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The Legacy of Bishop Rube Bethea
 
A BRIEF LIFE HISTORY OF MY HUSBAND
BISHOP RUBE BETHEA
By Mother Alice Bethea
Bishop Bethea was the sixth child of Lloyd and Clara Bethea, he was born July 4, 1917 in Bayville, Arkansas. He was raised in Mississippi and in 1941 under the leadership of Elder J. M. Houston was baptized and received the precious Holy Ghost in Mobile, Alabama. God blessed him to donate the property and help build a church where the people of God could worship the Lord in spirit and in truth. Bishop Bethea conducted all of the services in the church except for the fourth Sunday of each month when the pastor came. That church is still being used for the service of the Lord.
In 1947 God blessed us to go to Detroit; that was where God really began to use him as we watched God’s power being manifested through Bishop Bethea. Bishop Hancock asked him to be assistant pastor at Clinton Street Greater Bethlehem Temple. At that time he worked for Great Lake Steel Company earning above $280.00 per week but as assistant pastor his salary would be $60.00 per week. I asked him not to give up his job for this offer because we would not be able to pay our bills, but he said he believed it was God’s will for him to accept the offer and that God would take care of us, and God did just that.
FULLY COMMITTED
He fully committed himself to working for the Lord as assistant pastor from 1958 to 1966 and during this time we were never behind in any of our bills because God made the way.
August 26, 1966 God gave him a work to do in Albany; again I said no but my will was not God’s will. God knew that the saints in Albany needed a shepherd due to the passing of their pastor and that they needed a church to worship the Lord in. With the help of the Lord and the vision that Bishop Bethea had, even though men said it could not be done, God said not so. Today the Church of Jesus Christ stands. What a mighty God we serve?
Bishop did not do anything of himself; it was the spirit of God in him that did the work. Just as Jesus did what His father said, so Bishop went by the leading of the Lord because without Him we can do nothing. If Bishop Bethea was here, these are the words he would say “Afflictions abide me but none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy and the ministry which I received of the Lord Jesus Christ to testify the gospel of the grace of God.”
A Man of Honor
Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in the word and doctrine.
1 Timothy 6:17
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