DR. MARIA KHALEEL
Lead Pastor
Rev. Maria Khaleel is senior pastor of New Life Assembly of God, which she started in 1992. It is a multi-cultural congregation, with over 30 nationalities represented.
She was saved, baptized with the Holy Spirit and called to the ministry at the early age of eleven. She is a 1986 Summa Cum Laude graduate of Southeastern College of the Assemblies of God, and received the “Young Alumnus of the Year Award” in 1994, given to those who within ten years of graduation have made an outstanding impact in ministry. She completed her Doctor of Ministry Degree through the Assembly of God Theological Seminary in 2014, and was also recognized by the seminary with the “Outstanding Achievement Student of the Year Award.”
She was ordained in 1988, and became the first woman to be elected as Presbyter (a position similar to that of "bishop") in the Peninsular Florida District of the Assemblies of God in 1998; a position that she served in until 2006. She has also served on the National Evangelism Committee, and on the National Women in Ministry Task Force.
Pastor Maria is also a nationally recognized evangelist. She is a motivational and dynamic speaker who makes the word of God relevant to the lives of the hearer. She preaches the Word of God in power and in demonstration of the Spirit. The burden of her heart is for revival, a message which has taken her throughout the United States preaching revivals, campmeetings, district retreats, and seminars. Her life’s ambition is echoed in the words of Paul “. . . this one thing I do . . . I press toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil 3:13-14).
