had, not even at home, not in school, not outside on the street, playing with friends on the block. But something about church just I found so attractive. I was just attracted to church and the procedures and the order of service. And if my mom couldn’t take me to church on any given Sunday, I would have a crying fit because I wanted to go to church. So she’d have to call The Pastor or my aunt or a friend; somebody would have to pick me up, she said, because this girl is over here going crazy. And I would stay all day at church as a young person, year in and year out. They would have morning service, afternoon service, and an evening service.
Odiva Vasell: (02:22)
What city?
Beverly Powell: (02:33)
Oh, Detroit, Michigan.
Odiva Vasell: (02:24)
All right.
Beverly Powell: (02:25)
And sometimes it would be four services if they had a baptismal service. And I wanted to be at everything; I didn’t want to miss anything. And so I grew up with that same desire inside of me, even as a teenager in my 20s. And I didn’t really understand at all why I was so hungry for church. But I do know that I found a kind of peace there that I can’t describe that I couldn’t describe then; I can now. But that’s how I got started in church, and that never left me. That desire and that thirst. To always want to be in that realm with those kind of people experiencing worshiping God and learning about God was very important to me.
Odiva Vasell: (03:04)
Okay, and how did you make the first steps to actually start serving people?
Beverly Powell: (03:10)
Well, that would be as a child, too. There were several of us sitting on the back row one day when they gave an invitation for someone to accept Christ as their Lord and Savior. And we were back there whispering, “You go.” “No, you know, you go, and I’ll go with you.” And I said, “Well, I’m just going to go.” So I got up and started walking toward the front of the church. And then they followed me, and we sat down and made our statement of faith, and the church accepted us. And so I started going to Bible study, children’s Bible study. And then I sang in the youth choir, and then I was on the youth usher board, and I just grew up in the church. And all those transitioned as I got older; I went to the know ministry for my age group.
Odiva Vasell: (03:51)
So now you’re in California?
Beverly Powell: (03:53)
Yeah, I’ve been in California for quite a while, yes.
Odiva Vasell: (03:57)
Okay, and what is the ministry that you are running or there like, or how are you serving people there, specifically? What part of California?
Beverly Powell: (04:06)
We’re in Southern California. I serve at a church named Rhythm of Life Church in the city of Chino, California. Rhythm of Life Church is seven years old. I am the Pastor of the church. It’s all virtual church. So we have people that chime in from Ohio, New Mexico, Detroit, Michigan, of course. California, Texas, Georgia, St. Louis, Missouri. And so we try to meet the needs of them. I travel there whenever I can just so they can see the pastor and I can talk, I can bless their homes, I can sit and answer their questions, pray for their household, pray for their family, whatever their needs are. And we have service every Sunday morning at 11:00 PST time. I deliver a message via Facebook and YouTube, a live message. And then right after that, at 11:00 a.m. PST time, Pacific Standard Time, we have a Bible study right now. We just started yes, this past Sunday, the Book of Revelation. And we’re working on that, and that’s a very detailed study. And then we have conferences that we’ve had over Zoom. We’ve had an annual prayer conference for the last three years. It was generated due to COVID, and we just had our third one, August 26 of this year, 2023.
Odiva Vasell: (05:29)
You became a pastor? That’s a huge thing. There are a number of women pastors, but getting there from the old school where there were very few women in the pulpit, to now, and I also want to ask you, what was the transition to becoming a virtual church? But yeah, what happened to bring you into the ministry as a pastor?
Beverly Powell: (05:59)
Well, I think it goes back to when I was a child. I was called and didn’t know I was called. I was drawn and didn’t know I was being drawn by the Holy Spirit. And about I’ve been a licensed, ordained minister for about ten years now. So as a realtor, you all know that I’m a realtor. And some of the people that I had sold homes to out in my area didn’t want to drive back into Orange County, which is about a 30- to 45-minute ride, depending on where you are every week and sometimes during the week for Bible study. So they kept saying, “Rev. Bev, Rev. Bev, you ought to start a Bible study in this area so that we can have a study out here.” And I had no intention of doing that. I’m like, “Yeah, sure, we’ll pray about it, and we’ll see what God has to say. Rev Bev, We need a Bible study! When are you going to do a Bible study?” This went on for two years, and I’m like, “I’m not doing a Bible study. Open your books and study for yourself.” And so one Easter Sunday, two weeks before Easter in 2018, I was dusting off my bookshelf and this book fell off the shelf. It was about church, and I opened it up, and it was talking about the pastor who had how he started with meager beginnings, how he opened up his condo, and he started the church in his condo. And I was reading that, and I was like, “Whoa, in your condo? Okay, great.” And he said it was a really small condo, so he had to pack people in. And I thought, wow. So I closed the book, put it back on the shelf after I dusted it, and then I could hear something saying to me, “Well, you have a condo; why don’t you start it? We’ve been asking you for two years; why don’t you start it?” And I was like, “Seriously?” So what I did was I sent an evite invitation to 20 people to come to my home on Easter Sunday. We would have brunch after we had service, and we had service, and one of the guys brought his piano. He played the piano, I sang, his daughter sang. We had a really good time. Then we had fellowship, food, fun, and fellowship after. And I said, “Okay, so we’ll just meet once a month.” And I said, “Well, how about every other week?” I said, “Okay, every other week, but not every week.” And it went every other week for about a month or maybe two. I’ll give it two. And then from there, we went to every week.
Odiva Vasell: (08:06)
Oh my goodness. From being called as a child to a book opening up and convicting. You do that; you have the real estate; you have the place to do it.
Beverly Powell: (08:19)
What I realized is that that was part of my calling all the time, and I share that. I can commingle those together. Real estate and ministry as needed. Many times when I’m selling a home, people will ask me to come and bless their homes after they’ve moved in and settled, and I do.
Odiva Vasell: (08:38)
Good. That is beautiful. I mean, making that dream come true of owning a home and then creating a family for them, a kind of a church family for the people in your area. And how have their needs changed over time? Like, we had a really rough period during COVID where I can’t even imagine being a pastor of a church at that time, and the great needs that came with people who lost loved ones, people who were facing financial challenges. What did that look like? And how did your church grow during that time?
Navigating Storms: Ministry in the Time of COVID
Beverly Powell: (09:21)
Well, it was a very unusual time, unprecedented time. And it was a time of confusion because we have never been through anything like that. And we were all everything; everyone was scrambling, trying to figure out, what do we do next? What do we do next? I’m not one for being on camera, but one thing COVID has taught me is to get comfortable with it because it’s not going to go away. I just don’t like being out in the public like that. But now that COVID came, I don’t have a choice if I’m going to serve the people’s need and what I told our group was because we lost our location at that time, everything was shut down, right. And then when it opened back up, that facility was no longer available to us. So I said, “Well, I guess we’ll just remain virtual.” And I asked God several times in my prayers, is this what you want for us, or should I disband the church? And my cousin said, “Is it because you want to disband? Because you didn’t really want to go that way in the first place?” And no, it’s not. I think I’m where I’m supposed to be doing what I’m supposed to be doing, helping people, teaching the righteousness of God and the truth of God, and supporting people and giving them that courage to take the next step in life. Whatever it is, write that book. If you’ve got a book inside of you, write it. If you need prayer, let’s learn how to pray. If you need your marriage healed or mended, let’s pray about that. And let’s work on what we can do to make it better individually. Instead of looking at each other, let’s just work on us individually. So I’m here to do whatever I can to help. And so in all of that, God said, hold tight where I’m at. So that’s what I’m doing. I’m holding tight where I’m at. I’m staying on virtual. I’m hanging out there. I get to reach people that I would never reach in a brick and mortar building. I’m reaching people that call in for prayer, that come into prayer. We have a prayer meeting every Thursday at 03:00 California time. People come in from all different states, and they come in for prayer, and they’re serious about it. This is where they’re hurting. So with all of that said, we are able not I, but we, we are able to help each other as a church, as a community, and also help others who are suffering, hurting, struggling, to the best of our ability. And when I say that, I don’t mean just materially financially, because that’s not it. People’s hearts need to be mended. Their hope needs to be restored, their confidence needs to be rebuilt, and they need to know that you genuinely care. That you genuinely care. I don’t want anything from you. I just want to know that you’re all right, and how can I help you get to all right if you’re not all right?
Odiva Vasell: (11:52)
All right. That you genuinely care. That’s huge. That’s what makes a difference in the lives. And wow, because when you get on social media and you get, I coach visibility because I care about phenomenal, people being seen and people knowing that the help that they need in any area, it’s out there for you. You just have to make a phone call or reach your hand out and say, I need that help. And a lot of times what we see on social media is, it’s all about me. Me. I want to show off, me, validate me through your likes and follows. But it’s very rare to come across people that can honestly say, I care about your needs and what is happening to you. So that is it. That’s how you grew your ministry. That’s fantastic. Just letting people know that we care is a big step.
Reverend Powell’s Holiday Outreach
Beverly Powell: (12:57)
It’s really important in life. And we as a society and a people, I think, are failing to do that, even with our own families, letting each other know how much we care, how valuable you are, how important you are, how much you mean to me. And because we’re failing a little bit in that area, everything is strained, relationships are strained. And so part of my being on Earth and my responsibility is to help people see just how beautifully and wonderfully they are made by God, that they are good. Because God said everything he made is good. That includes you and me. And that you can get through what you’re going through with someone holding your hand and taking that journey with you. And we have to be able to lock arms and journey together because it’s hard. It’s difficult being in this particular world that we’re living in now and not have a support system. We need a support system, and it needs to be a system that is looking out for each other and others. Every year we have a fundraiser at Christmas time. And that fundraiser is called Christmas Acts of Kindness for the Homeless. This will be our 8th year of sponsoring this. And the point of it is to remind people that are less fortunate that they are not forgotten, especially at that time of year because Christmas is the most depressing time for most people. So we used to hit the streets before COVID came. We would bag all these gift bags up and gift packages. We’d have non-perishable food items, shoes, socks, scarves, personal toothbrushes and things like that, things that they need. And we’d take to the streets and we’d go out and we’d deliver all this. And then we would have worship services with them where we would ask them if they had prayer requests. And it was amazing how many people said pray for this and pray for this for me, and pray for not even a lot of them. Praying for themselves, praying for other people, pray for my family. And then we would sing Christmas carols with them. And then we would disperse their gift bags and I would maybe do a 5-10 minute word of encouragement to them that there is hope. I don’t know how we’re going to get there, but I want you to know you’re not forgotten. And this is our way of showing you that we care and that we love you and you are our brothers and you are our sisters, regardless of your state of your situation. And so we’re going to do that again. But when COVID came, we had to do it virtually, and we did really well. And we selected food banks and things that were giving out food at that time and we would donate our fundraiser funds to those organizations.
Odiva Vasell: (15:24)
Well, I just want to close on knowing that as we enter the Christmas season, there is a service like this for people who are feeling lonely. They may not be homeless, but they may be feeling alone and destitute during this season. And that there’s caring and community that they can reach into and tap into even if they don’t live in California through this ministry. And I just thank you for inviting, thank you for joining us and I’m so happy that you came to tell us about your ministry and about your love for the Lord and what you’re doing to serve the people in your community.
Beverly Powell: (16:07)
Amen. May I share our website in case someone is trying to find us and would like to support us or just check us out and see what we’re doing?
Odiva Vasell: (16:16)
And I will have all the links in the video chat as well. What is your website?
Beverly Powell: (16:21)
Rhythmoflifechurch.org All right. And the email is info@rhythmoflifechurch.org.
Odiva Vasell: (16:29)
Love that!
Beverly Powell: (16:30)
We operate in God’s timing and his rhythm and we syncopate with his word.
[music]
Conclusion
In Reverend Beverly Powell’s story, we see a mix of faith, caring, and being there for others. Moving from selling homes to helping people in need, she shows us that even small acts, like the Christmas Acts of Kindness, can make a big difference. When faced with tough times like the pandemic, she adapted by taking her ministry online while still helping the community. This holiday season, let’s follow her lead, do something extra special for our neighbors, and create a world where kindness and hope make a beautiful tune of togetherness.