Faces Of New Bedford #154: David Lima

Meet David Lima, 60-year-old Pastor of New Seasons Worship Center and Executive Minister of the Interchurch Council of Greater New Bedford.

As early as David could remember he had a deep love for God and people, so much of a love that he even stood on a chair during one of their family Thanksgiving celebrations announcing that he would one day be a priest. As a teen though, he fell away from his involvement in the church, until meeting his wife and them both dedicating their lives to serving God.

This started with their involvement at New Seasons Worship Center in the late 80s, pastoring on staff and eventually taking over as senior pastor in 2000. During his time working with the church, David got involved with the Interchurch Council of Greater New Bedford, an organization created almost 80 years ago to create dialogue between over 45 different local churches on how they can serve the community. It was during involvement with the council that appointed him as the executive minister.

The council, under David’s leadership, has been able to combat a good amount of the struggles our city faces. They’ve created the Greater New Bedford Suicide Prevention Coalition in order to reduce the amount of victims lost to suicide in our city and provide intervention and prevention strategies to people of all ages, from students at local schools to professionals in the workplace.

David has helped usher in the police ride alongs, which started to help the police bridge gaps in the communities by walking the beat with chaplains and has grown into the Opioid Task Force, which helps follow up with victims of drug overdoses, providing counsel and resources for them to gain new direction in their lives.

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Faces of New Bedford is a project by Colton Simmons. If you are interested in booking a shoot or getting prints from the series email all inquiries to colton@coltonsimmons.com.

Read more of the Faces of New Bedford series here.