Short Bio: Deb Warner, along with her husband Al, have a ministry in Buffalo, NY called Set Free Inc. It is their desire to bring
the Body of Christ together across racial and denominational lines. As God prepared them for this networking ministry, they pastored for twenty years in New York State and Chicago. They also spent a term of missionary service in Hong Kong. For the last 20 years they have facilitated a weekly pastors’ prayer group in Buffalo. They invest their time encouraging and mentoring leaders to fulfill the call of God on their lives. Al and Deb preach and teach together creating a Kingdom mindset. Deb loves to motivate and encourage people to be released as overcomers and world changers. They have two adult sons: Caleb and Nathan, along with Nathan's wife, Megan and two grandchildren: Caiden and Gracelyn.
In 1998, I felt led to start Set Free Buffalo alongside my husband, Al Warner. We had 20 years of pastoral experience along with a time as missionaries to Hong Kong. My burden from God came during my devotional time, November, 1997: “A networking of pastors and church leaders in Greater Buffalo to bring reconciliation and renewal to pastors, wives, and church leaders.…To see people fall in love with God, to be overwhelmed with His presence. To unify churches of multi-denominations ‘to prefer one another’ to see the outpouring of God as never before. To watch as this ripples from church leaders down. To watch God melt a city. Multi-racial unity. Multi-denominational unity.”
Al and I knew that it would take intentional love and the Holy Spirit to make it happen.
Sadly, the Church is still divided. Our theology differs, we worship differently, we dress differently, we have different rules and traditions. Quite frankly, we live in different worlds. Whether urban, suburban, or rural, we live our daily lives vastly different. Even our favorite foods are different. It takes intentional love and a call of God to tear down the walls and come together.
Set Free was birthed through a National Day of Prayer event. After that, our family went out as “spies in the land” visiting the churches who had participated in this special event. We experienced churches that stretched us out of our comfort zones. Since we realized it was a call from God, we were willing to enlarge our understanding of the Church as long as JESUS was our common bond. Thankfully, God’s favor was on us and we were mostly embraced with open arms. We were actually loved much more than we expected. We remember one little 5-year-old boy who told Al that he “didn’t belong” at the church (a Black, inner-city Church). Al responded, “Your Pastor (our friend) said it is okay.” With that assurance, the young man let us come into his church.
For my part, on January 29th, 2002, God gave me an idea—call a gathering of women together to honor those who have served for 25 years or more in the ministry. They could be pastors, pastors’ wives, or powerful spiritual women leaders who had faithfully served.
We gathered in The Tabernacle (Orchard Park) gym for brunch. The gym was full. I can’t really remember how many women came, maybe 200. Each of the honorees received a certificate and a scarf for a gift. Those honored included: Janie Cockrell (The Chapel), Wanda Reid (The Tabernacle), Judy Burgio (Love Joy Gospel), Donna Naedele (My Father’s House), Mother Emma Alston (Pentecostal Temple), Charlotte Cooke (Baker Memorial United Methodist), Helen Turpin (Power International Center of Hope), Pastor Lucy Schipani (Bread of Life), Mother Quincy Hunter (El Bethel), Phyllis Munson (McAlpine Presbyterian), Eliza Dockery (Memorial Temple), Pastor Clara Castro (Living Water Fellowship) and more.
This was a joyous occasion, a time of celebration. Some of those we honored have retired or graduated to heaven, and some still serve among us in WNY. Were you there? It felt like a foretaste of heaven where “a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb (Rev. 7:9).”
So here we stand twenty years later and once again I hear the call to come together. It will take intentional love from all of us to allow this to happen at a deeper relational level. As uncomfortable as it may be, let us lean in and be vulnerable to one another. Will you join me in committing (or for some recommitting) to make Buffalo look more like Heaven as we intentionally build bridges between women, churches, and neighborhoods?
Lord, may the women of our region rise to the occasion and truly unite together as one!
In Unity,
Deb Warner
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