ABOUT OUR PASTOR

Bishop James W. Gaiters, Sr., has been serving as an under-shepherd for over 50 years. He presently pastors Grace Apostolic Church, Columbus, Ohio where he has served since 1993. He is Diocesan of the Ohio District Council, Episcopal District #3, of the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, Inc. In the state of Ohio, he served 8 years as a District Elder, and 16 years as administrator of the O.D.C. Campgrounds, now known as “Hallowed Hills”. He currently serves the P.A.W. as a member of the Board of Bishops and as a member of the Executive Bishops Council. He was formerly a member of the P.A.W. International Missions Board from 1979 to 2007, serving 8 years as its secretary. In 1997 he was elevated to the Bishopric and served 10 years as Bishop of International Missions and Director of the P.A.W. International Missions Department. In 2012, he was appointed Chairman of the P.A.W. Global Evangelism Executive Committee and served in that position until 2017.

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Having a strong passion for missions, Pastor Gaiters led his congregation in regular participation in all things “missions-minded”. During his 28-year tenure with the I.M.D., Pastor Gaiters traveled the world for the cause of Christ and the work of the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, contributing to and partaking hands-on in feeding, clothing, and bringing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to thousands of souls. His travel for the organization took him to Africa (Liberia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Togo, and Kenya), Brazil, Canada, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, England, France, Amsterdam, Haiti, Hawaii, Jamaica, Japan, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico. Under his leadership, his pastorates have been actively involved in response to major crisis situations in Haiti, the tsunami in SE Asia, a starvation crisis in Monrovia, Liberia, and have provided assistance to the Louisiana Council (Katrina),and the Texas Council (Hurricane Ike).

 

He has facilitated, by his recommendations, the replacement of outgoing Bishops and the development of new Dioceses and Diocesans. Two notable recommendations include the development of Ghana and Brazil as new Dioceses as well as recommending that then District Elder Charles H. Ellis, III, and then Suffragan Bishop Theodore L. Brooks, Sr. become Diocesans of these new Dioceses, respectively. These recommendations were affirmed, and both moved on to later become Presiding Bishops of the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, Inc.

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Bishop Gaiters is also the founder and chairman of Pentecost Sunday Ohio, Inc., a fellowship formed in 2011 to unite churches of like precious faith in Columbus and Central Ohio in the annual celebration of Pentecost Sunday.

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Bishop Gaiters, and his wife, Marcia, were married in October 1965, and are the parents of two sons and two daughters, grandparents of 10, and have three great-grandsons.