Reverend Matthew L. Watley is Executive Minister to the more than 8,000 members of the Reid Temple African Methodist Episcopal Church, one church in two locations where the Reverend Dr. Lee P. Washington is the Senior Pastor. He led in the design and development of a $32 million facility, which was completed in December 2004, housing a worship center, elementary school, credit union, bookstore, music and video recording studios, and banquet facility. Each Sunday Rev. Watley preaches at Reid Temple’s North location as well the evening service at the Glenn Dale location, which is attended by hundreds of students from Howard University, the University of Maryland, and Bowie State University.
On September 10, 2001, Reverend Watley founded Power Lunch, a non-denominational worship service at noon. Today, hundreds of workers from the public and private sector gather weekly to listen to his messages at the AMC Movie Theater at the historic Union Station in Washington DC. . Reverend Watley teaches on leadership using biblical principles and other books to help individuals realize their full potential and dreams. Power Lunch www.powerlunchonline.com can also be found in: Suitland, MD, Baltimore MD, Columbia, SC, Columbus, OH, Atlanta, GA, and Dallas, TX.
Reverend Watley is an innovative thinker whose leadership has brought him beyond the four walls of the church into the halls of power and influence of our nation and the world. He was selected to serve on a special commission sponsored by the Ford Foundation to assess Non-Governmental Organizations in the Republic of South Africa. While serving as Graduate Assistant at the Andrew Ranking Memorial Chapel, Reverend Watley also served on the Board of Trustees of Howard University. He has also served on the General Board of the AME Church, the Board of Directors of the Richard Allen Foundation, and on the Executive Committee of the World Methodist Council of Churches. He currently serves on the advisory board of The African-American Pulpit—an organization that named him as one of the Top 20 to Watch.
A gifted preacher and lecturer, Reverend Watley has traveled around the globe spreading the message of self-actualization through achieving spiritual, political, and economic empowerment. Before attending Howard University where he received a BA in Political Science and Masters of Divinity, Watley co-authored Poems of a Son, Prayers of a Father, now in its’ second printing. His poetry has also been included in Dr. James Washington’s Conversation with God, The Flow edited by Kwame Alexander, and most recently Beyond the Frontier edited by E. Ethelbert Miller. He is also a recent graduate of the Georgetown University McDonough School of Business, receiving his Masters Degree in Leadership.
Rev. Watley is married to the former Ms. Shawna Francis. Reverend Watley submits that the challenge of servant-leadership is not to win acclaim or to amass honor, but to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God. Micah 4:6
