A Pentecostal's star rises

DURHAM -- As she prayed over a disabled baby, speaking in tongues, waving her hands, shouting to God, Pastor Sheryl Brady was doing what any Pentecostal preacher might do under the circumstances.

She was praying for a miracle.

But what made last month's healing prayer for the baby unusual was the person in charge. Here was a woman leading a large church - an unusual sight in traditionally conservative Pentecostal churches. In addition, she is white, and her congregation is predominantly black.

Brady, 49, is a trendsetter. In the space of less than 10 years, she and her husband, Bishop Joby Brady, have built a successful church that defies the odds. He is the spiritual head of the church called The River on Holt School Road, but she is the pastor, the lead preacher and a rising star on the national Pentecostal stage.

"I have a great husband," Sheryl Brady said. "He's not intimidated by my gift. He's not intimidated by my success. He's very much helped steer me to plunge into what I do."

Although female evangelists have a long history in the Pentecostal tradition, female pastors are uncommon, said J. Lee Grady, editor of Charisma magazine, a national publication for charismatic and Pentecostal Christians. "We're not at a point where huge numbers of people are ready to accept it, so you won't see it in huge megachurches," Grady said.

Looking at hearts

As for white women leading mostly black churches, experts say the only other person who comes to mind is Pastor Paula White of Without Walls International Church in Tampa, Fla.

Like White's, Brady's followers are inclined to look past her frosted blond hair and eyeliner-heavy blue eyes.

"I feel as comfortable with her as I would a minister of my color," said Ann Daye of Durham. "I know she looks beyond color. She looks at the heart, just like God."

Brady captured the public's attention last month when the baby she was praying over, Christiana Hammonds, appeared to wake up and respond to her healing prayer.

Nearly half a million viewers watched the "Christmas Miracle at the River" on YouTube. The 9-month-old baby, who had been shaken by a babysitter, remains in a special home for disabled children, though her caretakers say she is more responsive than before the prayer.

To Brady there was nothing unusual in what she did.

The daughter of a Detroit Pentecostal preacher, Brady grew up in a church where members believe the Holy Spirit bestows special gifts on Christians, such as the power to heal, prophesy and work miracles.

She was 17 when she married Joby, the son of another Detroit Pentecostal preacher. The two made a living as itinerant preachers: He would preach, and she would play the piano and sing.

Three daughters followed, but the family's routine remained the same. They moved around the country, occasionally filling in as interim ministers.

That all changed when Sheryl Brady sang a few gospel tunes for another preacher, T.D. Jakes. This was the early 1990s, and Jakes, the pastor of the 30,000-member Potters House Church in Dallas, was still an unknown, traveling in the same itinerant Pentecostal circles.

The Bradys became followers and moved to the mountains of West Virginia, where Jakes had a church. In 1996, they all decamped for Dallas.

"His message brought a lot of healing to me," Sheryl Brady said. "It was amazing to hear a man's voice speak to so many issues women had. He immediately got my attention, and he made me hungry for the word of God."

The couple served as unsalaried elders in Jakes' church and continued their itinerant ministry. But Jakes, best known for his popular women's conference called "Woman Thou Art Loosed," did provide a platform, especially for Sheryl Brady.

Before long, Brady was not only singing songs before Jakes' sermons, she also was offering words of encouragement and eventually giving her own sermons.

"His ministry woke up a preaching gift I didn't know I had," she said.

By 1999, the Bradys were ready to start a church of their own. Brady's mother was living in Winston-Salem, and Sheryl and Joby picked Raleigh, which was booming.

They rented a warehouse in an industrial park off Gresham Lake Road, and started The River on the night before Hurricane Irene blew through. One hundred people showed up.

Five years later, the church was prosperous enough that it could afford to buy property. The Bradys bought the old Summit Church on Holt School Road, a Colonial brick edifice north of Durham's downtown.

Pentecostals believe God anoints people with the gift of preaching. And to hear an anointed preacher, they are willing to drive from Raleigh to Durham.

"Pastor Brady has an awesome way of delivering the word," said Andrea Hines, who commutes to the church from Raleigh. "She brings the Bible to life."

The church has become a family affair. All three of the Brady girls, along with their husbands, work at the church. The church started a food pantry in its family life center, and on Mondays and Thursdays long lines of people form to receive a box of nonperishable food. Recently, the church began a clothes closet for children called "G-Maw."

But it is Brady's husky voice, quick breaths and short-sentences - rising to a kind of crescendo of shouting - that her audiences respond to.

"I'm born for them; they're born for me," she said. "We just fit."