Bishop Hewett Richardson Sr.
Bishop Hewett Richardson, Sr. is the sixth of 11 children born to the late Deacon Alf and Mother Mattie Richardson in Pelican, Louisiana. He was raised in a COGIC home and was the first of his siblings to receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost at the tender age of 6 years. After graduating from high school and relocating to Phoenix, Arizona, he married his high school sweetheart, Ola Johnson. Bishop Richardson and wife are proud to celebrate 54 years of marriage and are the proud parents of four sons. They are also the proud grandparents of six. They have lived in the Houston area since 1966.
After completing his primary and secondary schooling at the All Saint’s School in Pelican, Louisiana, Bishop Richardson, earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Pastoral Theology at the Charles Harrison Mason Bible College in Houston, Texas. After completing his Bachelor’s Degree, he received his Teacher’s Certification and served on the faculty at the college for a short term. In 1993, he earned his Masters of Ministry Degree from the Union Baptist Bible College in Houston, Texas.
Called to preach, June 03, 1963, he preached his first sermon in his parent’s home. He received his minister’s license March 14, 1965 in Phoenix, Arizona. At God’s prompting, Bishop Richardson and family relocated to the Houston area where he founded the Emmanuel Church of God in Christ in October 1966. He received his second minister’s license in Houston, Texas on March 23, 1967. Later, on July 13, 1969, he was ordained as an Elder. His first major project as Pastor was to move the young congregation to a new location with better worship facilities and the Emmanuel family soon relocated from Bennington to 8813 Lockwood in the Houston/Trinity Gardens Community.
During the 1970’s, Bishop Richardson led the congregation through its first acquisition of property and building of a new worship facility. Inspired by the desire to maximize every opportunity to teach God’s word, Bishop Richardson guided the church in its next building endeavor – the construction of an education building/cafeteria. The educational building was a crucial component in the expansion of our Christian education efforts providing classrooms for programs such as Sunday School, YPWW, Vacation Bible School, and Children’s Church ministry. During this decade, the church experienced much growth in its membership and expansion of its ministry efforts.
Bishop Richardson accepted a special call to believe God for more souls to be added to God’s kingdom and declared it to the congregation on December 07, 1980. The directive from God was to launch a ten year building project and build debt-free. God was faithful and in 1990, exactly 10 years later, the congregation entered the new worship facilities DEBT-FREE. Since that time, God has blessed Bishop Richardson and the Emmanuel family to purchase additional property for parking and expansion. In 2006, the church dedicated a new wing to house additional conference rooms, classrooms, and accommodations for the Children’s Church ministry.
Bishop Richardson served as founding Pastor of the Emmanuel Church of God in Christ for 56 years (1966 to 2022). During this time he has held many offices in the Texas South Central Diocese, Church of God in Christ: Member of Ordination Board (1974 to 1992), District Superintendent for the Greater Houston District (1975 to 1993), Chairman of the Board of Superintendents (1982 to 1993), Field Superintendent (1993 to 2007), and member of the Executive Board of Directors (1981 to 2007). For several years, he also served the larger COGIC fellowship as a member of the Board of Directors for the C. H. Mason Bible College. Most recently, he served as the Chairman of the Texas Central East Fellowship (2007-2009) which was sanctioned as a new COGIC jurisdiction in April 2009 and renamed the Texas Central Metropolitan Jurisdiction (TCMJ). After 2 years of faithful leadership of the TCE Fellowship and 6 years as the founding prelate of the TCM Jurisdiction, Bishop Richardson prayerfully decided to retire as the Jurisdictional Prelate in 2015.
Bishop Richardson continues to be a visionary leader firmly rooted and grounded in the word of God. Above all, he loves God and takes seriously his role as a servant leader of the people of God. He celebrates biblical family principles and leads by example – teaching the people of God to live holy, love and serve God with their whole hearts, love their families, treasure the spiritual disciplines of prayer and fasting, walk by faith and not by sight, and study and rightly apply the word of God. This year, he celebrates 58 years in Ministry!