By Connie Davis Bushey
News Editor, Baptist and Reflector
William Gray
DOVER — It might sound like something he planned, but he wasn’t thinking about retirement — at age 61, said William Gray, director of missions, Judson, Stewart, and Truett Baptist associations. Yet “the Lord clearly called me” to be pastor of Bear Spring Baptist Church here.
He can’t do both, according to the bylaws of the associations he serves as DOM, so he announced his retirement as DOM after 30 years.
The decision may sound like something he planned because Bear Spring Baptist is the first church he pastored. So his ministry has come full circle. He will retire when a DOM is called or by July 2017.
Gray explained that he was praying about the church and its need for a pastor, as he does for all of the churches in the three associations when they are without a pastor.
He started thinking about Bear Spring and wanting to pastor there but caught himself. He might “get away with it” he said, because of his long tenure and good relationships in the area, but he would lose his integrity, and “if you lose your integrity, you’ve lost everything.”
He doesn’t believe in asking the Lord often for signs, but he did ask the Lord to show him clearly what to do. Just 30 minutes later the deacons of Bear Spring Baptist arrived at his office. One of them looked at Gray and explained that though it might seem crazy, they felt the Lord directing them to ask him to serve the church as pastor.
It was the confirmation he was seeking.
“Now I get to put into practice all I have been telling these pastors and training them to do,” noted Gray with a smile. That usually involves efforts to revitalize their churches and connect to their communities, he added.
“In this day and age, being a CEO of a church doesn’t work here. It may work in Nashville but not in rural middle Tennessee,” he explained.
Despite the challenges, “I love pastoring,” he noted. Before serving as a DOM he pastored small churches as a bivocational pastor “and grew them” so they could better support him and his family, he added. Gray served as pastor of four small churches, two in Kentucky, where he is from. Besides Bear Spring Baptist, where he began his ministry at age 20, he also served in Tennessee at Midway Baptist Church in Dover.
On serving as a DOM for the past 30 years, Gray, who was the youngest DOM to serve at the time at age 29, noted that “there’s a lot more to it than people think.” He serves 54 churches in nine counties with one church located as far away as 90 miles from his office.
The job also requires a lot of evening meetings because 87 percent of those churches have bivocational pastors who have other jobs. That situation is not going to change soon because of the escalating cost of medical insurance, he added.
All of this transition will be difficult, said Gray, as he must become “less and less” so the next DOM can be accepted as leader.
What is making the transition easier are several other good gifts from God, said Gray.
Of course, he will enjoy spending more time with his family, including his wife Linda and son who has special needs. He also will enjoy doing something different, he reported.
And Bear Spring Baptist already is blessing him, said Gray.
He is surprised that the young adults at the church are relating to him. He has been able to revamp the Sunday School, which has drawn more people — up from 30 to 50. Bear Spring also has increased in worship from 50 to about 80 each Sunday morning.
He has had to deal with some difficulties. He has advised some people not to join the church by leaving their current church because of their relationship.
Gray explained that he is way ahead of most others who would pastor the church because he knows the church.
“I have no doubt that any church can grow, but it takes work,” said Gray. Church revitalization also requires discernment, he added. “What works at one church won’t work for another. …
“The church has already been so good to me,” Gray said.
