Dr. Gray Little began his service as our interim pastor on Sunday, March 9, 2025. He and his wife, Paula, look forward to serving alongside the Church family of Mountain Grove Baptist Church.

 

Dr. Little  grew up in a Christian home in Durham, NC. He was very active in church throughout his childhood and teen years and answered the call to ministry shortly after graduating from high school. He earned his Bachelor's degree from Campbell University and his M.Div from Southwestern Baptist
Theological Seminary, where he met his wife, Paula.

 

Gray and Paula were married just days after graduating from seminary in December 1984. After their honeymoon, they moved to Hendersonville, where Gray served as a youth minister. Over the next twenty years, in addition to Hendersonville, Gray and Paula served churches in Garner, Fayetteville, and Asheville. Gray served in many different areas, including youth ministry, education ministry, and church administration.

 

During those years, the Lord blessed them with two sons, and Gray pursued his Doctor of Ministry degree from Luther Rice Seminary. His concentration was in Christian counseling. In 2004, God led Gray to begin planting churches, and he planted two over the next eleven years. In 2015, the Lord opened a new door of ministry in the corporate world, and Gray became a chaplain with Corporate Chaplains of America, which led Gray and Paula to move to Hickory.

 

As a way to continue serving the local church, Gray and Paula were trained and certified in Intentional Interim Ministry by the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina in 2018. Since that time, they have served three churches in that role, and enjoy this new way of serving.

 

Gray and Paula are blessed to have two sons, two daughters-in-law, and three granddaughters. They enjoy reading, writing, and traveling the country. In fact, God has led Paula to develop a ministry through these travels. She currently has a travel blog and has written hundreds of devotions using her photography and experiences in God's beautiful creation.