Memorial of the Founder
Apostle Roosevelt Burns, founder of the Church of Deliverance, Inc., a preacher, teacher, and author, served in Christian ministry for over 69 years. His teachings and books are filled with the word of God, showing people how to live and walk by faith through the word.
He was born in Lumberton, North Carolina on August 23, 1927, and accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior on January 5, 1948, and became a very dedicated and consecrated worker in the service of the Lord with his wife, Louise D. Roy Burns and nine children in the Church of God. He and his wife dedicated their children to the Lord and His service.
Apostle Burns was a man of the word entering theological studies under the capable tutelage of the late scholarly Dr. John Pae Predow and the faculty at Boulden Seminary. He graduated with a diploma in systematic theological studies. A long-time dream had finally materialized. Apostle Burns continued his theological studies even while evangelizing and pastoring churches. He managed to earn a bachelor’s degree in Biblical Studies from Trinity Bible College and Seminary in Evansville, IN, a Master’s Degree in Biblical Studies in Evangelism from Haylett College in Mansfield, OH, and a Doctorate degree in Biblical Theology from Florida State Christian University in Fort Lauderdale, FL. He received an Honorary Doctorate in Psychology from Collegium Neotarianum Philosophiae in Kansas City, MO and his Ph. D from International Christian University, Chesapeake, VA
He pastored churches along the east coast, and in 1957 he was consecrated as a bishop. After his first wife died in 1959, he continued in the service of the Lord. He established the Church of Deliverance in 1961 with his second wife, Lillian Rucker Burns, his children, and with his mother Reverend Virginia L. Burns by his side at Sixth and Spruce Streets in Wilmington, Delaware to allow the flow of the spirit to be unhindered.
The Churches of Deliverance grew, and other churches joined the fellowship. He established churches in Baltimore, Maryland; Bridgeville, Delaware; Darlington, South Carolina; Dover, Delaware; Providence, RI; Reading, Pennsylvania; and Wilmington, Delaware and after pioneering these churches for a while, he placed pastors there.
During his lifetime, he traveled from Maine to Florida, preaching the gospel to hundreds, bringing healing and deliverance to thousands through his radio ministry along the east coast and via his literature.
In the late seventies, Apostle Burns became deathly ill. God raised him from his deathbed and told him to teach His people to have faith in God, and he began to get a revelation of faith in the word of God. Before God raised Apostle Burns from his deathbed, he was only a preacher of the word of God, the Pentecostal-style preaching. After God raised him from his deathbed, he began the message of teaching faith by going around the city of Wilmington, Delaware, with a tent teaching people to have faith in God’s word. Many laughed and thought the Church of Deliverance was a cult because of the teaching on faith. When Apostle Burns started teaching on the principles of faith, he never realized there were others in the mid-west and west coast with the same message, it was very encouraging.
Apostle Burns ministered on the Cablevision network in Delaware, and his program was titled, Speak the Word Only. His worldwide ministry broadcast reached thousands of people along with his monthly magazine entitled, The Double Cure.
The very last church Apostle Burns founded was Bridgeton, NJ, in 1989, and the church grew from his daily radio broadcast and literature.
Apostle Burns ministered up until he died and at the time of his death, he was the senior pastor of the Church of Deliverance in Bridgeton, NJ, and was the overseer of the Churches of Deliverance in Bridgeton, NJ, Downingtown, PA. and in Reading, PA and he had authored over fifty-nine books. Apostle Burns was a preacher, teacher, and prophet. His and books are filled with the word of God, showing people how to live a life pleasing to God. His messages will continue to be a road map for many.
Apostle Burns will be remembered not only for his significant accomplishments, and as a great minister of the word of God, but he was a great family man – his heart was his family, and he always had words of wisdom for them.
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