Pastor Lucy Reyes: "There's Still Room For More!"
Written by Kimberly Smith, Contributing Editor
Preachingwoman.com recently had the honor of dialoguing with the stellar, yet humble Pastor Lucy Reyes. This remarkable preaching woman is literally taking the world by storm for the Kingdom of God. We are excited that she graciously accepted our invitation to be featured on PreachingWoman.com and share with us ways to survive the "stretching" as you realize "there's still room for more!"
Pastor Lucy Reyes has been teaching and preaching the word of God for over 18 years. Together with her husband, Dr. Ricardo Reyes, they serve as senior pastors of El Elyon Christian Center located in Corona, New York. They are also founders and covering apostles for an apostolic and prophetic network for the United for Christ widely known as the UPC Network. This fellowship of churches span throughout the United States, Canada, Venezuela, and Argentina. While also frequenting 15 nations throughout the world, Pastor Lucy, ushers the masses into the presence of God through the teaching of the gospel message and provides apostolic covering to over 500 multi-racial churches and ministries.
Dominican born, Pastor Lucy came to New York City as a young child with her sisters and brothers and was raised in a Catholic home. Eventually, she joined the staff at Lehman College as a professor, and interpreted over 26 plays on Broadway. Pastor Lucy was a successful actress and singer who appeared in a number of films, including, "Blah, Blah, Blah" and "Forbidden To Love In New York," to her credit.
Pastor Lucy has always been a leader and go-getter. One of the initiatives that is dear to her heart is the Dominican Cultural Center of New York, of which she is the founder. In addition to that, Pastor Lucy has done commendable work with inner-city children in the state.
In many regards, Pastor Lucy believed that she had a successful and complete life. However, she quickly realized that there still was room for more. God had need of Lucy. Armed with a strong passion and desire for ministering God's purpose and plan to women, Pastor Lucy is careful to ensure that she, by example, urge women--who desire to live out their potential--to wake up, rise up, and take the authority that God has given them. According to Pastor Lucy, God makes provision for the vision.
Years ago, after having gone to Bible school for four years, Pastor Lucy realized that she had the essentials for ministry. PreachingWoman.com asked Pastor Lucy what key factors she credits for her preparation in ministry and she told us this:
"[Although] we took several seminars and conferences, none of this gave us the anointing. But those were needed at the time in order for us to implement ministerial ethics."
Pastor Lucy suggests that ministers today should have preliminary preparation, but the most important requirements are:
1. Seek intimacy with God. We need not be empty ourselves when we stand to minister to the masses.
2. Ask for a fresh anointing. We need the Holy Spirit to saturate us as He empowers us to destroy yokes.
3. Remain humble. Remember, God has qualifies us, God equips us, and God gets the glory.
4. Completely surrender our own lives. Our own personal life in Christ should be submitted to the Lord.
Personal experience along the journey has taught Pastor Lucy that these keys must be used to reach the lost. Pastor Lucy fervently fulfills the mandate to bring healing to hurting people everywhere.
PreachingWoman.com asked Pastor Lucy specifically what special burden she has for hurting women:
"My mission is to listen to women, minister healing to them, make them feel useful in the body of Christ, and make them feel that they are also important for the advancement of the Gospel…God sees our potential, and we have a restoring message because Christ died for us."
Pastor Lucy believes that although society as a whole is corrupt, we can still expect a change. However, the liberation of hurting women is critical to observing such change. Women must be healed from bitterness, brokenness, and restored from physical, verbal and emotional abuse. Pastor Lucy believes that women are crucial to the fabric of our society and especially the household. She believes that Genesis 3:15 gives women the authority to exercise God's power in the ministry and overcome the work of Satan, the adversary, as she joyfully proclaims, "Forward, precious woman!"
Pastor Lucy encourages women to live by faith as we experience the unique paths each of our lives take. She believes we can and will accomplish more than ever for the Kingdom of God. Our servitude is in a demand and it will produce a great harvest in the Kingdom of God.
Pastor Lucy encourages us to remember the following principles in order to personally experience a great harvest in our own personal lives and ministry:
- We cannot serve the Lord half-way. We must serve God with our whole heart, mind, and yield completely to Him. We desire His best, and we must give our best.
- We cannot desire the blessings of the Lord without surrendering to Him. We cannot pursue the things of God and not be fully committed to Him.
- We cannot seek FAME and set our own agendas. We must seek His will and seek Him first, and all other things will be added to us.
Pastor Lucy further admonishes that there is a need for faithful stewards to take the gospel everywhere. In preaching, we should allow people to come as they are. Our responsibility is to present Christ as He is. She believes that we should preach the Word of God so that the world will know that the gospel is not a burden, but rather that "the gospel is a joy, a lifestyle and freedom of spirit." We are effective when we permit the Holy Spirit to do the work so that the Word can be understood by those who hear.
Pastor Lucy says she loves reaching the masses and seeing people delivered, lives transformed, and people applying the Word to their lives. She is complete in serving the Lord abroad, at her church, and at home as a wife and mother of two lovely daughters (Klayresse and Luz Massiel), widely known in New York as a duo group called the Reyes Queenz, who inherited Pastor Lucy's passion for singing.
Pastor Lucy has an utmost concern for making sure leaders know that the family must be in tact. PreachingWoman.com asked about the importance of family and balance as a leader:
"[Once leaders] know the balance sheet and divide the time, the family is the first ministry to which God tests whether we are ready for sending, and if we do everything in the order of God, there is no reason not to succeed."
Pastor Lucy advises married female preachers to pursue a blissful marriage as she believes it is not only possible, but guaranteed. She believes success in corporate ministry for the married woman is rooted in understanding 1 Corinthians 11:3 "but I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God." Together, each member of the Reyes family is involved in ministry and serves the Lord together at the altar. Pastor Lucy says, "Our children must inherit the altar so that there is no division."
Presently, along with a host of pastors and staff, the Reyes family successfully operates Alerta Magazine, Radio Alerta, Alertea TV Channel, Alerta Hoy Newspaper, Helping My Community, God In the Big League, The Reyes Queenz Recording Studio, Ricardo Reyes Ministry, Lucy Reyes Ministries, and Mujeres Sin Limites (Women Without Limits). Pastor Lucy is determined to utilize every communication medium available to present Christ to the world. Even when she sleeps, she takes the gospel around the globe through the internet, television, radio, and satellite. Ministry takes place every second of every day.
Years ago, all of what Pastor Lucy now manages each day might have seemed like wishful thinking. There may have been days where it just did not seem things would happen as planned. But, God had "more" in the blueprint of her life, and it was all a part of her destiny. Everything that she has accomplished began as a mere concept has grown, causing Pastor Lucy to know and experience true success.
PreachingWoman.com asked Pastor Lucy where she believes that all of her success has come from and she provided a few principles that she has observed:
- Pray on your prophecies until you see them fulfilled.
- Love and obey the Lord with all your heart to believe that "in God", everything is possible.
- Walk by faith, not by sight.
- Be totally free from the spirit of religion and embrace a true relationship [with the Lord Jesus Christ].
As one life is touching millions of people around the world, Pastor Lucy is a prolific Spanish speaking gospel music artist, Kingdom apostolic leader, pastor, wife, mother and business woman. While we are each called to live the life God has predestined for us, which will vary greatly, one thing is for sure: When we yield to God and are faithful over the few things that we have been given to do, He will make us ruler over many. Do you have room for "more"?
