{"id":21068,"date":"2013-05-06T15:29:21","date_gmt":"2013-05-06T19:29:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=21068"},"modified":"2013-05-06T15:29:21","modified_gmt":"2013-05-06T19:29:21","slug":"funeral-planned-for-popular-church-founder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=21068","title":{"rendered":"Funeral Planned For Popular Church Founder"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY IRIS B. HOLTON<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sentinel City Editor<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>Funeral services for a Tampa minister, who founded a local church, will be held on Friday at 11 a.m., at Bible-Based Fellowship Church, Carrollwood, 4903 Ehrlich Road. Rev. Dr. Arthur Timothy Jones<\/strong> lost his battle with multiple myeloma, a blood cancer, on Saturday, May 4th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

A native of East Tampa, Dr. Jones, <\/strong>65, was raised by his grandmother. He graduated from Middleton High School. He then became a Molefi Asante\/Jeremiah Wright\/ Cornel West scholar at United Theological Seminary. Dr. Jones<\/strong> also received training at both Harvard University and Oxford University.<\/p>\n

Forty-three years ago, Dr. Jones<\/strong> married his wife, Mrs. Doris Jones.<\/strong> They are the parents of four children, Darren, Arthur Jones, II, Natalie <\/strong>and Shonda. \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 1968, Dr. Jones <\/strong>became employed at the IBM Corporation. He remained there until he retired in 1992, after 24 years of service.<\/p>\n

Prior to his retirement, in 1988, Dr. Jones<\/strong> launched Bible-Based Fellowship Church as a Bible Study in his home. Under his leadership, it transformed into one of the largest predominantly African American congregations in Hillsborough County. It membership surpassed 5,000.<\/p>\n

On separate occasions, when rumors or controversy about the church reached Dr. Jones,<\/strong> he visited the Sentinel<\/em><\/strong> office. His goal was to ensure that the information the newspaper received was correct.<\/p>\n

As a visionary, Dr. Jones<\/strong> created a school and credit union under the church banner<\/strong>. <\/strong>There are also five congregations, and two schools, on the African content that bears the Bible-Based Fellowship Church name.<\/p>\n

The accomplishments of Dr. Jones<\/strong> are known throughout the country as a renowned pastor, preacher, and teacher. In addition to founding Bible-Based Fellowship, Dr. Jones<\/strong> and his friend, Rev. Milton Biggham,<\/strong> founded the world renowned Florida Mass Choir.<\/p>\n

The organization recorded 14 albums, CDs and video\/DVDs. \u201cJesus Is Mine\u201d<\/em><\/strong> and \u201cJesus Is The Light\u201d<\/em><\/strong> are among their hit recordings. Dr. Jones<\/strong> is also credited with bringing the Gospel Music Workshop of America in 1976. It was the first time it visited Tampa. Dr. Jones<\/strong> was honored by the organization in 2011 for his lifetime achievements in the gospel music industry.<\/p>\n

Dr. Jones<\/strong> may be best known for his work as a gospel music performer. The Rev. James Cleveland<\/strong> is listed among his contemporaries.<\/p>\n

In addition to performing with various organizations on a large scale, Dr. Jones also shared with the Hillsborough County community by appearing at the Florida Strawberry Festival.<\/p>\n

In 2002, Dr. Jones<\/strong> launched his solo career as a singer. His first release was \u201cSpeak For Me.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

He served as a songwriter, singer, record and video producer. An ordained minister, the Christian affiliations of Dr. Jones extend to Georgia, Texas, and South Carolina.<\/p>\n

As part of his legacy, Dr. Jones<\/strong> also left his imprint in the form of three published books: \u201cFour Words For Tough Times,\u201d \u201cWhen You Don\u2019t Know What To Do,\u201d<\/em><\/strong> and \u201cJust Let God Be God.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>The viewing for Dr. Jones<\/strong> will take place at the church on Thursday, May 9th<\/sup>, from 5 p.m. until 9 p.m., and from 9 a.m., until 11 a.m., on Friday, May 10th<\/sup>. The funeral services will take place at the church, on Friday, beginning at 11 a.m.<\/p>\n

Wilson\u2019s Funeral Home is in charge of handling arrangements.<\/p>\n

In preparation for his homegoing, a mass choir is being formed. Anyone wishing to participate in the choir can attend rehearsals on Monday, May 6th<\/sup> and Tuesday, May 7th<\/sup>, at the Cathedral at the Bible-Based Fellowship Church.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n


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BY IRIS B. HOLTON Sentinel City Editor Funeral services for a Tampa minister, who founded a local church, will be held on Friday at 11 a.m., at Bible-Based Fellowship Church, Carrollwood, 4903 Ehrlich Road. Rev. Dr. Arthur Timothy Jones lost his battle with multiple myeloma, a blood cancer, on Saturday, May 4th. A native of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":210,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/210"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21068\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}