Dr. Samuel Carl W. Vassel now serves as the District Superintendent of the Metro New York District of the Church of the Nazarene. He was the Senior Pastor of Bronx Bethany Church of the Nazarene, Bronx, New York from May 2000 to June 2018 and was elected on May 11, 2018, to his present responsibilities.
Before migrating to the United States from Jamaica in 2000, Dr. Vassel was for ten years, Senior Pastor for the Bethune Avenue Holiness Christian Church. He was also Bishop of the Holiness Christian Church in Jamaica for two of those years. Dr. Vassel has worked extensively over the years in various student ministries mainly in Students Christian Fellowship (SCFSU), incorporating the inter Schools/Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship (IS/IVCF), Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship (UCCF) and the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES).
Dr. Vassel has also served as a Seminary Lecturer at the Jamaica Theological Seminary and the Alliance Theological Seminary in New York. He has been a contributing writer for Preacher’s Magazine: A Preaching resource in the Wesleyan Tradition and Holiness Today. He is a member of various boards within his denomination — its higher educational institutions and in the wider Christian and business communities.
Dr. Vassel holds a Doctorate in Ministry from Columbia Theological Seminary (Doctoral Dissertation: Understanding and Addressing the Absence of Men from the Jamaican Church), a Masters in Theological Studies from Wheaton College (MA Thesis: The socio-political Concern of the Gospel in the Gospel of Luke) and a Bachelor of Science from the University of the West Indies.
Dr. Vassel is a sought-after speaker for keynote addresses, lectures, retreats, conferences, conventions and national and community events for religious civic and political and business interests. He is married to Angela and together they have to adult children — David and Kara-Beth, who are married to Deidre and Greg respectively. He feels blessed with this addition of a son and daughter to his family and doubly blessed to be the grandfather of Karis, Pax, Che and Gabriella.