Rev. L.D. McLean, pastor, innovator

The Rev. Lamont D. McLean, 52, of Burlington County, founding pastor of Living Faith Christian Center in Pennsauken, died Saturday from complications of a bone-marrow disease at Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center in Camden.

Pastor McLean began Living Faith Christian Center in July 1985, with 10 congregants gathered in his home. Two months earlier, he and partners had established Universal Technical Resources, a computer consulting company in Cherry Hill.

Both the business and his church flourished.

Membership at Living Faith Christian Center is now more than 7,000, and, after several moves, the church is located at the South Jersey Expo Center. Members are residents of New Jersey, Delaware, New York and Pennsylvania. The church operates a K-12 school.

Its Bible-study sessions attract more than 500 people, and there are more than 20 special-interest ministries. Several Eagles players are active with the church's Athletes United in Christ ministry.

For several years, Pastor McLean hosted a half-hour television program.

A charismatic preacher, Pastor McLean, who had struggled with his illness for two years, last spoke from his pulpit in May.

At Sunday's church service, his wife and co-pastor, Connie Tee McLean, announced her husband's death.

"Although my husband, your pastor and our visionary, is gone," she said, "the vision still remains." She quoted him when she said the church would continue his mission to "reach the lost, strengthen families, and raise up leaders that impact our communities and the world with the word of God."

Pastor McLean was the author of three books, including the soon-to-be-published Missing Links to Victorious Living, which outlines the principles he used to overcome a speech impediment.

A graduate of Paulsboro High School, Pastor McLean earned an associate degree in business from Trenton State College, now the College of New Jersey. In the early 1980s, he was working as a computer programmer when he realized his career had reached a dead end.

With his pronounced stutter, he later wrote, he asked his boss to be considered for management training. The boss refused and sent him back to his cubicle. After the incident, he wrote, "the word of God" commissioned him with a dual calling to start both a business and a church.

In May 1985, with a borrowed office, he and his partners started Universal Technical Resources Services Inc. in Cherry Hill. He eventually became chairman of the environmental engineering and technical consulting firm.

In addition to his wife of 26 years, Pastor McLean is survived by daughters Alexis and Erica; his mother, Sara McLean; and a brother.

A funeral will be at 11 a.m. Friday at Living Faith Christian Center, 2323 Route 73, Pennsauken. Friends may call from 8 a.m. Friday and from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. tomorrow. Burial will be in Lakeview Cemetery, Cinnaminson.