Bro. Ernie Gray (or Dr. Gray as his title is now), was my 2nd Pastor. In my last post I shared my salvation experience, but that was just the start of a journey that has brought me 30 years into the present. When Uncle Oscar’s eyesight was beginning to fail some, and the trip to Burlington was too much, he and Aunt Alma started a search for a new church, closer to home. They lived in Latonia and we lived in Covington, so a church somewhere in that vicinity only made since. We had visited a couple of churches. But when we attended that Eastside Church of the Nazarene for the first time, I knew that I wanted to go there. They had a great love for people. I felt at home the very 1st service that we attended. I believe that even before we started attending there that we had went on a riverboat cruise and to a church picnic with them. Even beyond the young people and activities that they had, there was someone who got my attention right away…….. and that was Bro. Gray.
Bro. Gray instantly took an interest in me. He was always encouraging and was always goofing around and joking. I had only had one Pastor before Him, but I saw in him a man that not Only had a love for God, but also had a heart for people. He never met a stranger. He was kind to everyone that he came in contact with. I can remember just enjoying hearing him preach, and being around him. Some posts that he has been putting on Facebook recently have brought back some great memories from my start in the Ministry.
He recently posted a picture of an article that describes a time of revival that we were having at the church at the time……..
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The church was growing, people were being saved, and sanctified. I saw many backsliders come back to a relationship with Christ. Many were being baptized also…………… myself included!
It wasn’t long after that Uncle Oscar, Aunt Alma, Mom and I took membership at the church. I got involved immediately with some of the programs that were going on at church. I helped Sis Helen Lanham with the children’s church music program, was mowing the lawn for Bro. and Sis. McMillen. I had a church home and a Pastor that I really looked up to. I can remember going by the church on the way to or from school, and seeing the big window of the Pastor’s study open wide and seeing Bro. Gray sitting in there studying and preparing for the next service. It seemed that every day he was doing something. Except for Monday’s……………….. those were his golf days. LOL. He even officiated some of my family’s weddings…………. and funerals.
A couple of years after we had begun attending Eastside, I began to feel the call of God on my heart to preach the gospel. Now I really loved to sign gospel music and had been doing so in the church choir and solos at church. I was in the choir in high school also, so that was a natural path for me to be on. But as I was walking to school one morning, I heard the voice of God speak to my heart and tell me that He was calling me to preach. I wasn’t sure how to relay this to Bro. Gray, because I thought that maybe I was crazy or something. I had not experienced this before in my life. At the time I had begun to date Bro. Gray’s daughter. I spent a lot of time at the Parsonage with his family. I would go visiting with him and we became very close. I approached Bro. Gray about what the Lord had spoken to me. Without missing a beat, he encouraged me to go for my local Minister’s License and to prepare to preach my first sermon. He gave me sermon outlines and books to study. I preached my first sermon on Sept. 17th 1989. I can remember it like it was yesterday. Bro. Dave Hildebrandt brought the Senior Adult members back from a district meeting early so that the whole church could be there for me. Again this church had a love like Christ. Below is the 1st Minister’s Report, that I submitted to renew my License. At 16 years old, I was embarking on a lifelong commission that continues until today.
Many thought that Bro. Gray had called me preach, since I was dating his daughter. That could not be further from the truth. He believed in me when many even in my own family didn’t. I am forever grateful for his guidance and love in those early months and years. I was heartbroken when in April or May of 1990 Bro. Gray entrusted something to me. He explained that he felt that his time at Eastside was coming to a close and that they would be leaving in June. I wasn’t sure how to feel. It was like losing a loved one to death. Yes I was sad that my girlfriend at the time was moving away, but the man that stood behind me in my ministry was leaving. It took a little bit to get adjusted to. But in time I realize that it was probably for the best. I was privileged to go to Hueytown, Alabama back in 2000 to preach a youth revival for Bro. Gray. I had lost touch with him since then up until a couple of years ago when we reconnected on Facebook. We have picked up where we left off. He is still the funny man that I remember. Some of his posts on Facebook are hilarious. I read of the things that he is doing at his current Pastorate, and the posts of the people who attend that church, and I know that they are being blessed as much as I was back so long ago. I was overwhelmed when I saw the pic of the minister’s report that he posted recently. I couldn’t believe that he had kept that. After all of these years. I asked him why and his reply was that it meant something to him. And still does even today. He hasn’t been my Pastor since 1990. That is the man that showed me the love of Christ back then…………….and still today. I am proud to say that Rev. Ernie Gray is my 1st Father in the Faith. Perfect he is not. Neither am I. I could list things that I have done that would make you hate me probably. Many have built upon the foundation that Bro. Gray instilled in me way back in 1987-90. I have patterned many things in my Ministry after not just what he told me…………… but what he SHOWED me by example. I strive to be a Pastor with the love that it takes to entice people to want to get to know Christ, because they can see Him in me. That is what Bro. Gray taught me. To love people…………… and to be funny while doing it! So Bro. Gray…………….. Thank You. Thank you for loving me, encouraging me, believing in me, guiding me and feeding me all of those Sunday afternoons. Thank you for opening your home and your heart to show me all the sides of the Pastorate. The good and the bad. When things are great, and there is Revival in the church, and when things are lean and the people are not as happy. I got a first hand look at what it takes to be a Pastor. And not just a Pastor, but a Good Pastor. I am eternally grateful. I love you Sir. I am proud to call you my Father in the Faith. God Bless
For This I’m Thankful
For This I'm Thankful 