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Bishop Duane Tisdale and St. Thomas Christian College President Dr. Zamekio Jackson hold the framed certificate signifying the honorary doctorate degree. |
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Friendship’s Bishop Tisdale awarded honorary doctorate
By: Journal Staff
The Toledo Journal
Originally posted 7/13/2010
Bishop Duane C. Tisdale, pastor of one of the largest churches in Toledo, is working toward his doctorate degree in ministry. Religious academics in Florida decided that, in the meantime, he deserves a doctorate of divinity.
Last week, Dr. Zamekio Jackson, the president of St. Thomas Christian College in Jacksonville, Fla., came to Toledo to honor the longtime pastor of Friendship Baptist Church. He presented the divinity degree during a special worship service June 30 attended by hundreds of members of Friendship.
''The [St. Thomas] board deemed it necessary that instead of him coming to [the school’s] graduation, for his congregants to share with him the symbolism of his honor,'' Dr. Jackson said. ''So they get a chance to share.''
Bishop Tisdale, who presently is State Bishop in Ohio for the Full Gospel Baptist Fellowship International, said he considers the honorary doctorate something that his 1,200 active members helped earn.
''The divinity speaks not only for me, but it speaks for my congregation because it’s actually validating the work of the congregation,'' he said. ''[St. Thomas officials] didn’t just look at me, they looked at all the things that involve the congregation.''
Dr. Jackson said a St. Thomas regent learned about Bishop Tisdale about eight months ago and college officials further researched his record since becoming Friendship’s senior pastor in 1986.
He said St. Thomas, which gave out two other honorary doctorates this year, discovered that Bishop Tisdale had blazed a ''trail of greatness.''
He agreed with the bishop that the members of Friendship have contributed mightily to the church’s achievements, especially its outreach efforts.
''When you see real ministry like that, that’s embracement,'' Dr. Jackson said. ''That’s something that you want to salute and encourage, not only the man that is the symbol of it, but even that group, to say ‘continue.’
''He bears the title of it, but they bear the works of it as well. So it’s a combined effort.''
Bishop Tisdale is presently completing the Doctorate of Ministry program in Black Church Studies from Ashland Theological Seminary in Ashland, Ohio. Now 51, he said that after he retires from the pulpit, he intends to teach theology on the college level.
''You’re never set educationally. You never tell a doctor to stop learning,'' he said. ''No pastor, no preacher should ever stop learning. I don’t believe anybody in the ministry should ever stop getting their skills retrained.''
Bishop Tisdale was born in Toledo but grew up in and attended Rossford Schools. (''I’m a REAL Bulldog,'' he joked). He accepted Christ in 1969, when he was 10. He was licensed to preach four years later and five years after that he was ordained.
He was assistant pastor at Rossford First Baptist for five years, then in 1985 joined Friendship as an assistant pastor. About a year later, the congregation chose him to become senior pastor.
The church has continued to grow under his leadership. In 1997, at a cost of $5 million, Friendship built its impressive church building at 5301 Nebraska Ave.
Bishop Tisdale credited God for the construction project.
''This was Him. He touched people’s hearts to help make this work,'' he said.
He said he’s fortunate to lead the type of people who comprise the congregation.
''We love community,'' he said. ''We love people. I mean, we try to live our name – friendly people, friendship. We try to lift up Christ. We try to be what He’s about. He’s about people.''
He said Friendship is a ''come as you are'' church.
''We’re sincere. We’re a teaching church. We try to help you understand that what you do is not ritual. And we do love to praise God.''
Bishop Tisdale and his wife, Thelma, are the parents of five children. He himself is the youngest of 14 children of Clyde and Thelma Tisdale. ''It took them that long just to get it right because they stopped after me,'' he joked again.
Bishop Tisdale had never had contact with persons at St. Thomas Christian College before. When he got the phone call about the honorary doctorate, he thought someone was ''playing with me.''
He checked out the college itself and found out it is an accredited school. He said he was ''just totally, totally shocked'' to learn the honorary doctorate was for real.
The June 30 presentation was the first time Bishop Tisdale and Dr. Jackson had met. The bishop recalled a phone conversation during which the two discussed the best location to present the honor.
''He said ‘we don’t want your people to think that you went away for a weekend and you got this piece of paper,’'' Bishop Tisdale said. ''‘We need to explain to them the value of what we’ve seen bestowed upon you.’''
Dr. Jackson recalled the college’s research into the record of Bishop Tisdale and the people of Friendship Baptist.
''One of the things we found is, I think, just a trademark of ministry in general ... to persist and to stay consistent,'' the college president said. ''Unfortunately, the sad reality is that churches [and] church leaders are falling and churches are being affected by social influences. And so the value structures of even churches have become desecrated.
''And it was encouraging ... to see people who are upholders of a standard, that begin to propose transformation to a people, that don’t get into just the monotony of regular church worship but have a desire to see people affected beyond that.''
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