New pastor at Church of Genesis high hopes for New Castle

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Damian Williams with his wife, Grecia Reyes Williams, inside the Church of Genesis. Williams has returned home to New Castle to pastor the Mahoningtown church.

Damian Williams’ early life in the Croton projects took him to the ministry, working with heads of state, members of Congress and United Nations, and the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Williams helped start churches across America and the world and pastored the nation's one-time fastest growing Wesleyan church.

The 47-year-old has now returned home, where he is the new pastor at the Church of Genesis in Mahoningtown. He replaces the Rev. Ron Eade, who served as the 303 N. Cedar St. church pastor for 30 years.

Williams, who began his new duties in January, hopes to work with local leaders, government, businesses and educators to bring the "new" back in New Castle.

"We are going to roll up our sleeves to make New Castle the greatest city in America," he said.

Raised with two siblings by a single mother on welfare, Williams lived in 22 different places by the time he graduated from high school. The family moved about every six months.

"To get groceries, we would go to Giant Eagle when they would be dumping out food," he said. "We had the system down."

The family also would buy items at auctions and resell them during summer-long yard sales.

"We found ways (to make money) and my mom was part of that, too," he said. "We would buy Twinkies and lunch snacks and sell them (at an escalated price) to my friends. We didn't have access to a lot of resources and learned how to be creative entrepreneurs."

Williams never thought of living in the projects as a hardship.

"I thought Croton was a great neighborhood," he said.

Williams said life changed when he and his mother, Renee Bradley, accepted Christ.

"We became Christ followers about the same time and everything changed," he said.

His mother got off welfare after getting a job waitressing at a New Castle restaurant and another gig at Mancini Bakery. In time, she got a job as a nurse's aide at Jameson Hospital.

"She didn't have any education other than a GED and worked her way up to a supervisory position," he said.

The family also found First Wesleyan Church on Pulaski Road, where Williams began preaching at age 15.

The family in time moved to Neshannock when Williams was in ninth grade, but later returned to New Castle. Williams "found creative ways to stay in Neshannock" schools.

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"Some people encouraged me to stay," he said. "Sometimes my mom took me to school and I would sometimes ride my 10-speed."

A 1994 graduate of Neshannock High School, Williams studied Christian pastoral ministries at Indiana Wesleyan University in Marion.

Afterwards, he served at a Wesleyan Church in North Dakota and a Methodist Church in Pittsburgh. In 1997, he moved to Wisconsin, where he served as senior pastor of the newly established Red Cedar Church.

"The church grew to 1,000 members and I became the youngest pastor to pastor a church of 500 or more in the Wesleyan congregation. Williams referred to Red Cedar as the church of he unchurched.

"We were aggressive to reach family members with the love of Christ and every day missionary where you work, play and learn."

In 2005, he resigned and founded the Leadership League, working together to spread the word of God in the marketplace. His clients included NFL teams, manufacturers, non-profits, small- to medium-sized family-owned enterprises and Fortune 500 companies.

Williams met the late Tunch Ilkin, a former Pittsburgh Steelers lineman. Ilkin was involved with inner city youth of Pittsburgh.

"We began to dream together about what it would be like to lift the name of Jesus inside the Steeler organization," Williams said. "We came up with a ministry plan for the Steeler front office and got their blessing to go."

They wrote the book, "Forged in Steel" and taught lessons to rookie ball players, and worked on life planning and transitioning from football life. In 2014, the Steelers cruises were launched, taking 35 players and 2,000 fans on the open seas.

Williams then got involved with leading Bible studies with the FBI, United Nations and Congress.

"I started going into (Washington) D.C. and getting involved in these ministries," Williams said. "I also had a long-term relationship with groups in Washington and fellowship with leaders from around the world who came to D.C."

He said he wasn't trying to shape policy, just help people understand Jesus.

While in Washington in April 2022, Williams met Gracie Reyes, who worked as a waitress. Reyes and her family moved to the United States from Honduras when she was 11.

They married four months later and are expecting a baby in May.

"What's really fantastic is I’ve never seen a congregation with an older demographic," he said about the 125-member non-denominational congregation.

"They are willing to do whatever it takes to become relevant to the next generations," Williams added.

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