Church life keeps pastor close to home
“I’ve had a good life, a very good life. Born poor. Born Black. Born in 1942. Born the 24th day of April. Born on a Wednesday. All this means a lot to me. As a matter of fact, born right here about 100 feet from where I’m sitting now. There’s a little building there called The House. That’s where I was born. And as if by magic, I’m pastoring a house that belongs to God where I’ve spent 54 years. It’s amazing to me how close I’ve stayed in the same place. And somehow God, I feel, has used me.
“I’m at the same church I went to as a Sunday school boy. Ideas have changed. People have changed. Most of the people who helped to raise me at the church are in the cemetery now. But I’m still here thinking about some of the things they said to me many years ago: ‘If you keep your hand in God’s hands, son, he’ll lead you. If it hurts you, don’t say it because it’s going to hurt somebody else. If you see somebody else hurting, try to do something to ease the pain, not to elevate it.’ That’s what my life has been all about since I was a child.”
— Sherman Gray Jr.
Sherman is the long-time pastor at Antioch Missionary Baptist Church of McNair.
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