JOSEPH STEPANSKY 
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

The Bronx is a little lighter on fire power after the NYPD netted 165 guns in buybacks at two churches on Saturday.

Pastor Jay Gooding and Bronx DA Darcel Clark helped collect 99 guns at the Fellowship Tabernacle of Praise church on E. Gun Hill Road in Laconia.

Cops and Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark’s office offered a $200 bank card for working handguns and assault rifles and a $25 card for rifles and shotguns turned in at the Fellowship Tabernacle Church of God in Christ on E. Gun Hill Road in Laconia and the Evangelical Garifuna Church on Brook Ave. in Mott Haven. They employed a no-questions-asked policy.

Clark’s office, which hosted the event, said 99 of the firearms were traded in at the Fellowship Tabernacle church. Another 66 firearms were turned in at Evangelical Garifuna Church. In total, the city took 61 revolvers, 52 semi-automatics, three assault rifles, 12 rifles, 10 shotguns, 27 BBguns, air pistols, starter pistols off the street.

“We are very pleased that we got so many handguns,” said DA Clark. “Each of these guns represents a life saved in the Bronx.”

Shooting incidents are down 19.3% citywide compared to the same time period last year, with 531 shootings through July 31, compared to 662 in 2015.

We’re living in a day, when the unbelievers are not walking through the church doors like they were forty years ago.  A day when our young people do not know about the choices of good or evil; choices of right and wrong.  Choices of God and Satan, they have only seen one side in our urban communities.  Drugs, killing, robbings, cursing, sexual immorality, unwanted by fathers, unloved by mothers, this is what they see on a daily basis.  This is why the Church must realize our work is outside the gates.

Just as Peter and John were responsive to the lame man laid at the gates of the temple, we must be responsive to the lame men, and women that we pass everyday on our way to the temple.  Lame in spirit, lame in mind, lame in soul, lame in health, etc.  We as believers have become so caught up in our next conference; we’ve become unconcerned about the lame.  Yet the real work is outside the gates.

I truly thank God for what he has placed in my spirit and in our ministry at Fellowship Tabernacle Church of God in Christ.  You may ask what is it? One word Evangelism.  The definition of Evangelism is taking the gospel to the unbelievers.  Our ministry started from a choir going into the prisons, drug rehabs, and streets, letting dying lame men and women know they can have life and that more abundantly with Jesus Christ.  Now don’t get me wrong conferences has its place in the church, but if it’s not preparing us to be fruitful in witnessing (which we are commanded by Christ to do) (“Go into the highways and hedges compelling them to come”) to the unbeliever.  Well then conferences just are not helping.  Every conference should encourage us to the realization that the work is outside the gates.

Here at Fellowship we are preparing for out annual crusade “Taking it to the Streets” where we’ll be having a three night crusade on Gunhill Road August 24-26.  We believe God for lame souls to be saved, lame backsliders reclaimed, lame drug users delivered.  Then we can be like Peter and John, letting the lame know, that we may not have what you want, but we have what you need, J-E-S-U-S.  Rise up and walk, then just as Peter, John and the lame man praised God together in the temple.  We too can praise God with the lame men and women inside the temple.

So let us, as the church also rise up, and realize that the work is outside the gates.

Superintendent Jay A. Gooding Sr., Pastor
Fellowship Tabernacle Church of God in Christ
1234 E. Gunhill Road
Bronx, New York 10469
(718) 652-7620

“Gooding is Director of Community Outreach for Jacobi Medical Center’s Stand Up To Violance Program”  by Patrick Rocchio, Bronx Times

Pastor Jay Gooding Sr. is on a mission to stop gun violence, and to spread the “good news” of the gospel.

While leading and providing spiritual sustenance as pastor of two churches – Fellowship Tabernacle in Williasmbrdge, which he founded 17 years ago, and Miracle Revival Temple near the Grand Concourse – he is also one of the leading lights in an anti-violence program based out of Jacobi Medical Center called Stand Up to Violence.

The anti-violence initiative employs people to try to prevent retaliation when shootings happen in communities and Gooding, 52, leads rallies within 72-hours of gun violence to urge a stop to bloodshed. The program, also referred to as SNUG (‘guns’ spelled backwards), was founded earlier this year by Senator Jeff Klein with other elected officals and medical, religious and community leaders.

“I have been called on through pastoring to help families who have lost loved ones tragically,” said Gooding, adding that he was asked by Senator Klein to be a part of the program.

“I believe in ministry, and I look at ministry as being able to serve,” he said of his work. “The reward that I get is being able to serve and maybe save a life. I do about 200 funerals a year and I am tired of burying our young people. But if we can bring ‘life’ to them, and save a life, that is the greatest thing we can ever do.”

Gooding came from a church family. He is the son of the late Bishop Ceacer Gooding of Miracle Revival Temple. His father was pastor of the temple until 2009, when Gooding became co-pastor there with his mother Josephine Gooding. Both houses of worship are now referred to as “one church in two locations.”

His entry into ministry was partially through gospel music, he said. He began playing the organ at age of five, and became the organist at his father’s church when he was 11. While in his teens, he played football for DeWitt Clinton High School.

From 1984 through 1987 he was a member of the award-winning gospel music group “The Ecstatisti­cs.” His music ministry led him to establishing a community choir: “Jay Gooding and the Fellowship” in 1991. The choir has recorded five albums, including a track called “No Stopping Us Now – The Remix Project,” which was a number one single on a countdown of WTHE, a gospel music radio station.

While at times he never thought he would become a pastor, music helped lead Gooding back to God, he said. He preached his first sermon in 1993. Today, he is a Bronx superintendent for the Church of God in Christ.

His community service is extensive, including: president of the 49th Precinct Clergy Council, the executive board of the 44th Precinct Clergy Coalition from 2002 to 2008, executive of Chaplains Helping in Police Situations (C.H.I.P.S.), and now director of community outreach for SUTV. He is the recipient of the 49th Precinct Community Council’s Tom Twyman Citizen of the Year Award for 2009, and NYPD 2013 Partnership in the Community Award.

He is married to Nicole Stacey Ann Gooding, and has four children and five grandchildren. Gooding said that his motto is “life is a gift from God; what we do with that life is a gift to God.”

To learn more about Gooding and his ministry, visit: www.fellowshiptabernacleministriescogic.org

SUPERINTENDENT JAY ALLEN GOODING SR. is the fourth and youngest child of Bishop Ceacer and Co-Pastor, Josephine Gooding. He was born in New York City on October 9, 1961. Pastor Gooding was raised in the Bronx, New York, and attended Public Schools there. He is a graduate of DeWitt Clinton H.S., and holds a Bachelor of Theology degree from Lighthouse Christian College. He is married to Nicole Stacey Ann Gooding and is the father of four children, Latiesha, Jay Jr., Vaughn, and Jayme; and grandfather of five, Jahvon, Jay III, Jordane, Jayson and Princeton.

At the tender age of 5, Superintendent Gooding began playing the organ, under the tutelage of Dr. Becky Carlton. He became the organist of Miracle Revival Temple in the Bronx, NY under the pastorate of his father at the age of 11 years old. From 1984-1987 he was a member of the Award Winning Gospel Recording Artist, “The Ecstatistics”. His music ministry inspired him to start a community choir, “Jay Gooding and Fellowship” in 1991. They have recorded five albums including “No Stopping Us Now – The Remix Project” (#1 single – 3 consecutive weeks on the Top Ten Countdown on WTHE). Their latest release in 2002 was “Nobody Can Do Me Like Jesus” (which had two songs in the Top Ten Countdown for over six weeks) and was submitted for Grammy Nomination.

Superintendent Gooding was called to the Word Ministry and preached his initial sermon on November 19, 1993 at Miracle Revival Temple and on December 29, 1996, Pastor Gooding answered the call of the Lord and established the Fellowship Tabernacle Ministries Church of God in Christ, located in the northeastern section of the Bronx, NY. On February 15, 2009 Superintendent Gooding was appointed to serve as Pastor at Miracle Revival Temple by his father, Bishop Ceacer Gooding. Fellowship Tabernacle C.O.G.I.C., and Miracle Revival Temple are now recognized as “One Church in Two Locations”

In January 2003 Superintendent Gooding and the Fellowship Family joined the Church of God in Christ, First Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction of Eastern New York, under the leadership of Prelate, Bishop James Gaylord; where Bishop Charles Edward Blake serves as the International Presiding Bishop. In July of 2004 Superintendent Gooding was appointed by Bishop James Gaylord to succeed the late Bishop William J. Robinson as Superintendent of the Glorified Bronx District, which he renamed to the “Bishop William J. Robinson Memorial District.

From 1999-2003, Superintendent Gooding served on the Executive Board of the Bronx Borough President’s Clergy Task Force Coalition.; from 2002-2008, Superintendent Gooding was elected to the Executive Board of the 44th Precinct Clergy Coalition, where he served as treasurer, then elected to Vice-president; From May 2002 to 2004, he served on Community Board Eleven, Bronx NY. Since 2003 Superintendent Gooding has served as vice-chairman of the “Urban and Civic Affairs” Dept. of the Church of God in Christ First Jurisdiction of Eastern N.Y.; from 2003-2008 he served as the Executive Director of C.H.I.P.S. (Chaplains Helping In Police Situations). In 2007 Superintendent Gooding was appointed by the Hon. Assembly-man Carl Heastie to sit on the Board of Directors of the Bronx Business Alliance. In 2008 he was appointed by the Mayor of Peekskill, the Hon. Mary F. Foster, to sit on the board of Directors of the Peekskill Youth Bureau, Peekskill NY. Superintendent Gooding currently serves as president of the 49th Precinct Clergy Council.

Of the numerous awards and citations Superintendent Gooding has received, he is included in the 2009 edition of “Who’s Who in Black New York City”. He is also the recipient of The 49th Police Precinct Community Council’s 2009 “Tom Twyman Citizen of the Year Award”, and the “NYPD 2013 Partnership in Community Award” presented by Asst. Chief Carlos M. Gomez of Patrol Borough Bronx, during the “2013 Bronx Clergy Fellowship Awards Ceremony”.

He is committed to God first, and has a genuine and sincere concern for people and the communities.

He says, “To God be the glory, for all the things he has done.”
And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive. Matthew 21:22