Eli Williams

Eli Williams is the Founder, President, and CEO of Urban Light Ministries[i], whose programs have included a suite of fatherhood programs that have impacted hundreds of low-income dads in six counties in west central Ohio since the late 1990s. He founded and provides visionary leadership for the annual FatherFest event, his community’s annual celebration of fatherhood. The event, now a collaboration with the community’s annual Juneteenth festival, includes ULM’s Good Dad Awards, which honor men who are doing their best as fathers and father figures. Over the decades, Williams provided the vision for an award-winning community mobilization initiative called Fatherhood Clark County, which promoted healthy fathering county-wide, the Fatherhood Institute, and Urban Light’s innovative Fathering Strong[ii] initiative.

Urban Light Ministries (formerly known as Lifeline Ministries) operated The Sonshine Clubs, which were weekly, after-school sessions that provided spiritual enrichment for more than 20,000 public elementary school students in Springfield, Ohio and the surrounding area from 1993 to 2020.

Williams has been married to Judith White-Williams since 1983. Together, they raised her biological son, Elijah, who was three years old when they were wed. Eli adopted Elijah when he was thirteen. Eli has an adult biological son, Joseph, and Judy has another son, Eric.

Eli’s first career was as a professional singer and entertainer. As a teen, he co-founded and performed with The Four Corners, a Dayton, Ohio-based Motown-style quartet. He wrote three songs for the group, which he gave to them when he resigned in 1970 to pursue his calling to Christian service. One of the songs, “What Goes Around Comes Around,” was later recorded by Michael Jackson and is on Jackson’s 1972 "Ben" soundtrack album, with songwriting credit attributed to the other former group members. He was the first to record Johnny Stephens (aka John Legend) when in 1993 he took the then 13-year-old phenom into the Dayton recording studio of his broadcasting college alma mater to co-lead a Gospel song Eli had written.

A now-retired professional broadcaster, Eli’s personal ministry began in earnest in April of 1985 when he recommitted his life to Jesus Christ, quit his secular morning radio show on WCOM FM in Urbana, Ohio, and started a Sunday morning Christian music program. Over time, the show morphed into a weekly syndicated gospel music countdown called Hot Gospel 20 that was heard on traditional and Internet radio stations worldwide, until he retired the show in 2021.

Rev. Williams and his wife Judy partnered in a variety of independent outreach and church-based ministries over the years. To better meet the needs of people they ministered to through Urban Light, they planted Fountain of Life Church, and he served as Senior Pastor until the congregation merged with another church five years later. Currently, he is an Associate Pastor at New Hope Church in Springfield, Ohio, and often fills pulpits of various churches as called upon.