Senior Pastor
New Samaritan Baptist Church (NSBC)
MICHAEL VERNON KELSEY, SR. is a native Washingtonian. He accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior on March 31, 1977 and was licensed to preach the Gospel shortly thereafter.
Bishop Kelsey received his Bachelor of Arts Degree from the University of Maryland in College Park and went on to receive his formal theological training at Virginia Union University School of Theology in Richmond, Virginia. There he earned the Master of Divinity Degree, Magna Cum Laude. Bishop Kelsey has also received and earned a Doctor of Ministry Degree from The United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio. He later continued his postgraduate studies at Oxford University in Oxfordshire, England. For the past thirty years he has served as the Senior Pastor of the New Samaritan Baptist Church (NSBC), one of the leading churches in the Metropolitan Washington, DC area. Known for his emphasis on order, Bishop Kelsey was appointed as the former State Bishop of the Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship of Washington, DC (2000-2011) under the leadership of Bishop Paul S. Morton, Sr., Founder, who is his spiritual father. He currently serves on the Cabinet of Full Gospel as the Executive Treasurer, under presiding Bishop Joseph W. Walker, III. Bishop Kelsey is the founder and CEO of Michael V. Kelsey Ministries which has an international scope where he has ministered the Word of God in many foreign countries, including Ghana and Liberia in West Africa, the Ukraine in Eastern Europe; the Sea of Galilee in Israel; Havana, Cuba; London, England; Ramstein, Germany; and Kingston and Montego Bay, Jamaica.
Bishop Kelsey has been married to his wife Elder Sheila Bowens Kelsey for more than 35 years.