Paula White as Zachery Tims' Successor

New Destiny Welcomes Paula White as Zachery Tims' Successor

The congregation of New Destiny Christian Center on Sunday welcomed Paula White, the new senior pastor chosen to succeed founder Zachery Tims, signaling her acceptance despite objections raised by some.



“God brought us together for a purpose. None of us imagined this moment,” the 45-year-old White told the half-full church in her first sermon Sunday, as reported by the Orlando Sentinel.

The board of directors of the megachurch in Apopka, Fla., declared last Thursday that White would be the new senior pastor to replace the late Tims, who died in August. That same day, Tims’ ex-wife, Riva, announced that she had filed a lawsuit against NDCC, which she claims is her “heritage and legacy.”

Riva Tims’ supporters had held protests earlier, but on White’s first Sunday no one walked out of the service or showed any displeasure with the new pastor, who comes from Without Walls International Church that she co-founded in Tampa with her former husband Randy White.

“I’m not asking you to like me,” Orlando Sentinel quoted White as saying during her first sermon. “I’m not asking you to love me or respect me, because I’ll do the work to earn that. I always ask people to give me one year of your life and I promise you will be changed.”

Paula White’s First Sermon as Tims' Successor

White also told the congregation she would continue the founder’s vision to build a church that helped people in trouble find success in life. “I recognize I have great shoes to fill,” she said. “The founder of this house was a great man of God. I’m humbled, I’m honored, I’m crying to the Lord with happy tears.”

In its announcement last week, the board of directors affirmed its belief that White will “continue to make New Destiny a church for all people, reaching out to the hurting and the lost by touching lives and helping individuals overcome the disabling challenges of life.”

White rose to prominence as a preacher, motivational speaker, author and TV personality after co-founding what is now Without Walls International Church with her now ex-husband and starting her own ministry. She left Without Walls after her 2007 divorce but returned to lead the Tampa church at the request of her ex-husband. Currently, she is still the lead pastor at Without Walls.

Riva Tims, mother to four children her late husband left behind, helped co-found the 8,000-member NDCC in 1996. The pair divorced in 2009 after Zachery Tims reportedly had an extra-marital affair. Riva Tims eventually founded her own church, Majestic Life Ministries, in Orlando.

Tims is challenging the appointment of White as the new senior pastor in her lawsuit. She claims she is the “real mother” of NDCC and that church by-laws make her the heiress apparent to New Destiny, a claim that church administrators deny.

Zachery Tims was found dead in a hotel room in New York City in August. The cause of his death has not been made known to the public. He was 42.

Zachery Tims, the late pastor of New Destiny Christian Center in Apopka, Fla., was found dead in a New York City hotel room on Friday, August 12, 2011. Police do not suspect foul play.

Tims, 42, was found dead on Aug. 12 in his room at the W. Hotel in New York City. Investigators ruled out foul play and reportedly suspected that drugs may have been involved, sources close to the investigation revealed. The sources reportedly claimed that a glassine envelope with white powder was discovered in Tims' pocket.

Madeline Tims sued the New York medical examiner's office, as well as New York City, on Oct. 6, one day before the New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) was set to issue a press release regarding the cause and manner of Tims' death. Kern allowed the temporary injunction, as Tims' mother argued that making the information known would be a potential embarrassment to his family and the NDCC congregation. 

Paula White allegedly set to be 'enthroned' by Eddie Long's Jewish 'rabbi' accused of being a fraud

BY THE FLORIDA COURIER STAFF: Orlando, Fla. is abuzz with word that Rabbi Ralph Messer is allegedly coming to New Destiny Christian Center, founded by the late Zachery Tims, to make Paula White a 'queen' during a Super Bowl Sunday service.

White's 'coronation,' if it happens, is expected to be like the much-criticized ceremony hitting the Youtube rounds.

"Ralph Messer has been exploiting African-Americans and making a mockery of the Hebrew roots of the faith for years," said former NFL Minnesota Viking chaplain Keith Johnson in a news release.

"I first encountered Messer eleven years ago when my friend the late Football Hall-of-Famer Reggie White paid him an inordinate amount of money to learn Hebrew under his tutelage as a 'rabbi.' A year went by and Reggie never received even a single Hebrew lesson. I decided to confront Messer with Reggie and Pro Bowler Hardy Nickerson as witnesses.

"In their presence 'Rabbi Ralph' admitted he had never formally been ordained as a  real rabbi. I then challenged Messer to read from my Hebrew Bible and he responded by making excuses for an hour about why it was “dangerous” to learn the language. I continued to insist he read from my Bible in Hebrew and with great effort, Messer managed to slowly sound out the first verse of the Bible one syllable at a time. It was obvious to everyone present that Messer did not possess the knowledge to read the Hebrew language let alone to teach it.

"For the past ten years, I have seen Messer continue to throw around Hebrew terms he does not fully understand and misuse holy objects such as Torah Scrolls to manipulate people and bring them under his authority as a “rabbi” and a supposed 'representative of the Jewish People and the Land of Israel.'

"As a United Methodist pastor who believes in the importance of the Hebrew roots of our faith, I am deeply offended by what he did this past week at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church. It is my sincere hope and prayer that by speaking out others will be spared from falling prey to his manipulative practices that offend both Jew and Gentile alike," Johnson said.

New Destiny did not return calls for comment.

Link to Religious Dispatch Magazine article & New Birth ceremony on Youtube here

Christian Post article refuting Long's ceremony here

Another critical article here 

"He does not – represent recognizable Jewish thought or practice in his (mis-) representations of the Torah and other Jewish sancta – or for that matter, New Testament and Christian biblical interpretation and theology," Gafney writes.

Long, who keeps a stoic expression throughout the ceremony, wiping his eyes with a napkin on a couple of occasions, was also criticized for simply going along with the "royal" decree.

"Bishop Eddie Long has officially gone off the deep end. How much was this 'rabbi' paid to crown Long a 'king?,'" tweeted pastor Lee Grady from Orlando, Fla., also a contributing editor for Charisma magazine.

"(The ceremony) in no way represents any Jewish ritual that I'm familiar with," said Bill Nigut, Southeast Regional Director of the Anti-Defamation League, an Anti-Semitism organization. "We do not proclaim individuals to be kings," he added, the AJC.com reported.

"We wouldn't wrap a Jewish person in a Torah scroll and declare him king. As a Jew, I find that use of symbols very off-putting," expressed Rabbi Joshua Heller of Congregation B'nai Torah in Sandy Springs.

"The Jewish community does not associate itself with the Messianic congregations. We don't feel like this does due justice to either the Jewish or Christian community," Heller noted.

Angus Johnston, a historian and advocate at StudentActivism.net, also insisted in an article that as "bizarre" as the event was, Rabbi Ralph Messer is not a Jewish rabbi.

Johnson writes in his article, "There's nothing that's not creepy about the whole thing, and it's been greeted with the mockery it deserves, but there's one piece of the story that hasn't gotten a lot of attention but should: Rabbi Ralph Messer isn't Jewish.

"Messer is a proponent of so-called Messianic Judaism, a religious movement founded in the 1960s that wraps evangelical Christian theology in Jewish cultural trappings."

"It's my prayer that the world stop judging Christians & churchgoers based on Eddie Long & his wackadoo shenanigans," tweeted Jawn Murray, a media personality associated with EMI Gospel, a Christian music label, reminding others that people should not be quick to put all Christians in the same basket based on the actions of a few