Jurisdictional Supervisor of Women

Home and Ministry

Proclaiming Your Might and Power... Mother Gwendolyn E. Lawson Townsend ("LadyG") is the wife of District Superintendent Sam L. Townsend, Sr., DD (Old Landmark District, Washington State Jurisdiction), who is the 2nd Administrative Assistant to the Jurisdictional Prelate. She is the mother of 14, grandmother of over 50, and great-grandmother of many. She and her husband founded the Greater Glory Ministries in Seattle, Washington in 1980 and she continues to love and value serving as the Wife of the Sr. Pastor of this great ministry, always standing on being a "Lady First!" She has traveled throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe and the Caribbean; has been a recurrent guest on TBN; and has been featured in newspapers and magazines including the national Charisma Magazine.

Mother Townsend was licensed as a Missionary in 1992, as an Evangelist in 1994, and was appointed in 2000 as a District Missionary. She served Washington State Jurisdiction District #7 for nearly 15 years and then served her Jurisdiction as a District Missionary Without Charge for 8 years before receiving this elevation to Jurisdictional Supervisor of Women Designee.

Serving locally as the President of Women Of Glory Ministries, she founded the annual INFUSION Summit Advance, annually hosting up to 200 ladies, and most recently founded "PEARL of Holiness: Sister-Time," a bi-annual event designed solely for the women of the Greater Glory Ministries. She has written guides, booklets, and policies and procedures to grow excellence within her local Women's Department and within the Greater Glory Ministries as a whole.

Under the mentorship of the late Mother Gertrude Young (former Supervisor of Women), she held several concurrent Washington State Jurisdiction Department of Women positions and wrote and produced Desk Manuals for each of them. These positions include the first of the four foundational members of the Jurisdictional Department of Women Executive Board, Assistant to the Supervisor, Executive Secretary to the Department of Women, Executive Finance Secretary, the Co-Chair of the District Missionary Unit, and the originator of curriculum and Coordinator of Study for the WSJ School of Licensing/2-Year Licensed Missionary Training Program.

Under the leadership of the previous Jurisdictional Supervisor of Women, Mother Curlie Davis, Mother Townsend served as the Department of Women Administrative Assistant, Executive Secretary, Dean of The School of Missionary Licensing and Credentialing, and Lead Facilitator of the Classes for Candidates of both the Deaconess and Evangelist Missionary Licensing/Credentialing.

Children, Family, and Community

As the founder in 1988 of One Church, One Child of Washington State, Inc./UJIMA Community Services, she enjoyed a 25-year tenure as Chief Executive Officer, leading it to become one of the nation's first and Washington State's first (and so far, only), licensed African American CPA (child placement agency) for foster care and adoption of Black children into Black homes. In 2013 she helped establish the InterCultural Children & Family Services, Inc.

She received the 1990 National Black Child Development Institute-Bunny Wilburn Award, the 1993 and 1994 National One Church One Child Leadership Awards, and the 1996 Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Community Service Award. As the 1997 Washington State Mother of the Year by Senate Resolution 1997-8640, she made Washington State history as the first and to date only African American woman so selected.

Always Taking a Stand

In the early 2000s, Mother Townsend began teaching "Position yourself to receive that which the Lord has already provided!" and a few years later she became the published author of HOLINESS – God's Demand For His People. In 2021 her testimonial Bible Study/Journal book "FORWARD, Kingdom Witness" was penned and published.

Mother Gwendolyn Lawson Townsend is a holiness exhorter who acknowledges her "lane" as she loves to minister one-on-one, in small groups, and in workshop settings. Being from the "old school," she stands on its HOLINESS teachings.

Most recent international assignments include her appointment in February 2017 as the IDOW Assistant Executive Secretary and her appointment in November 2017 as the Executive Secretary of the International Department of Women, formally installed by General Supervisor, Mother Dr. Barbara McCoo Lewis. In July of 2021, she was recommended as the Jurisdictional Supervisor Designate by the newly affirmed Washington State Jurisdiction Prelate, Bishop Designate Alvin C. Moore, Sr. She was capped and installed as Jurisdictional Supervisor on Friday, September 24, 2021.

Mother Townsend has led the Department of Women on Washington State Jurisdiction to unprecedented heights while fighting a victorious battle against three stage 4 cancers and 7 surgeries within her first 5 years of service. She continues to stand firm as a daughter of the King, organizing, ministering, serving, working to leave no woman behind, and representing Holiness.