The Reconciliation Eagles began as a “think tank” group that has the common goal of finding racial reconciliation and healing between Black and White. They meet infrequently by invitation to discuss racial issues, both as root causes and current news, seeking wisdom to view them in a scriptural perspective.
The goal of this website is to provide a “platform” for the various messages carried by the “Eagles”—our nickname for the participants of those meetings. They fly with a high perspective—an eternal, Kingdom-minded approach to life’s difficulties. Perhaps their messages will help heal the racial divide!
You’ll meet them here as “Contributors,” either in video clips or articles.
Larry Colbert
Author of The Cup of Racial Reconciliation, Larry Colbert is an award-winning writer and founder and president of The Colbert House LLC, which, since the early 1990, has produced Christian books and products and offered consulting and other services to help others publish books.
Since around 2000, Colbert has ministered the message of God’s solution to racial strife in churches and other venues and organizes and conducts Racial Reconciliation Summits in the Oklahoma City area.
“The Lord has impressed me with several points,” Colbert says.
1. “Don’t wait for repentance for racism. Lead the way with your forgiveness, which is the love of Jesus Christ.
2. “Provide an atmosphere in which those who want to repent, can.
3. “The Lord will restore American Africans by releasing treasures hidden—talents, skills, abilities—in them by Him.
4. “Heightened racial conflict in this country will continue, rather flare up every fifteen to twenty years as it has since the early 70s.”
The Cup of Racial Reconciliation is used in a 27-session course, AAR (American African Restoration) 1001: Foundations in American African Restoration. The other two books are The Cup of Racial Reconciliation Study Journal, developed to help individuals uncover personal issues of brokenness and restore them to fullness. The third resource is Foundations in American African Restoration Instructor’s Manual, a textbook for those who want to instruct AAR 1001.
The Colbert House LLC also hosts the Community of Forgiveness GLOBAL on Facebook and WordPress and operates an online bookstore at www.colberthouse.net.
An ordained minister, Colbert also authored the World War II novel Songs of Zion and the Christian living book 33 Truths You Should Know About Jesus and the Cross. He has written or edited children’s scripts, study manuals, historical, technical, educational and promotional material and was the curriculum developer of approximately 600 college and high school credit and noncredit distance education courses.
Periodically, he also conducts a “Publish YOUR Book” short course.
Over his career, Colbert had been a freelance writer, a managing newspaper editor, a writing instructor and a department director at a major university.
Colbert earned bachelors’ degrees in journalism and psychology and a master’s in professional writing.
G. Vincent Lewis
Vincent Lewis, retired but most recently served as the Staff Pastor of Social Justice, The House of Hope Atlanta (Greater Travelers Rest Baptist Church, 4650 Flat Shoals Parkway Decatur, Georgia 30034 Dr. E. Dewey Smith, Jr. Senior Pastor. Pastor Lewis received his B.S. degree from Edward Waters College in Jacksonville, Florida and the “Outstanding Scholastic Achievement Award, Carnegie Program, University of Florida, in 1974. He later earned His Master of Divinity degree at Virginia Union School of Theology (I.E. Samuel Dewitt Proctor), Richmond Virginia in 1977 graduating at the top of his class. Furthermore, Pastor Lewis has done Post-Graduate studies at the following institutions: Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida; American Baptist University, Nashville, Tennessee as well as, South Florida Center for Theological Studies, Miami, Florida.
In addition to his pastoral duties, Pastor Lewis has numerous years of leadership experience spanning government, non-profits, academia, and community outreach. He possesses the ministry proven ability to develop productive partnerships and facilitate cooperation between diverse interest groups. He has experience in developing, marketing, implementing, monitoring, and evaluating human services programs. He is a persuasive communicator with expertise in empathetic listening, counseling, intervention, mediation, conflict resolution, negotiation, teaching, lobbying, and public speaking. His working knowledge of federal and state employment discrimination laws is enriched by his proficiency in job reentry and employability skills, including opportunities for persons with disabilities and substance abuse issues. Pastor Lewis has been very instrumental in helping people to regain their lives when they have found themselves faced with such diverse and complex issues. His effectiveness in motivating children, adults, and families to build skills that achieve personal and professional goals is a driving force of compassion and comfort to him.
Throughout his many years of public and private service, he has received numerous honors and awards among them are the following:
The Living Legend Award 2015, By The House of Hope Atlanta, GA, Dr. E. Dewey Smith, Jr, Senior Pastor
- United States Congressional Record Tribute to Pastor G. Vincent Lewis 30th Ordination Anniversary July 2006
- Proclamation Miami Dade/ Mayor & Board of County Commissioners, “Rev. G. Vincent Lewis Day” July 2006
- Proclamation City of Opa-Locka, Florida “Pastor G. Vincent Day” July 2006
- SLI/ Harvard University Divinity School Certification Inner-City Community Economic Development June 2001
- McKnight Fellows/Fifth Annual Graduate School Conference Outstanding Presentation October 2001
- Public Service Award, National Forum for Black Public Administrators
- 100 Black Men Achievement Award for Advocacy
- FAMU Award of Merit
- NAACP George W. Conoly Community Service Award
- Vincent Lewis Day, Proclaimed by the Mayor of Tallahassee, May 20
- Distinguished Alumni, National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education
- Outstanding Young Men of America
- Theological Fellowship, Theological Fellowship Foundation, Princeton, New Jersey
- Outstanding Scholastic Achievement Award, Carnegie Program, University of Florida
Johnyne Rees
Johnyne Rees has her Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees in English and taught English at several junior colleges and universities for almost 20 years, including Oklahoma State University, the University of S. Florida, Tulsa Jr. College, and Oral Roberts University. She has also received extensive training in inner healing prayer ministry and for that purpose established His Wellspring ministry in Waller County, TX, where she and her husband Tom Rees reside.
They have also formed two non-profits–the Character Council of Hempstead and Reconciliation Eagles–and also founded the Reconciliation Coalition of Hempstead. Together, they are working on a book about “God’s hand of healing from the legacy of the African slave trade” and a dvd on racial reconciliation.
They recently founded the Reconciliation Eagles, a gathering of whites and blacks that meet around the Person of Jesus Christ to fellowship, seek wisdom, and support each other’s ministries. Their extensive website, www.reconciliationeagles.com, and the accompanying study guide, are being used widely to help raise awareness of the need for racial reconciliation and to help individuals and groups learn to walk in oneness, as mandated in John 17: 21.
Carlton Smith
Carlton Smith is the founder of, and for eleven years gave leadership to, Antioch Fellowship Assembly, a network of New Testament House Churches in the Greater Cleveland area. He founded the Northeast Ohio Intercession Network, a network of more than seven hundred local and regional intercessors praying for church and kingdom related issues in Northeast Ohio, and served as the Prayer Coordinator for Cleveland Hope, a Southern Baptist initiative to reach the Greater Cleveland area, where he mobilized more than fifty thousand intercessors from around the nation to pray for Cleveland. Carlton is the Founder and President of Architekton Global, a unique consultancy providing services to both for profit and non-profit organizations covering a wide range of issues and interests having to do with governments, businesses, education institutions, media, family and community organizations, and Christian ministries. He has served in leadership capacities for more than thirty five years with organizations focusing on urban issues, reconciliation, public policy, economic and community development, city-wide Christian collaboration, prayer, church planting and pastoral ministry including, Prison Fellowship Ministries, National Family Institute, a public policy institute focusing on African Americans and Center for Urban Renewal and Education (CURE) all of Washington, D.C., and Houses of Worship, a collaboration providing every church (300,000) in the United States with a presence on the worldwide-web free of charge in Pittsburgh, PA.
He has traveled to more than fifty cities on three continents where he has, as a consultant, participated across a wide spectrum of ministries and transformational movements, providing input to intercessory groups and leaders from various arenas and spheres of influence across racial, cultural, and socio-economic lines, including those from Argentina, Guatemala, Uganda, and South Sudan.
Carlton and his wife LaWanda currently reside in the Cleveland area. They are the parents of three adult sons and their wives, and the proud grandparents of five, soon to be six grandchildren.
Paul R. Williams
Paul R. Williams received his M.D. from Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri. He did his internship and pediatric residency at William Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak, Michigan. He did his fellowship in neonatal-perinatal medicine at Harbor General Hospital, UCLA, Torrance, California. Dr. Williams is board certified in pediatrics and neonatology. After his fellowship, he returned to William Beaumont Hospital as an associate neonatologist and later became the Director of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and Director of Neonatal Research. For fifteen years, Dr. Williams was on the faculty of the University of South Florida as an Associate Professor of Pediatrics. He has published many scientific articles during his academic career.
Dr. Williams has been involved in full-time medical missions since 1984. He was the founding director of HealthCare Ministries of the Assemblies of God World Missions from 1984 to 1994. He was the first medical director of Operation Blessing in Virginia Beach, Virginia from 1994 to 1997. In 1997 he founded Yeshua Medical Ministries, now named International HealthCare Network , which facilitates and networks organizations in humanitarian outreaches and ministry. Since 2005 he has been a visiting faculty member of In His Image Family Medicine Residency in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Dr. Williams serves on the board and/or is a consultant to several international mission agencies. He has been in over 105 nations and has been involved with more than 200 medical mission outreaches which have included relief efforts in Bangladesh, Indonesia, the continent of Africa, Central America and other nations. Hundreds of thousands have been touched by the love of Jesus Christ throughout the course of his medical mission career. He and his wife, Sofia, live in North Carolina and have four grown children and eight grandchildren.
Dr. Williams is the author of the book, When All Plans Fail: Be Ready for Disasters.