The Reverend and Apostle "Bernie" Dorsey is the Founder and Executive Director of Transforming Spirit Ministries, Inc. He is also a ministry facilitator for a worldwide weekly online Bible study fellowship found at: www.touroftruth.com.  His life and ministry reveal an apostolic and evangelistic destiny.

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After graduating from Duke University (A.B., History 1994), he moved to Washington, DC to receive his legal education at The George Washington University Law School. He earned his Juris Doctor degree in 1997 and then embarked on a legal career. After clerking for a federal appellate court Judge, he entered private practice where he specialized in real estate, business formation and transactions, and civil litigation matters. Then, like many of the apostles and prophets of old, one day while at work he heard God’s call to ministry as the Spirit spoke to him from Romans 10:14-15. While trying to discern the nature of his calling, he received seminary instruction as a Master of Divinity student at Washington Baptist Theological Seminary and additional coursework as a Dean’s Scholar at Wesley Theological Seminary. Ultimately, he abandoned the practice of law after nearly 15 years to serve full-time in ministry. He was licensed by Mount Zion Baptist Church in Washington, DC in 2009 and ordained and set apart for the work of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in 2012.

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After much prayer and a prophetic word from a Messianic Jewish prophetess, Rev. Dorsey planted Transforming Spirit Church, a non-denominational church in Silver Spring, Maryland where he assumed Apostolic office and began his first pastorate in 2014. Transforming Spirit developed a culture of worship, prophetic utterance, and equipping. As Apostle Dorsey says: “In the atmosphere of worship, miracles happen! And we as leaders need to equip and train other disciples to find their own destinies and go beyond church walls to serve God by serving others.”

 

In December 2018, Apostle Bernie began plans to transplant Transforming Spirit to the nation’s capital in the form of a fellowship with the Historic St. Paul AUMP Church in Washington, DC. He was appointed as Pastor of HSP in July, 2020 and served in that capacity until October 2022.

 

Bernie has a heart for the nations. He has conducted more than twenty separate missions to Africa.  On his nearly one dozen missions to Uganda, East Africa, he has labored alongside Ugandan Bishop Joel Kakembo to hold numerous evangelistic outreach events under the series name “Kingdom Harvest and Pentecostal Fire Crusade.” At these open-air gatherings, thousands of people have come to salvation in Jesus Christ and instant miracles of deliverance and healing occur, including the disappearance of tumors, reversal of heart conditions, as well as the lame walking, limbs regaining function, and even the blind receiving sight. Apostle Bernie often remarks: “Jesus really is still alive doing what He did while on earth: saving, delivering, and healing!” Apostle Bernie’s work in Uganda has also resulted in helping Bishop Kakembo plant three churches and an accredited school (Christ’s Ambassadors Foundation School).

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Rev. Dorsey’s apostolic work in East Africa also includes Kenya.  In Kenya, Bernie has apostolic oversight of four Transforming Spirit Churches.  In 2024, Apostle Bernie returned to Kenya to oversee the consecration of his Kenya partner, Patrick Owuor, as Bishop of the Transforming Spirit Church Glorious Vision and three branch assemblies.  In addition, Apostle Bernie annually organizes and leads an international team of leaders to travel to Kisumu, Kenya to conduct “The Rock Conference and Gospel Campaign". At the conference, he helps train, equip, and activate nearly two hundred African ministers. Simultaneously, he serves as the keynote preacher for evening evangelism gatherings. During the evening services, scores of people come to salvation in Jesus Christ and others are delivered, healed, and baptized in and filled with the Holy Spirit. Bernie is in the nascent stages of launching Transforming Spirit School of Ministry, an international school of ministry to equip and train others across the East African nations of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, South Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Burundi.

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Bernie has also recently expanded the international ministry to southern Africa, to include Malawi and Mozambique.  On his inaugural visit there in 2024, he traveled to several churches to begin the process of expanding TSM's apostolic covering of twenty churches in Malawi and four more in Mozambique.

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Apostle Dorsey's Africa ministry also extends to the west African nation of Liberia.  There, he has served as a keynote conference speaker to train and equip more than 1,000 members of the Baptist Soul Winning Conference of Liberia.  He has also been instrumental in launching a medical clinic in an impoverished region in central Libera.

 

In Asia, Bernie has contributed since 2014 in India, where he has partnered with and supported the work of Pastor Timothy Bontha. They have worked to feed the poor, as well as support outreach to those in tribal regions of Southeastern India who have never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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Apostle Bernie is an unabashed and avid supporter of Israel and the Jewish people. He has authored an opinion piece on the rise of anti-semitism and the need for people of faith to stand against this disturbing trend. https://afro.com/afro-exclusive-op-ed-d-c-area-pastors-on-rise-of-antisemitism%EF%BF%BC/

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Bernie is deeply committed to his wife of twenty-four years, the former Ericka Guthrie, a civil rights attorney in Washington, DC. They are the parents of two sons: Nelson III, a student at Bowdoin College; and Houston, a student at St. Albans School in Washington, DC.