Author: sstester

Payne Memorial African Methodist Episcopal Church exists so that People Far From God will be transformed through the Love Of Jesus Christ (John 13:34-35)

PMO MISSION STATEMENT: Releasing and developing human possibilities is the mission of Payne Memorial Outreach, Inc. (PMO), the nonprofit community service agency of Payne Memorial African Methodist Episcopal Church of Baltimore, Maryland.

PMO’s programs and partnerships have been a part of Baltimore City since 1990; quality educational learning and enrichment programs, offering creative and culturally relevant programs for youth and senior adults, and addressing tangible existence needs (food, clothing, and healthy lifestyle habits) of young people and adults in the Midtown, Druid Heights, Upton and surrounding communities.

Among the programs that PMO oversees is PMO Help, a community outreach program providing food, and clothing to between 30 and 50 persons per month. Helps partners with the Golden Doves Senior Ministry who has affiliated with St. Vincent de Paul Church in Baltimore, MD and the Maryland Food Bank to distribute food to the community through the Food Pantry.

Helps partners with the Dorothy Camper Missionary Society (DCMS) to provide clothing to members in the community. The Clothes Closet  provides clothing for men, women, children and some infant clothes are provided depending upon donations from the church and the community. Distribution occurs monthly.

PMO provides an HIV/AIDS  education awareness/free testing program Hope and Healing. Hope and Healing targets people living in the 21217 and 21218 zip codes to be tested because this area of Baltimore has one of the highest incidents of new cases of HIV in the country. Hope and Healing, in conjunction with the Jacques Initiative, tests an average of 20 people per three hour session once a month or once every other month.

PMO partners with Payne Memorial AME Church to provide food during the Thanksgiving season and food and toys to families in need during the Christmas season. Approximately 100 families are helped by this initiative annually. Gift cards of between $20 and $50 from local vendors (Giant Foods, Safeway Foods, Wal-Mart) are disseminated.

“We in the faith community cannot complacently stay within our church walls,” “We must aggressively pursue proactive initiatives which sometimes require that we venture into areas not usually considered to be the regular place of the church.” (Rev. Vashti McKenzey, (1997).

Payne Memorial Outreach, Inc
1701 Madison Avenue
Suite 315
Baltimore, MD 21217
410-462-3800

Rev. Melech E. M. Thomas is an experienced, community organizer, writer, scholar-practitioner, and social media influencer with over 15 years of ministerial experience. On July 13, 2023, Bishop James L. Davis appointed Rev. Melech as the 24th pastor of the internationally recognized Payne Memorial AME Church in Baltimore, Maryland. From 2020-2023, Rev. Melech served as pastor of Bethel AME (Selma, NC), where he led a building campaign to completely modernize the sanctuary. Prior to this, Rev. Melech served as pastor of the Christian Love Missionary Baptist Church in Chicago, Illinois from 2017-2020.

Rev. Melech is a graduate of Howard University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication and Culture and a Minor in Community and Economic Development. He also received his Master of Divinity from the Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology at Virginia Union University, under the tutelage of Dean John W. Kinney. In 2021, Rev. Melech was one of the youngest persons inducted into the 35th Class of the prestigious Martin Luther King, Jr. International Board of Preachers by Morehouse College. He has also done additional academic study at Princeton Theological Seminary, Chicago Theological Seminary, and North Park University. In April of 2021, his work “American Idolatry and the Theopolitical Imaginations of the Black Church” was published by the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University. Most recently, his June 2022 article for the Christian Recorder on ministerial development, “Why I’m No Longer Interested in Being a ‘Preacher’”, has been viewed and shared over 100,000 times across multiple social media outlets.

In 2010, he was selected by the Hilltop as the most influential Howard University student on campus in its annual “Hilltop 24” listing of influential students and he was selected as “Who’s Who Among American College Students”. In 2011, the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference awarded Rev. Melech with the Wyatt-Lucy Fellowship, given to high achieving young adults with a heart for faithbased social justice. On October 10, 2015, he was selected by the Honorable Min. Louis Farrakhan and the Rev. Dr. Willie Wilson to give the opening Christian prayer at the 20th Anniversary of the Million Man March, making him the youngest speaker on that day’s program. A Maryland native, Rev. Melech’s courageous leadership and service during the Freddie Gray protests in Baltimore were featured on the front page of the New York Times website as the “Young Leader in Baltimore.” His prophetic voice and his insightful commentary have been sought after by local, national, and international media outlets such as CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360, CNN International w/ Don Lemon, ABC News’ “This Week”, CBS’ “The Early Show”, PBS’ “The Rock Newman Show”, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, WGN Belgium’s public broadcasting network VTR and print publications like The Washington Post, The Baltimore Sun, The Boston Herald, Buzzfeed, Black College Wire, BET.com, and The Final Call. A portion of his preaching and teaching has been used by the General Board of Discipleship of the United Methodist Church.

Rev. Melech also serves as the President of the Second Episcopal District Richard Allen Young Adult Council (RAYAC), where, for the first time in district history, each Annual Conference has an established and active RAYAC board. As a nationally respected preacher of the Gospel, Melech served as an Assistant to Father Michael Pfleger at the Faith Community of Saint Sabina in Chicago, Illinois for three years. He also served under the Rev. Dr. Frank M. Reid III at Bethel AME Church in Baltimore, Maryland, as an Assistant to the Pastor and Ministerial Intern for Community Transformation and as the Pastor for Youth, College, and Young Adults at the Ward Memorial AME Church in Washington, DC. As the former chairperson of the Young Ministers’ Roundtable of the AME Church’s Second Episcopal District, Melech led the efforts to raise nearly $5,000 for the AME Church’s Homeless Shelter in Raleigh, NC.