Our Mission
At Maranatha Ministries Unlimited we are passionate about the Father’s heart and invite you along with us. On this journey we preach and teach about intimacy with Jesus and Kingdom identity, helping the body of Christ know the nature and power of the Holy Spirit.
It is our greatest desire for all people to know the healing and restoration only found in the Father’s embrace, to help them discover the gifts and grace of the Holy Spirit, and encourage them to serve one another in love.
Our Ministry
For nearly 40 years, Maranatha Ministries has brought renewal to the local church, support to pastors and ministered to the body of Christ. Maranatha continues today to reveal the Father’s heart of reconciliation, teaching nature of the Holy Spirit through a relationship with Jesus.
Our Ministry Leadership
John’s passion for the Father’s heart is rooted in a desire for sons and daughters to know their heavenly Daddy, who simply loves and adores them just because thay are His. John grew up without his father, who was killed in WWII before ever knowing him. Being raised in Carolina Beach, NC by an incredible single mom, God began to mark John’s life with a longing and calling long before he realize it. John preached his first sermon in a small United Methodist Church in Carolina Beach at age 16. This was only a foretaste of the plan God had, that John was long from seeing. The drawing of the Father’s heart continued into his college years as the Holy Spirt began to map a path into ministry.
John graduated with an AB Degree in Psychology from the University of North Carolina and a Masters of Divinity from Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C. He was called to ministry and ordained a United Methodist minister, serving as a pastor for 16 years and then as the first conference appointed Evangelist with the NC United Methodist Church in 1978. John’s call into evangelism with the Methodist Church was a launching point for Maranatha Ministries Unlimited which since its establishment has ministered the Gospel of the Kingdom to the body of Christ, not only in Methodist churches, but across all denominations.
In addition to John’s evangelistic ministry, he has pastored three nondenominational churches and been instrumental in planting two others; one which he and his two sons planted in Wilmington, NC. John’s love for the local church also led him to serve as the founding director of the Christian Believers United Ministerial Fellowship, which grew to 110 affiliates throughout the world.
While maintaining a very busy schedule with Maranatha, John spent a season helping stabalizing a church in Kill Devil Hills, NC. There he served Liberty Christian Fellowship as Senior Pastor and was instrumental in helping build a Camp ministry call Camp Emmanuel.
Today, John continues to travel, preach in Churches and host Conferences, Retreats and Camps through Maranatha Ministries with his two sons, John and Scott.
John (Jr.) grew up in his early years in the United Methodist Church and then in the Charismatic Renewal Era of the 70’s and 80’s. At the age of 10, he answered an altar call in his father’s church, giving his life to Jesus. John spent his teen years participating in youth camps where he met and received the Holy Spirit. Camp ministry greatly impacted John’s life and understanding of ministry. After a few years of struggle with his walk, John had a profound encounter with Jesus as Lord which changed the course of his life. At 19 John surrendered all in that encounter and within a year answered a call to ministry in 1986.
John is a graduate with honors from Elim Bible Institute and College. He has planted and pastored in several churches and ministered across the country. John planted a church in Wilmington NC in 1999 with his brother, Scott and father, John Sr. In 2016 John heard the Lord say, “Say yes to your father.” John decided to give his time to serve his father, to drive his dad to meetings, travel and minister with him and help with Maranatha to prepare for the future days of ministry. Not knowing what was to come in John Sr.’s death in 2022, this became the sweetest time with his dad and was pivotal for direction in John’s ministry.
Today John is the Director of Ministries for Maranatha. John leads the ministry and vision begun by his father and carries his heart for Jesus and people. It is his desire for people discover their identity of a loving Heavenly Father, to be transformed in the image of Jesus and walk in the power and intimacy of the Holy Spirit. One of John’s favorite passages is found in Jesus’s prayer, “Our Father, who art in Heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in Heaven.” John desires to see Heavenly Kingdom manifested in the earth.
John lives in Wilmington, NC with his wife, Amy of 35 year. He has 3 grown children and 3 grandchildren. John loves the mountains, the outdoors, spending time with family and loving on people.
Our Family
John an his wife Betty Jo were Jr. High sweethearts. They grew up together in Wilmington, NC and the boardwalk at Carolina Beach. They have been married for more than 50 years and have three grown children who love and serve the Lord and who have blessed them with eight grandchildren.
John and Betty Jo currently live in Wilmington which makes John happy because he can still walk barefoot along the beach and smell the salt air. On many a morning you will find him getting a cup of coffee while reading the latest issue of Blue Heaven to catch up on the Tarheels or walking on the boardwalk talking to Jesus.
Get Connected
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Being a Christian is more than just an instantaneous conversion – it is a daily process whereby you grow to be more and more like Christ.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.