From a living room in Maywood to a sanctuary still standing — this is the story God has written.
In 1998, in a quiet home in Maywood, Illinois, Bishop Clifton Taylor answered a call he could not ignore. God was speaking — clearly, persistently, undeniably — and Bishop Taylor responded the only way he knew how: with full and willing obedience.
From his living room, a church was born. There were no pews, no pulpit, no platform. Just an open Bible, bowed knees, and the unmistakable presence of God. What others might have called modest, heaven called holy.
It was from this home that the first members were welcomed. Among them — too young to understand fully, but old enough to feel it — was the bishop's grandson. The very first member of Praise & Worship Tabernacle.
Bishop Taylor's ministry was shaped by three things — and he refused to compromise on any of them. They became the marrow of this church, the foundation everything else was built upon:
Lives were transformed inside that house. Bondage was broken. Strongholds came down. Bishop Taylor prayed with the kind of intensity that bends the heavens — and heaven answered. People walked in carrying burdens too heavy to name; they walked out free.
As the years went by, young J.E. grew up at his grandfather's side. He woke early for the morning prayers — the kind of prayers that begin before sunrise and don't end until the room feels different. He swept the floors of the sanctuary. He sat under preaching that would slowly shape him into the man he was becoming.
He didn't know it then, but God was preparing him. Every early-morning prayer was a deposit. Every floor swept was a discipline. Every sermon heard was a seed. Bishop Taylor was unknowingly passing the torch long before anyone realized the handoff was being prepared.
The boy who was the church's first member would become the church's next leader.
In 2024, after decades of faithful service, Bishop Clifton Taylor went home to be with the Lord. The grief was real. The loss was immeasurable. A spiritual father, a giant in prayer, a man who had stood in the gap for so many — was gone from earth, but never silenced.
But the work was not over. The fire he carried did not go out. It found a familiar hand.
Pastor J.E. Valladay — the grandson who had been there from the very first day — stepped into the role he had been quietly trained for his entire life.
Today, Pastor J.E. Valladay leads Praise & Worship Tabernacle with the same commitments his grandfather carried: holiness without compromise, prayer that won't let go, and deliverance for every soul that walks through these doors.
He still wakes early to pray. He still sweeps the floors of the sanctuary. He still preaches the unchanging Word of God — because the things Bishop Taylor lived by are the things this church will always be built on.
The home is now a sanctuary. The sanctuary is still a home. The fire still burns. And the legacy — by God's grace — lives on.
"One generation shall praise Your works to another, and shall declare Your mighty acts."— Psalm 145:4
Join us at 3 PM and witness the same Spirit that filled Bishop Taylor's home still moving in this house today.