NextGen Pastor Interview
Ariel M. Barr
CHMN 301: Foundations of NextGen Ministry
Professor Stephen Vandegriff
June 12, 2023
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Pastor Emma Mims was born in Chicago, Illinois on December 21, 1974 to her
mother, Priscilla Beard. She attended and graduated from Steinmetz High School and also
studied at Dominican University, where she would receive her degree in Sociology. Years later
she joined her brother, Bishop Tyree Beard, in opening his own church, The City of David, as an
associate pastor and new member head. Ten years later, she is still the associate pastor at The
Movement Chicago, formerly known as The City of David, and also the NextGen head pastor.
She is married with three adult children, two boys and one girl whoa re all involved in ministry
in some capacity. She is also the head of the marriage ministry at the Movement Chicago as well
as a member on the intercessor’s team. She also, five years ago, decided to start her own ministry
that has an emphasis in prayer and women empowerment called Divine Touch. Where she pray
live on Facebook every week on Thursdays to give midweek encouragement to all of her
followers. She is regularly asked to come and pray, preach, or both by pastors and first ladies of
other churches when they are having conferences.
When speaking to Pastor Emma about her current job responsibilities she mentioned that
this is the first time that she was asked to do an interview about NextGen, so she was excited to
provide answers and clarity about her role in NexGen ministry. Our church is still growing in
size and used to our new location, so she currently serves children of all ages in the same room
(ages 3-12). She is looking to expand this ministry into four different classes based on age:
infant, toddler, youth, and teenage. Right now she only has one ministry role as it pertains to
teaching children, which is one person each Sunday ministering to the youth by way of lesson
plans that Pastor Emma gives them to teach. The lessons are taught in our lower floor in one
singular room or in the overflow room which has more space. The lesson plan contains a verse
and a concept that is found within that verse that is thoroughly taught and explained to the
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children. For example, the concept could be salvation and the Bible verse would be Titus 3:5,
“He saved us, not because of righteousness things we had done, but because of his mercy. He
saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit”1. The teacher would
then explain to the children of different age groups that we did nothing to obtain our own
salvation, but it was of the kindness of God, that we were saved by Him. Furthermore, since we
are still developing, the material is not set in stone, nor is there a full paper trail of the student’s
progress. We have different children every single Sunday and some are not consistent, so it is
hard for Pastor Emma to keep track of what is being taught and who knows what before she
would continue to a different topic. Moreover, as we grow a church, the more children we will
have and more structure and filled out everything will become. However, a strength for this
model of teaching is that is leaves space for children to ask questions and learn more with their
curious minds. She says that instead of keeping children bound to a sheet or long video, they
have the freedom to express themselves through speech about God. Having a teacher, a church
teacher, who answers all of your questions about humanity, salvation, grace, mercy, peace, and
any other concept that they can manage to comprehend is a benefit to the next generation Pastor
Emma says. The only downfall that she notes about this way of teaching is that it would be more
effective if the concepts could be taught to different age groups in different ways so that it is
better understood by everyone learning. However, like mentioned above, the ministry is still
growing so there is only one teacher per week for all of the children in total. Once The
Movement obtains more adults willing to teach children on Sundays, the lesson plan for the
children will widen and more structure will be put in place. Pastor Emma notes that the students
usually express interest in talking about the grace and mercy of God because they find it hard to
comprehend God forgiving us time and time again.
1 Holy Bible, New Living Translation. Tyndale House Publishers
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Bibliography
Holy Bible: New Living Translation. 1996. Carol Stream, Illinois, Tyndale House Publishers,
2015.
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