The Waterford church of Christ is a vibrant congregation of about 325 located in the northern outskirts of Detroit, Michigan. In late 2014 they began a search to replace their retiring pulpit minister of over 25 years. Six frustrating months of searching on their own failed to produce a viable candidate that was willing to move to the area. By August of 2015, Bill Gaw, search committee chairman, knew that they were not making progress and convinced the elders to consider a new service from Minister Match, called the “Guided Search Process”.
Once hired, Minister Match implemented an aggressive marketing and networking campaign. We sent the job advertisement out in an e-mail blast to over 3,000 church leaders across the country. We developed a targeted prospect list of about 300 potential ministers who we proceed to call. We reached out to every sizeable church of Christ congregation in the greater Michigan area in hopes of gaining a referral. In total about 900 phone calls were attempted, 279 ministers were contacted and a total 20 potential candidates were produced.
In one of those calls to the Michigan congregations, we connected with Jarrod Williams, Pulpit Minister of the Metro church of Christ in Detroit. Jarrod quickly said, “I’m not interested but you should give my brother, Kerry, a call.” The rest, as they say, is history and Kerry was hired effective January 21, 2016.
About Kerry Williams
Kerry has been preaching for over 24 years, and his ministry has taken he, his wife Lenora, and his three children all over the United States.
He holds a Graduate Certificate from Sunset School of Preaching, a B.A. in Pastoral Ministry from Bethany Divinity College & Seminary, a B.S. in Bible & Ministry from Southern Christian University, and an M.S. in Bible & Ministry from Lubbock Christian University. He has also conducted post-graduate studies in Philosophy & Humanities at California State University and is currently working on a Ph.D. in Restoration History through Arkansas State University.
Kerry has been a featured speaker at numerous lectureships and other brotherhood events, and he has written for various brotherhood publications in addition to authoring several books of his own. He has been preaching for Waterford Church of Christ since April 1, 2016.
