Rev. Jerry D. Black
National Icon among Preachers and Pastors known as “The Preacher’s Preacher” | Class of 2023
The Reverend Jerry D. Black, Sr., is a world-renowned humble servant of God. He is the Senior Pastor at Beulah Missionary Church in Decatur, Georgia. He hails from the small town of Blytheville, Arkansas, where he was born in December 1953 and reared by his great-grandmother, the late Mrs. Pearl “Mama Pearl” Grant, and where he developed a love and compassion for others which has been the foundation for his life in the ministry of God.
Reverend Black, best known for his gift of preaching, began his ministerial journey in music when he began playing the piano at age eight and by his teenage years served as Minister of Music at his church, the West End Baptist Church in Blytheville. Having accepted Jesus Christ as his personal savior at age 12, young Jerry soon realized that the true calling upon his life was to preach the Gospel, a call he accepted at age 21. Reverend Black was called to serve as pastor of the Greater Paradise Baptist Church in Little Rock, Arkansas, where he served for 15 years. He grew the church’s membership from just 17 members to 3,000 by the time he left; and countless others in the Little Rock area were blessed through his popular television and radio ministries.
In November 1991, Reverend Black accepted God’s new divine assignment as the pastor of the Beulah Baptist Church where he has preached and taught the Gospel ever since. With the Word of God as his guide, he has grown his flock to megachurch proportions; and the pandemic has opened Beulah’s virtual membership up to an even broader national audience. In 1996, Pastor Black shared God’s vision with the church to build a new Beulah campus in two phases on a 40-acre former golf course the church had bought that is now their home. Phase I was the Worship Center completed in 1999 and Phase II was the Family Life Center which opened in 2006. Under Pastor Black’s guidance, the church has become the H.E.L.P. Station with the mission of “Helping You Get Where God Wants You to Be.”
Pastor Black has been the recipient of many honors and awards which include being named one of Georgia’s best preachers by the Georgia Informer; receiving the 2011 Trombone Award and the NAACP Faith-Based Award; being honored with a United States Postal stamp named for him for 20 years of service to Beulah and 35 years of service in the ministry; and induction into the 2015 Class of the Board of Preachers of the Martin Luther King, Jr., College of Ministers and Laity at Morehouse College. A graduate of Arkansas Baptist College and Quachita University, he was awarded the Doctor of Humane Letters by Arkansas Baptist College at its 2022 Commencement.
Pastor Black was married to the late Glenda J. Harris Black for 32 years, until her heavenly transition in 2008. Their union had been blessed with four children—Tangie, Jerry Jr., Erica, and Terica. After much prayer, he was blessed to begin a new chapter in his life when he met the former Ms. Kate F. Wiley. They were united in marriage in 2014 and enjoy four children and six grandchildren.