Pastor Billy Dorsey, Jr.

I've known my whole life that God called me for something...for a purpose, and I knew that the gifts God gave me, including my music, were instilled in me to fulfill a higher calling. I spent my entire youth being called out by pastors and prophets in various churches, who all uniformly told me some variation of the fact that God called me to preach. I knew they were right, but I did NOT want to do it. I had in my mind that most preachers were fake and didn't live the lives they preached about, and sadly, most of them confirmed my thoughts on this during the course of my getting to know them or being around them. I knew my own flaws, and my hidden sins...the things we all have that we pray no one ever finds out about...and I knew that I didn't want to be a preacher as long as I wasn't living a life that lined up with God's Word.

However, even before JayTel, Ty, Phil and I formed thebridge and began working on Gravity, God had already begun working on ME. I first noticed it as a hunger for the Word of God...I'd wake up, spend my days, and go to sleep either reading the Word or meditating on it, and I couldn't get enough. Next, I noticed that my tastes in music changed. I still love the same music I have always loved, but I found myself wanting to hear less and less secular music, and more and more worship (Kari Jobe, etc) and spiritually uplifting music. I didn't fight it, but I made note of it. I have always been able to hear God's voice clearly, even when I was fighting like crazy to get away from my calling, but I noticed that as I began to focus more and more on consecrating myself, I could hear direction from the Holy Spirit that much more clearly.

I began asking God to show me myself, and open my eyes to who I really had become. Certain situations in my life were as negative as my music career was positive, and I knew that all blame didn't fall with the other people involved in those situations, and so I asked God to let me see me so that I knew what to pray that He would change. Boy....did He. He allowed me to see me as those around me saw me clearly for the first time, and it sickened me. I was selfish, inconsiderate and stubborn, and only acknowledged others' feelings and opinions as it related to my life when it served my purposes. I had allowed myself to become bitter and cold, whereas I had always been thoughtful and compassionate, if not overly gregarious, before. And I had allowed my attitude to be governed by how those around me treated me, rather than remaining in control of my own thoughts, my own feelings. So when God showed me my shortcomings and how they caused those around me to suffer, I asked Him to change me. To deliver me. To remake and renew me. He answered the prayer, and I started to see my attitude get better, bit by bit. People would curse, scream, and rage around me, and I began to retain my peace despite them. And past situations that once held me hostage to my own guilt and shame began to lose their hold on my joy.

All of us are imperfect. All of us have sinned. All of us have "issues". The one who tells you otherwise either is lying to you, or lying to themselves. And I saw all of my issues clearly, and because of my upbringing, I understood that I couldn't fix any one of them in my own strength. So I did the only thing I could do; I yielded my will to His. Once I did that, He began to move the things around me to fit His purposes for my life. We nailed "Higher" on Gravity, per God's instructions. We finished Marathon, per God's instructions. And once those things were done, He spoke to my spirit and said, very clearly, it's time to accept the mantle of Pastor and walk in my calling, which is to lead the lost to Him using the gifts He so graciously chose to impart upon me from birth. I immediately said yes, despite my misgivings about pastorship, because I'd always said that I would go whenever He said go, with no hesitation.

One of my musical heroes, Al Green, was also called to preach and pastor, and like me, he also ran from his calling. But he ran for too long, and God allowed a lover of his to scald him with a pot of steaming hot grits before taking her own life. He has said more than once that this horrific event was God's way of getting his attention, and needless to say, it worked. That stuck with me from a very young age once I'd read this part of his story, and I always said that I never wanted God to have to burn me with any grits for me to obey when He called me (lol)! No, no "Grits" Green for me. So when God finally said "Go", I went.

On October 14 of this year, after completing my Pastoral Training, I was appointed as an Elder, and simultaneously was appointed as Pastor, by my dad, Apostle Billy L. Dorsey, Sr. My charge is to obey God in creating Bridge of Hope in Houston, TX, which I've already begun the work of doing. The vision that God gave me for the ministry here is to not focus on building a church edifice, but to take it back to what Jesus and the disciples did. They actually went out to the people, meeting needs and performing miracles where they were, rather than sequestering themselves in sanctuaries and having people have to come to them for the deliverance they needed. My heart is open to instruction from the Lord on the way to do this, and I'm not leading as much as being led in it all. This is a new thing for me, and I have to be mindful more than ever of the things I say and do to make sure that people see and hear Christ when they see and hear me. I am thankful for the positive role models I've been blessed to have along the way, like my parents, who are both pastors, and Pastor Steve Jamison of Maranatha Faith Center in Columbus, MS, along with Elder Larry Traylor, who was our pastor when I was 7 years old in Germany. All of these people actually strive to live what they preach, and allowed me to see from a young age that, while none of them are perfect, it is possible to live a life that is pleasing to God and be a minister.

I'm on the road now. I still fight some of the same battles, and the enemy still attacks me as always. I have even more incentive to overcome now. I have the conviction of my beliefs, and the knowledge that "I can do all things thru Christ who strengthens me", which gives me the endurance to run on when I'm tired, and to get up when I fall. I never want to be one of those pastors or men of God who portrays that they're better than others or that they've "got it all together." The Word says "for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God," and I'm no different. I am just a sinner saved by Grace. I'm working to repair the damage of the past, and honestly want to be a man after God's own heart, as King David was.

Please keep my family and I lifted up in prayer as we walk down this road, striving to live for Christ in this music industry. The enemy is not pleased with this decision, but I have to do what God has decreed over my life; as such, I know he is going to work overtime to knock me off track from where God wants me to be. Not so. "Greater is He that is within me than he that is in the world." Indeed.

#thebridgelife

Myself, my dad, Apostle Billy L. Dorsey, Sr, and my mom, Pastor Patricia Dorsey, at my Ordination Ceremony. We were laughing at the fact that my clergy collar was so tight I could barely breathe (lol)

My dad, Apostle Billy L. Dorsey, Sr., myself, my mom, Pastor Patricia Dorsey, and my brother, Pastor Emmanuel Williams. I'm holding my Pastoral Appointment and Ordination certificates from my Ordination ceremony.