REVEREND BERNIE DORSEY

Reverend "Bernie" Dorsey is the Founder, Chairman, and Executive Director of Transforming Spirit Ministries, Inc. He has oversight of approximately thirty Transforming Spirit Churches in Africa and he organizes multiple mission projects across the United States, Africa, and Asia to support some of the world’s poorest people.​

 

Bernie graduated from Duke University (A.B., History 1994) and earned a Juris Doctor degree from The George Washington University Law School (1997). After clerking for a federal appellate court Judge, he entered private practice where he specialized in transactional real estate and civil litigation matters. Then, like many of the apostles and prophets of old, one day while at work he heard God’s call to ministry as the Spirit spoke to him from Romans 10:14-15. He attended seminary as a Master of Divinity student at Washington Baptist Theological Seminary and completed additional coursework as a Dean’s Scholar at Wesley Theological Seminary. He was licensed by Mount Zion Baptist Church in Washington, DC in 2009 and ordained and set apart for the work of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in 2012. Ultimately, he abandoned the practice of law to serve full-time in ministry.​

 

After much prayer and a prophetic word from a Messianic Jewish prophetess, Bernie planted Transforming Spirit Church, a non-denominational church on the outskirts of Washington, DC. Transforming Spirit developed a culture of worship, prophetic utterance, and equipping. Bernie says: “In the atmosphere of worship, miracles happen! And we as leaders need to equip and train other disciples to find their own destinies and go beyond church walls to serve God by serving others.” Transforming Spirit moved to the nation’s capital in December 2018 in the form of a fellowship with the Historic St. Paul AUMP Church. Bernie simultaneously served as Pastor of HSP from July 2020 until October 2022.​

 

Bernie has a heart for the nations. He has conducted more than twenty separate missions to Africa. From Uganda to Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, and Liberia, he has planted churches, conducted leadership conferences to train and equip African ministers, and organized projects to serve the poor. He has also served as a keynote preacher for numerous evangelistic events in those nations where, at open-air gatherings, thousands of people have come to salvation in Jesus Christ and instant miracles of deliverance and healing occur, including the disappearance of tumors, reversal of heart conditions, the lame walking, limbs regaining function, and even the blind receiving sight. Bernie often remarks: “Jesus really is still alive doing what He did while on earth: saving, delivering, and healing!”

 

In Asia, Bernie has contributed since 2014 in India, where he has partnered with and supported the work of Pastor Timothy Bontha. They have worked to feed the poor and to reach those in tribal regions of Southeastern India who have never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. Bernie is also an unabashed and avid supporter of Israel and the Jewish people. He has authored an opinion piece on the rise of anti-semitism and the need for people of faith to stand against this disturbing trend. https://afro.com/afro-exclusive-op-ed-d-c-area-pastors-on-rise-of-antisemitism%EF%BF%BC/

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Bernie is deeply committed to his wife of twenty-four years, the former Ericka Guthrie, a civil rights attorney in Washington, DC. They are the parents of two sons: Nelson III, a student at Bowdoin College; and Houston, a student at St. Albans School in Washington, DC.