Reverend Prentiss Wonder Harris is the Senior Pastor of the Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church, located in East Moline, Illinois. Rev. Harris is also the former Moderator of the Wood River Baptist District Association of Illinois. In his younger years, he served as pastor of the New Temple Baptist Church, in Fulton, Mississippi, and also, at Springhill Baptist Church, of Booneville, Mississippi.   He accepted the call to serve as pastor at Mt. Zion in 1986.

He was born in Rienzi, a small Mississippi town, about 15 miles south of Corinth, 5 miles north of Booneville and 36 miles north of Tupelo.  He is the son of Aaron and Mae F. Harris. He grew up in a family of farmers,  schoolteachers, and preachers. Both of his grandfathers were Baptist preachers and well known in north Mississippi. He accepted Jesus Christ at 8 years old and joined the Pleasant Grove Baptist Church in Rienzi.

Harris graduated from Thrasher High School in 1973 and again from Northeast Jr. College in 1976. He had plans of becoming a lawyer. However, the Lord had different plans. In May 1977, he heeded the call of God and entered the ministry at age 22.  He attended Bible School at Ministerial Institute and College, of West Point, Mississippi.

In August of 1977, he entered the field of Information Technology - working for IBM in Field Engineering, Program Support and System Engineering.  In 1983, he attended Program Support training on an operating system called (MVS) Multiple Virtual Systems. It was necessary in this training to memorize the operating systems control blocks.  This training was so intense, that it was common for people to drop out of the class, due to the mental stress of memorizing so many bytes and bits of information - but Harris completed the course successfully. He worked for IBM, in the Field Engineering and System Engineering Divisions from 1977 until 1984 - leaving the company to serve full time in ministry.

IBM prepared Rev. Harris for his life assignment of teaching people to use their God-given computer: “the Mind”.  The ability to memorize bytes and bits of computer information prepared him to apply this learning tool to the Scriptures. 

Rev. Harris has applied whole book memorization to the Gospels.

This whole book approach led to his first book, The Sonship of Jesus, a breakthrough approach in explaining the similarities and differences in the Gospels.  In June 2001, this book was used in the National Baptist Convention, Congress of Christian Education.  

In 2006 Rev. Harris designed a Pathway graphic chart system and songs for both the Old & New Testament books. With the song, one person or an entire group, can sing the books of the Bible both forward and backwards.  This also allows a person to open the Bible and turn right or left and locate a book immediately. The members of his congregation love this incredible and easy learning system!

Rev. Harris, and his wife, Brenda, formed The Way Ministries to reach others for Jesus Christ and A Wonderful Idea LLC, a company that provides an extraordinary product called A Wonderful System^TM “Software for the God Given Computer.”

Rev. Harris is the  Founder and Senior Ambassador of The  Village of a Thousand Elders. He started The Village of a  Thousand Elders in September 2014 as a mission of The Way Ministries.   This  initiative is a partnership of The Village of a Thousand Elders, local pastors, congregations, community elders, families, law enforcement and public schools.

The Mission of The Village of a Thousand Elders is to promote personal responsibility and citizenship to combat and reduce racial bias in ourselves, our community and among those who provide public goods, services and safety.

Rev. Harris has devoted his life to applying his learning system to the Scriptures and other areas of study.  Rev. Harris and his wife Brenda live in East Moline, Illinois. They have three children and five grandchildren.

Contact Rev. Wonder via the options listed below: