About Gates of Praise
Our Founder
Rev. Dr. Edna Ruth Denson-Adams was born July 18, 1945 to Janie and Bishop Clarence
Denson; two people of great faith and Church of God (COG) pioneers. Her grandmother, Allene
Dean was also a church planter in the COG. She was married to Bishop Ernest Adams, Jr. for 26
years and has three children, Sean, Vallerae “Nikki” and David, who all work in ministry. Also,
Dr. Adam has many multi-talented grand and great-grandchildren.
Dr. Adams was educated in the public schools of Wilmington and Seaford, DE, and Pittsburg,
PA. She graduated from Allegheny High School and began college as a business major. She
eventually finished college with a B.A., M.Div., and Th.D, from Jamieson Theological Seminary
in Philadelphia, PA.
As a young woman and mother of three, she worked over 25 years in the Corporate America.
Her places of employment included Dupont, Travellers Insurance, CitiBank, and several law
firms.
Dr Adams accepted Christ at the age of 13 and has been active in the church for years; singing
and playing for choirs and evangelizing before starting to pastor in 1973. Some of the areas she
served as pastor, include Cambridge and Salisbury Maryland, Bridgeton and Camden, New
Jersey before founding Gates of Praise in Pennsauken, New Jersey in 1984.
She is the Founder of the Northeast Regional Fellowship, which was started in 1972, at Clarence
Street Church COG, in Seaford, Delaware. Dr. Adams’ vision was to provide a platform to
groom young men and women for spiritual growth and development. The history goes like this,
over 47 years ago, Dr. Adams started the “Know Your Church Series” to help give young
people, in the church, something to do. During the Series, she put a choir together that consisted
of young people, singing to the Glory of God, from six churches in COG. The choir did so well
that she took them to COG General Assembly, in Dallas, Texas to perform. After attending
General Assembly, the pastors from those six churches came together at Norristown COG, in
Norristown, Pennsylvania to decide what to do with the Series to keep it going because it was a
great success. The pastors decided to appoint Dr. Adam as president and changed the name to
Six State Fellowship. Those pastors included Bishop Isaac Brunson, Bishop John McNeil,
Bishop Harvey Robinson, Bishop Asbury Sellers, Bishop Charles Black, and Bishop Eugene
Cobb. Later they begin calling it the Fellowship. The Fellowship began to increase greatly in
numbers across 13 states in the northeast corridor, which prompted another name change,
Northeast Regional Fellowship (NERF). Dr. Adams has served as president from 1972-1977,
2010-2013 and has recently been elected to serve again for two sessions, 2020-2021.
Down through the years, Dr. Adams has written and recorded many songs and as a result, souls
have been won and mentored for the Kingdom. To God be the Glory for the great things He has
done. What a Might God we serve!
“We do nothing without prayer.”