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Macedonia New Life Center is part of a world-wide organization with more than 15 million members in over 200 countries around the world.  We would be happy to have you join us in worship or at one of the church events listed on our calendar, or you can watch our weekly services live every Saturday at 11:30 am (EST).

History of Macedonia New Life Center, Lumberton, NC

Many years ago, there was a Seventh-day Adventist Church in Lumberton, NC. Legendary Pastor/Evangelist Dr. Edward E. Cleveland pastured that church in his first district of three churches when he began his ministry in the Carolina Conference. The other churches were: Abney Chapel in Fayetteville and the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Laurinburg. Sometime in the early to mid seventies, the church in Lumberton closed; reasons unknown. Elder EE Cleveland was a mentor and friend of the young, vibrant and adventurous Pastor EA Ennis who was installed as Pastor of the Philadelphia Seventh-day Adventist Church in Council on February 16, 2002. On August 30, 2002 in an email to conference president Elder Vanard Mendinghall, Pastor Ennis shared a vision of entering Lumberton. He wrote: “On another note, what can you tell me about a church that used to be in Lumberton.  Elder Cleveland told me that he used to pastor one there, as part of his four-church district when he started in the Carolina Conference over five decades ago.  Do you have any idea about what happened to that group?  We do not have a church there now.  That's where my sights are set for three years down the road.  It's a large city, much larger than Whiteville.” On September 2, 2002, Elder Mendinghall replied in an email, saying “Lumberton was before my time.  I will make some inquires. Let’s not wait three years, begin planning, we'll find some help.” Thus it was that Lumberton became a soul winning burden for Pastor Ennis.

On July 8, 2003, accompanied by young Norris Hollie from the Praise Tabernacle church in Whiteville, Pastor EA Ennis began work in South Lumberton, by knocking on doors in Turner Terrace, followed by Hollie Ridge and Sunset Ridge. The first stop on this missionary pilgrimage was the City of Lumberton Police Department, where Pastor Ennis requested to speak to the person in charge. He was directed to Deputy Chief, Major Mike McNeill. Pastor Ennis explained his mission to Major McNeill, providing copies of his driver’s license and auto tag in event residents called the police to report two men in their neighborhoods going from house to house. A friendship that would last years, developed between Pastor Ennis and Major McNeill, who would eventually become Chief of Police in September 2007, upon the retirement of Chief Grice.

Sister Ingrid Ennis (wife of Pastor Ennis) joined the missionary team a few days later, and helped knock on hundreds of doors in South Lumberton – promoting the Revelation Seminar to be conducted by pastor Ennis in the cafeteria at WH Knuckles Elementary School on Martin L. King, Jr. Drive. The Revelation Seminar was conducted from August to September 2003 at Knuckles. In August, Norris Hollie returned to Oakwood University in Huntsville, AL where he was a student. Pastor and Sister Ennis carried on the work faithfully and tirelessly. In September, a small group of individuals began worshipping with the missionaries in a rented classroom at Knuckles, while a permanent worship venue was sought. In November, the small group of believers moved from Knuckles to the Lumberton Senior High School on Linkhaw Road, where they rented and worshipped in classroom C-10 on Sabbaths and Tuesday nights. There was not much money in those days because of the very small number of people attending, and great personal sacrifice and perseverance by Pastor and Sister Ennis paid off in helping to keep the group together amidst gloomy financial challenges and rather slow membership growth.

Upon the Pastor’s request, the South Atlantic Conference voted to organize Macedonia as a Company of believers, and on November 8, 2003, Elder Linwood Stone, Conference Treasurer, did the honors. Interestingly, the Company was organized in the living room of Pastor and Sister Ennis in their new home at 3325 Saddletree Road, Lumberton. They had decided to purchase a home in Lumberton to ease the expense, hassle and tiredness of traveling from Wilmington to do missionary work in Lumberton 3-4 days per week. They had just closed on their home on October 29. Macedonia was organized as a Company on the same day that Praise Tabernacle in Whiteville was organized as a Church, also by Elder Stone. Those present at Macedonia’s organization included: Sister Cynthia (Cindy) Lewis, Sister Sathilda Allen (the first Lumberton convert, who was baptized on November 1), Hallie Wyatt, Ingrid Ennis, and Pastor EA Ennis. This group formed the nucleus of a determined effort to re-establish a Seventh-day Adventist presence in the City of Lumberton. Sister Cindy Lewis served as Treasurer of the group. Sister Ingrid Ennis endured several bouts of major illness and surgeries to gallantly serve as Sabbath School Superintendent, Clerk and Praise leader until she and her husband were transferred to the Americus/Warner Robins district in November 2008.

On December 5, 2003, the lease for our current worship venue at 322 E 24^th Street in Lumberton was signed with Heritage Realty by Pastor Ennis. The place was spacious, greasy and dirty, and in need of a paint job, but the hearts of the little flock were glad to have finally found a church home. There was a rallying call to come together to clean and paint the facility. Greg Lewis, cousin of Cindy Lewis, led the cleanup and painting project.

Pastor Ennis led the group in several evangelistic campaigns over the five years of his ministry in Lumberton. By the time of his reassignment to the Americus/Warner Robins district in Georgia in November 2008, some thirty-eight people had joined the church.

Macedonia has the DNA of an evangelistic church. Pastor Ennis was also a believer in utilizing technology to spread the gospel. He designed and maintained the church’s website and was also the speaker/director of two radio programs on the airwaves in Lumberton. The first program, Scripturally Speaking, was aired on WSTS (100.9 FM) from December 2004 until June 2005. The second program, Macedonia Moments, was aired from December 2005 until the end of October 2008 on WAGR (1340 AM). Many people in Robeson County came in contact with the truth of God’s word because of our radio ministry.

Pastor Ennis was an evangelistic busy body. He kept Macedonia and the other two churches on course with year-round evangelism, often running three campaigns per year. In Lumberton, we have done flea market evangelism, where we went to the flea market on Sabbath mornings to pass out literature

On September 28, 2008, Pastor Stephan Davis was assigned to replace Pastor EA Ennis as district Pastor. Macedonia continues to be a tower of light in the City of Lumberton.

In April 2010, Pastor Davis departed Macedonia. Active retired Pastor Benjamin Cummings was assigned as Interim Pastor by the South Atlantic Conference that same month. He and his wife Lurline travel from Atlanta twice a month to minister to our fledgling company of believers. His prayerful and compassionate demeanor and genuine love for the members helped stabilize their faith and reignited our curage to carry on. God has been leading His church, and we continue to hope for a breakout of true revival and conversion throughout our beloved city as a result of our faithful witness.

What Seventh-day Adventists Believe
As a Christian church, Seventh-day Adventists are a faith community rooted in the beliefs described by the Holy Scriptures. Adventists describe these beliefs in the following ways: More >>