Welcome to our series that spotlights NC Conference pastors serving in extension ministries. Read about other extension ministers as these stories are published weekly.

Rev. Dr. Gray Southern

Rev. Dr. Gray Southern serves as our Annual Conference Secretary. He is an ordained elder (retired) in the NC Conference. He has served six local churches and has been a district superintendent twice, as well as Assistant to the Bishop. He grew up in Smithfield, NC, and now lives in Raleigh.

Annual Conference Secretary

As Annual Conference Secretary, Rev. Dr. Southern works with a large group of people to plan and coordinate each session of the Annual Conference. The Book of Discipline also directs that his office maintain certain annual conference and pastoral records. The true fun of the ministry is seeing how all the various groups and parts truly work together in the best sense of the Apostle Paul’s hope that the Body of Christ works together as a body, each part with its own role. The Annual Conference Secretary’s physical office is at the NC Conference Building in Garner, but he also gets to work in Greenville or wherever the Annual Conference sessions are held.

A Leader Forming Ministry

The NC Conference is the people, lay and clergy, of eastern North Caroline called to follow Jesus, shaped by the Wesleyan way of discipleship. Wesleyan discipleship invites us to worship, to serve, and to lead others into the Christian life. It works in a connection of interconnected relationships. Those relationships–and that leadership–are literally embodied at sessions of the Annual Conference and by the ministries of the NC Conference in which Rev. Dr. Southern works.