Bishop O.T. Jones Jr., church leader

BISHOP O.T. Jones Jr. had a vision of what his predominantly black, Pentecostal denomination meant to the community at large.

As far back as 1989, when he participated in a national convention of Pentecostal Christians in Philadelphia, he proclaimed that a major goal of the church should be to help solve serious social problems in the black community.

"We're realistic in recognizing that there is a family crisis," he said. "We feel that the black male needs special help from the church. We feel the church must develop new forms of ministry."

That vision guided Bishop Jones' service over the years as pastor of Holy Temple God in Christ in West Philadelphia and as a major force in the denomination nationwide.

Ozra Thurston Jones, known to everyone as "O.T.," a minister steeped in the tradition of the old-time black preacher who knows how to stir a congregation into exuberant displays of spiritual exultation, died Jan. 9. He was 85 and lived in West Philadelphia.

"The church cares," the bishop told the convention in 1989. He said it had to demonstrate that concern with the development of ministries directed specifically at drug addicts, street people, prisoners, AIDS victims, refugees and other needy citizens.

As the bishop of Pennsylvania, the title he assumed in 1973, he oversaw more than 100 churches in the eastern part of the state and encouraged them to develop ministries to serve the needs of their communities.

"What we're seeking is to encourage new ways of sharing both our religious experience and the life it has given us," he said.

He said the church has gotten away from the old "fire and brimstone" exhortations from the pulpit in favor of dealing with the problems of modern society.

"The church is growing farther away from denouncing sinners and closer to appealing to them to be what God intended them to be," he said. The message, he said, is "God has something better for you than this."

Jones was a member of the governing board of the Church of God in Christ, which has seven million members worldwide. His ministry took him to Africa, as well as throughout the U.S.

Jones followed in the footsteps of his renowned father, Bishop O.T. Jones Sr., who was pastor of Holy Temple until his death in 1972. His son assumed the pulpit at that time and served until sidelined by illness in recent years, when he became senior pastor.

He was born in Fort Smith, Ark. His mother was Neanza Jones. The family moved to West Philadelphia when he was a child, and he graduated from Overbrook High School. He earned degrees in sociology at Temple University.

His doctoral dissertation was titled "The Meaning of the Moment in Existential Encounter According to Soren Kierkegaard."

In 1941, his father appointed him leader of the Young People's Church at Holy Temple while he was still earning his college degrees. He organized the well-attended young people's Tuesday- night church service, the Sons of Gideon and Daughters of Ruth groups, the Young People's Chorus and the Upper Room Fellowship, a prayer hour for devotion and discussion.

In 1949, he became a missionary in Liberia, West Africa, and also served in Monrovia as preacher, lecturer and counselor to religious and educational organizations.

Back in the U.S., he became associate editor of the Young Peoples' Weekly Worship Quarterly, co-editor of Christian View of Life, organizer of the Big Brothers and Big Sisters Fellowship and author of numerous religious articles and pamphlets.

In 1953, he was appointed pastor of Memorial Church of God in Christ in Haverford, and 10 years later, became associate pastor of Holy Temple, under his father.

After assuming the pastorate on his father's death, he initiated numerous new ministries, ranging from outreach to the Stephen Smith Home, the Youth Study Center and area prisons, to a basketball team and drill team.

Jones was also active as a board member of the Opportunities Industrialization Center, the American Bible Society, and Oral Roberts University, and was a member of the "Give Me A Chance" ministry.

He was elected a member of the General Board of the Church of God in Christ in 1980 and re-elected in '84, '88 and '96. In 1997, he was elevated to second assistant presiding bishop of the national church.

At the time of his death, an associate said of him: "One of the things I appreciated about Bishop Jones was the way he took time to speak with everyone who wanted to talk with him following a service or event at Holy Temple."

He married Regina Shaw, a Philadelphia educator, in 1957.

He also is survived by twin sons, Col. Soren Jones and Maj. Stephen Jones, both Air Force pilots; two brothers, Walter B. and William V.; two sisters, Jean Anderson and E. Harriet Freeman; and two grandchildren.

Services: 11 a.m. today at Mount Airy Church of God in Christ, Stenton and Ogontz avenues. Burial will be in West Laurel Hill Cemetery, Bala Cynwyd. *