Bishop Dwayne C. Debnam

Over 30 Years Of Ministerial Excellence

“Character,” “dedication,” “integrity,” “determination,” and “passion” are all words that have been used in descriptions of Bishop Dwayne C. Debnam, a man called by God, Anointed and appointed to transform lives in this generation.

A native of Baltimore, Maryland, he was raised in a Christian home where strong values regarding God and the church were instilled in him from a young age When he was a young man, Bishop Debnam and his family attended Faith Baptist Church in East Baltimore, where his uncle, Reverend Lorenzo Graves, was the pastor When Bishop Debnam was a teenager, Faith Baptist Church transitioned into Timothy Baptist Church. Bishop Debnam attended that church until he went to college.

Education and Call:

Bishop Debnam received his bachelor of science degree from DeVry Institute of Technology. Upon returning home to Baltimore, he began attending New Psalmist Baptist Church. Later, he received his master of divinity degree from Howard University and his doctorate of ministry degree from the Virginia Union’s Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology

While attending New Psalmist Baptist Church, Bishop Debnam was called to the Ministry Under the mentorship and guidance of Bishop Walter Scott Thomas Sr , he was licensed and ordained to preach the Gospel. In August 1996, after five years of serving as assistant to the pastor, Bishop Debnam became the senior pastor of Morning Star Baptist

Church.

In June 2003, after several years of pastoring and walking in his eternal and prepared destiny, Bishop Debnam was installed as State Overseer for the Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship of Maryland. In November 2004, he was elevated and consecrated into the office of Bishop. He currently serves as the Bishop of Social Actions for Full Gospel.

Growth and Expansion:

God’s hand of favor and blessings unequivocally continued to rest upon Bishop Debnam and the Morning Star family. In December 2017, God blessed them with the dedication of a newly built worship center, a three-building campus located in Woodlawn, Maryland. >

“We’ve served, to date, approximately 150,000 families, Which equates to probably over a half million persons, when you include families with an average size of four individuals."

The main campus comprises staff offices, a boardroom, a chapel, classrooms, an elevator, several rooms for ministries and programs, and much more It also includes a 1500-seat sanctuary, where three Sunday morning worship services (7:15, 9:15, and 11:30) are held, as well as weekly Bible study and discipleship classes, small developmental groups, children and youth activities, and several other ministry programs. The Ministry also holds a monthly communion service, social media viewings, prayer calls and online streaming opportunities.

The Community Outreach and Educational Center:

The Center is the second of the three-building campus and it certainly lives up to its name. It richly serves the community, offering a wealth of services such as Christian education activities and grief, divorce, and addiction counseling (through the Renaissance Center) from experienced and trained professionals. Other offerings include expungement services in conjunction with Baltimore County, job fairs, community baby showers, household item giveaways, twice-a-month food giveaways, the Woodlawn Senior Day Activity Center, and more. In October 2022, the Outreach Center held a trunk or treat event that over 300 children attended.

The Family Life Center:

The Family Life Center is the third building in the threebuilding campus It offers a community daycare center and is due to expand within the next few months. This expansion will include a new banquet hall, commercial kitchen, and workforce development space opportunities.

My sit-down interview with Bishop Dwayne C. Debnam:

“Morning Star has done so much for the community, which is phenomenal. As far as food giveaways, how many people would you say Morning Star has fed?”

“We’ve served, to date, approximately 150,000 families,” Bishop Debnam replied, seated across from me and my wife “Which equates to probably over a half million persons, when you include families with an average size of four individuals.”

“Wow,” I said. “That is truly amazing!”

“I’ve heard you mention scholarships in the worship services. How many scholarships does Morning Star offer?”

“The church, a couple of Christian education and discipleship classes, as well as a few individual families sponsor scholarships,” Bishop Debnam said “So, this past year, between the church, a couple of our classes, and a few families, we’ve distributed approximately $30,000 in scholarships ”

“That is amazing!” I said. “Especially since education is so expensive these days. The fact that people in the church can be recipients is just awesome!”

Bishop Debnam nodded in agreement.

“In this society where young people are exposed and have access to so much—I mean, in my generation of growing up in the 70s and 80s, we had nowhere near the amount of things exposed to us as the youth have today.” I chuckled. “How do you keep the young people engaged?”

“We keep them engaged by offering programs that are exciting and creative,” Bishop Debnam answered. “Children these days are interested in the arts and technology, so what the church has to do is make sure we’re developing programs that engage them in that way. Not every child is gong to be interested in singing in the choir or ushering with the ushers

There are other interests, so finding their interests and developing programs around those interests is key. One of the big interests in this church is audio-video technology, so we have to create programs that cater to that. One of the things that our youth minister is charged with right now is creating a ministry around the STEMs for the summer.”

Family:

Besides all of Bishop Debnam’s > educational and ministerial successes, his greatest joy is his family He has been married for thirty nine years to First Lady Carla Debnam (who, like Bishop Debnam, has a doctorate in ministry) and they have three successful adult children: Corey, Jewell, and Jared. The Debnams epitomize a great family.

When I asked him about his children, Bishop Debnam said, “There is a word we use around

THEPREACHINGOFTHEGOSPELIS IMPERATIVE FORTHEKINGDOM!

” I said, chuckling. them find themselves, ir footing in life and fulfill eams is amazing. And doing it, so we are ely proud of them and ely excited that they are their path and enjoying urney.” usly, you’ve been ng for several years. also been pastoring for years. How many ies have birthed out of nistry?”

“I’ll give you the long story,” Bishop Debnam joked. “We’ve licensed 125 ministers. We’ve ordained some 20, and there are nine who are out pastoring right now. They are doing a phenomenal job. Some are in the city and some are beyond the borders of Maryland.”

Books:

I asked Bishop Debnam about his book, “Conquering Life’s Hard Lessons ” He stood up, walked over to a shelf along the wall, and brought two copies over to my wife and me.

“Awesome!” I said, quickly thumbing through it. “So, I guess the next question would be, is there another one on the horizon?”

“My wife and I are beginning to form an outline of a book on theology and therapy Theotherapy, a merging between