22 Saint Paul Church Road

or

P.O. Box 554
Beaufort, SC 29901-0554

Call (843) 379-9955

info@circleofhopemin.org

www.circleofhopemin.org

Meeting Needs       

Making Disciples      

Preaching the Gospel    

Pastor John C. Dortch is man whose humble beginnings are deeply rooted in a childhood and young adult life that were punctuated with promises of extraordinary life-time achievements.  He was born on July 19^th, his mother’s birthday, the youngest of four children, the son of a Baptist minister who only had the benefit of an eighth grade education. Despite being a scholar athlete, a Howard University graduate, U.S. Army officer and decorated Vietnam veteran, his life went spiraling out of control.  He had lost his way.

 John’s mother, Julia, shared incredible experience that she had during her pregnancy with him. She recalled that one night as she laid awake, resting quietly in the dark, in the front bedroom of the family’s home, a sphere of light, like a miniature moon, came orbiting through the window, revolving on its axis.  Too frighten to move, she watched in awe as the light touched her stomach, and then, just as it had miraculously entered,  it exited the window.

Being a devout Christian, Julia was convinced that her vision was a Divine omen that John would be graced with a very special mission in life, that he had been chosen to be a servant-leader. Twenty-nine years later, John would have the identical vision, as he laid awake in his bunk, in a solitary jail cell, awaiting transfer to a maximum security penitentiary to serve a life sentence for murder.  John’s revelation was the beginning of a spiritual odyssey that  would, not only transform his life, but would have a profound impact on the lives of many others whom he would encounter along his life’s journey. In fulfillment of his mother’s prophecy, John has become a pastor and powerful witness of the unconditional love of Jesus Christ and the all-sufficiency of His redeeming grace.

After serving fifteen years in prison, he was paroled and returned to Washington, DC, where he went to work for Covenant Baptist Church as its business manager. A year and a half later, at age forty-six, he enrolled in the District of Columbia School of Law, presently the David A. Clarke School of Law.

After graduating law school, he passed bar examinations in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and West Virginia. Later he served as an adjunct professor of Juvenile Justice at the University of the District of Columbia; as Executive Director of the Time Dollar Youth Court Program, a diversion program for first-time juvenile offenders, and later as the Director of the Violence-Free Zone Demonstration  Initiative at the National Center for Neighborhood Enterprises.  During an interview on the Today Show with Katie Couric, he vowed to dedicate the rest of his life to serving and ministering to those in need.

After his mother’s death, he returned to his hometown of Beaufort, SC to restore the family’s residence, to reconnect with the community where he grew up and to complete his autobiography, Memoirs of the Prodigal Son: The Road to Redemption, subtitled “Fifteen Years In Prison and Beyond”.  He has since become and a licensed, ordained minister, a pastor and founder of the Circle of Hope Ministries, a church without walls.

On January 21, 2013, at its Gala and Presidential Inaugural Celebration, the Gullah Cultural Alliance presented Rev. Dortch with the Jean Steward Award for “Outstanding Service to the Community”. The award was in recognition of the work being done by the Circle of Hope Ministries to improve the quality of life of residents of the community: mentoring at-risk youths, distributing groceries weekly to fifty needy families, preparing and delivering over forty hot lunches to the homeless and sick and shut-ins on Fridays, visiting residents in hospitals and nursing homes and ministering to those in prison.  On February 26, 2013 during the Black History Month Celebration at the Federal Correctional Institution in Estill, SC, Rev. Dortch appeared as the guest speaker and was presented with the prestigious Nelson Mandela Lifetime Achievement Award.

Upon reflection, Rev. Dortch would later muse, that from a spiritual perspective, his time in prison has been, perhaps the most illuminating period of his life.  Other than serving on the ministerial team with Pastor Donald Goodwine at St. Paul Baptist Church in Beaufort, his other competing passions are assisting the elderly, serving those who are destitute, and advocating for at-risk youths, ex-offenders, the homeless and  disabled veterans suffering with post-traumatic stress disorder.

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