Reverend Dwight L. Ford, M.Div.

Reverend Dwight Ford is an innovative leader, author, thought-provoker, and public theologian.  He is affectionately known as “The People’s Pastor,” for his commitment to vulnerable populations and impoverished communities.

He was born in Crystal Springs, Mississippi and reared in Rock Island, Illinois.  He enlisted in the United States Marine Corps and successfully completed a six-year military career which included Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm service tours. He earned various awards and was listed in the top ten percent of enlisted Marines.

Reverend Ford holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Western Illinois University, with a concentration in Business Management and Leadership and a Master of Divinity degree from Harvard University in Cambridge, MA.

He is the Executive Director of the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center, in Rock Island, Illinois; an organization with the mission of “to provide opportunities to a diverse population through a variety of programs and services.”  Under his leadership the King Center has expanded its commitment as a flexible and responsible organization, embracing intergenerational programming, and launching new community-based initiatives to include; The King Café; The King Legacy Center, and King Lectures.

He is an ordained Baptist minister of the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc., and the pastor of Grace City Church in Moline, Illinois.  Pastor Ford frequently travels throughout the United States as a minister of the Gospel, public speaker, and providing professional services of consultation and implementation strategy for church and community projects.

Reverend Ford is the author of Never Easy, Always Necessary; Rediscovering the Ministry of Jesus Christ in an Era of Crisis and Complacency (The Beckham Publications Group 2011).  Never Easy, Always Necessary, has been reviewed and endorsed by theologians, chaplains, and pastors and declared a must read for anyone serious about Christian service and community transformation.

Reverend Dwight Ford has a life commitment of serving the church and underserved populations of the world.