Biography ~ Clifford Allan Burton, II

Clifford Allan Burton, II was born August 13, 1943, to Minnie Alma Moore (CA) and Clifford Leon Burton (TX), in Los Angeles (CA). As his name suggests, Cliff was

 
FORMAL EDUCATION
 
In June 1961, Cliff graduated from John C. Fremont High School in Los Angeles and did so well in his Senior English Composition class that he was selected to speak in the valedictorian position at his graduation ceremonies. He later attended Los Angeles Community Colleges at City, Southwest and Trade Technical, earning a certificate in Labor Studies in 1982.
 
VOLUNTARY ENLISTMENT
 
In July, 1961, at 17 years of age, with his mother’s consent, Cliff voluntarily enlisted in the United States Air force and was headquartered at Scott Air Force Base (near Bellville, IL and St. Louis, MO) serving as a print and broadcast journalist.
 
DISTINCTIVE SERVICE
 
In 1963, after graduating from the prestigious Army Information School at Fort Slocum, New York, Cliff enjoyed a brief temporary tour of duty in Frankfurt, Germany and Toulouse,, France, where he reported on “Operation Big Lift”, a joint military operation designed to ready the armed forces to provide humanitarian relief in Europe.

HONORABLE DISCHARGE

In June 1964, Cliff received an early honorable discharged from the Air Force in order to tend to his ailing mother (Minnie Moore) (pictured second from the left), grandmother (Alma Hightower) (third from the left) and aunt (Candace Lawson) (seated first on the picture to the right.  Cliff's guardian grandmother, Alma Hightower is seated third from the left.)  (From the left to right in the back row is Uncle Willie, Cliff's step-dad, Walter, Cliff and Cliff's father Clifford Leon Burton.  Seated fourth from theleft is Cliff's paternal grandmother, Hallie Jefferson.  Seated on the floor is Cliff's brother, Michael and sister, Deborah.
 
VARIED EMPLOYMENT HISTORY
 
In July 1964, following his military service, Cliff began a 34-year-period of employment in various clerical, industrial and managerial positions with Kaiser Permanente, Sunset-Cosco, P.P.G. Industries, Paintmakers Local 1232, Pacific Telephone, L.A. County District Attorney and the State of California where he retired in June 1998, with 27 years of service in laboratory and legal positions.
 
PROPHESY FULFILLED?
 
Before Cliff was born, a prophetess told his mother that he was going to become a handsome and widely known minister. Cliff’s middle name, Allan, means handsome and his sir name, Burton, means famous. In his senior high school year book, Cliff listed his vocation as “minister”.
 

Alma Hightower, Cliff’s spiritually devout guardian grandmother, was instrumental in preparing him for his life’s calling and mission. Alma was a music teacher and both Cliff’s parents were musicians.
 
Beginning at the age of 3, Cliff was a soloist at the Christmas and Easter services of Los Angeles’ Victory Baptist Church for several years. One of his featured songs was “King Jesus Will Roll My Burdens Away.”
 
In 1964, after leaving the military, Cliff joined Victory Baptist Church and served on its usher board, choir and Christian education program and was licensed to preach by the late Pastor Arthur Atlas Peters in 1971. Cliff was ordained to the Christian Ministry by Victory Baptist Church and Pastor Charles N. Chapman in 1976.

From 1978 to 1983 Cliff served at Bright Throne Baptist Church in Los Angeles and Central Baptist Church in Inglewood, working in Christian education.
 
In 1984, Cliff joined Greater Bethany Community Church (Los Angeles) and served there in the Singles and Men’s Ministries until 1990, under the leadership of the late Bishop Robert W. McMurray.
 
In 1990, Cliff met Mary Lee Johnson of St. Joseph, Mo. and joined her at Christian Fellowship of Los Angeles under the leadership of the late Pastor Willie Lee Adams where they both served in Christian Education. Cliff and Mary married at Christian Fellowship on June 29, 1991.
 
CHILDREN
 
Cliff is the father of two boys and a girl, Mark Christopher (1969), Angela Cristine (1970) and Clifford Charles (1976). Mark has 3 children, Laqueda, Mark, Jr. and Marquel. Angela has a daughter, Taylor. Clifford Charles has 2 sons, Clifford, IV, Clifford, V and a daughter Chyenne. Mark is a master plumber and works for the Los Angeles Unified School District, Angela is a health care provider and Clifford Charles is a self-employed barber and hair stylist.
 
A CALL TO SERVE
 
In 1964, Hyde Park Congregational Church (HPCC) was designated historical “site No. 18” in the City of Los Angeles. In 1994, Pastor Henry Kringel, HPCC’s 11th pastor asked Cliff to serve as his Associate Pastor. HPCC was organized in 1888 and moved to its present location at 6501 South Crenshaw Boulevard in 1925. Cliff was installed as Associate Pastor by Dr. Giovan King in 1994. King is a Congregationalist pastor associated with The Association of Congregational Pastors and Churches of California and Neighboring States (CALWEST), The National Association of Christian Congregational Churches (NACCC) and the International Congregational Fellowship (ICF). Cliff has served as Scribe and Parliamentarian with CALWEST.
 
SEVEN YEARS AT HYDE PARK
 
On December 31, 1995, in a sermon, Cliff announced that God had given him a 7-year assignment to preach and teach on the theme “Experiencing God, Knowing and Doing the Will of God” at HPCC.
 
When Cliff began this 7-year assignment, HPCC’s , bank account was down to less than $300, its monthly offerings had dwindled to less than $800 and its monthly expenses were nearly $1,000. The congregation had less than a dozen regularly attending members, most being 80 and 90 years of age.
 
On September 30, 2001 Cliff was elected the 12th Pastor of Hyde Park Congregational Church and Kringel was named Senior Pastor. The next day (October 1, 2001) after his election to Pastor, HPCC was faced with a monthly operating budget of nearly $4,000 and had less than $900 in monthly income. For years Cliff had been preaching and preparing the church for this challenge, proclaiming that “God will provide”.
 
Before the end of October 2001, God provided HPCC with all the money it needed to meet that month’s operating expenses with money left over.
 
A MIRACLE
 
In October 2001, working through Pastor S. Scuffie Shigg of Love Lifted Me Missionary Baptist Church, who Cliff had befriended a few months earlier; HPCC experienced a miracle.
 
HPCC is a small congregation that only meets on Sundays from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. HPCC’s Main Sanctuary and Fellowship Hall were available to rent the rest of the time.
 
Pastor Shigg needed to use HPCC’s parking lot from time to time for overflow. “The Lift” as Shigg’s church is called would give HPCC generous love offerings for use of the parking lot.
 
GOD MEETS THE NEED
 
God meets the need. Later Pastor Shigg referred Andrew Acosta, owner of A&C Life Skills Center and Dr. Elaine Robinson, organizing pastor of Agape International Fellowship Church to Cliff. They needed to rent space for their operations. Acosta needed the Fellowship Hall Mondays through Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Robinson needed the Main Sanctuary for her church’s Sunday services. Christian Fellowship of Los Angeles had started paying monthly rent for its use of the HPCC facilities on October 1, 2001 and soon after, Evangelist Joann Daughtery needed to rent the Main Sanctuary for her weekly Saturday prayer meetings with her organization, Disciples On The Move.
 
These five organizations provided HPCC with the funds to meet it’s operating budget and before the end of 2002, HPCC’s bank account had grown to more than $10,000; its regularly attending membership had increased to more than 20; its ministries expanded to include children and confessions of saving faith in Jesus Christ. Baptisms and marriages increased also.
 
FIRST THINGS FIRST
 
When we examine the lives of Jesus Christ and other leaders in the Bible we learn that the first responsibility of a true leader is to identify their successor(s). Presidents identify their vice presidents. Moses identified Joshua. David identified Solomon. Jesus identified the 12 apostles…
 
So, in early 2002 Cliff invited Tom and Giovan King to come to HPCC to help with the growing responsibilities and identified Giovan as his successor. Cliff was elected Executive Pastor and Giovan became the 13th Pastor of HPCC later in 2002.
 
Having successfully completed his 7-year assignment in December 2002, Cliff resigned his position at Hyde Park in January 2003 and was elected “Pastor Emeritus” in March 2003.
In his resignation letter dated January 1, 2003 Cliff wrote:
 
“Dear Sisters and Brothers: It has been a wonderful experience for me to serve with you for the past 10 years.
 
God has blessed us in many ways recently, beyond our expectations, and it is my prayer that Hyde Park Congregational Church continues its 114-year-legacy as long as God wills.
The writer of Ecclesiastes stated: ‘To everything there is a season. A time for every purpose under heaven (3:1)…”
 
Now it is time for me to step aside as Executive Pastor and effective today I am resigning from that assignment in order to pause and let God speak concerning my future in the ministry.
…I am waiting for a new assignment wherever God invites me to join Him.
 
God has given me a vision for continuing to work in ministry for many years to come that includes helping to:
 
A THREEFOLD MISSION
 
(1) Establish an urban congregational university;
(2) Make greater use of the media (newspapers, radio, television, Internet) in ministry; and
(3) Continue to use creative ways to finance God’s work, including developing and maintaining alliances with other ministries to affect the best use of church resources and increase my roll in local and international evangelism and missions…
 
At the end of 2003 Cliff announced the start of a new 10-year-assignment God has given him (beginning in 2004) for global missions. This new assignment requires Cliff to contact every nation on the planet for the purpose of fulfilling the Great Commission Christ gave the Church as recorded in Matthew 28: 19–20:
 
[18] And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
 
[19] Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

[20] Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen”
 
Cliff is requesting the continuing prayers of the Hyde Park church and other ministries for his health and the success of this mission.
 
GLOBAL VISION UNLIMITED
 
With God’s help Cliff is expecting to formally begin this new assignment on Sunday, February 29, 2004, preaching at Love Lifted Me Missionary Baptist Church in the United States of America. Other nations Cliff’s hopes to visit in 2004 are Mexico, Canada, Bahamas, Ethiopia, Sudan, Egypt, Israel, England, Ireland, Scotland, Nigeria Dahomey, Togo and Ghana.
On Saturday, January 10, 2004, Cliff established a web site on the Internet – VisionsGlobal.com. This site will be the base for tracking the progress of Cliff’s 10-year global mission and will tell the story of “Experiencing God – Knowing and Doing the will of God.”
 
TO GOD BE THE GLORY!
 
"For God so loved the world that he have his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
 
TO BE CONTINUED…(revised February 9, 2007.)