Pastor set to answer a new calling
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on June 29, 2015 1:46 PM
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Pastor Ferrell Hardison leads a worship service at The Bridge Church. He recently celebrated his 25th anniversary as pastor of the church.
First-time visitors at any of a recent weekend service at The Bridge Church received a quick introduction to the pastor who has been there for 25 years.
Pastor Ferrell Hardison and his wife, Miss Millie, who just celebrated 38 years of marriage, were presented gifts representative of not only service but their personalities.
Twenty-five roses for Miss Millie.
A "pork rind wreath" with 25 bags of the snack Hardison favors.
A money tree bearing $250 for his wife.
A pair of Converse "Chucks" Pastor Ferrell is known for, these in N.C. State red and customized with a "PF 25," a nod to the silver anniversary.
The gifts reflected the same irreverent sense of humor Hardison is notorious for, followed by video tributes from the many whose lives have been touched by the beloved preacher since 1990.
Formerly Whitley Church, it became the Hardisons' home church in the 1980s while he was traveling as an evangelist.
"They were so good to us, so loving," Mrs. Hardison said. "The pastor, Leland Eatmon, was like our daddy."
The late Eatmon "laid the groundwork" in the 12 years he was there, Hardison said, bringing the membership up to 160. That plummeted a bit during subsequent leadership.
"The first Sunday I was the pastor -- June 15, 1990 -- there were 69 at the first service," he recalled.
It was not his first pastorate, though, said the son of minister, Willard Hardison.
"I was 17 years old when I knew I was supposed to be a pastor or really a preacher/teacher," Ferrell said. "My first pastoral role, 19, it was way too young. I should have worked with another pastor but that was the system back then."
After three years of traveling the eastern part of the country as an evangelist, he stopped when his family expanded to include sons Mitch and Brandon. He pastored churches in Pine Level and Cary before being called to Whitley.
It was like coming home, he said.
His "sweet spot," then and now, is in the pulpit.
"When I'm preaching, that's my most fun thing that I do," he says. "I love relationships. I have never met a stranger. I can walk up to anybody and begin a conversation. But relationally, preaching.
"I feel like God's given me a gift to inspire and see a future picture and get on board and make it happen."
The church has grown to around 1,700 attending four services at two locations, in Princeton and Goldsboro. And he has evolved into a different type of leader.
Mrs. Hardison recalls a visit to California to visit Rick Warren's church. Before he wrote the very popular "Purpose Driven Life," she said, he had written about "The Purpose Driven Church."
"It was casual dress. It was kind of like an eye-opener to us," she said." It wasn't so 'churchy' and people were coming in."
"That's when I learned, you can change methods and not water down the message," her husband said.
Whitley was doing well in the early days, but when things plateaued, Hardison interpreted that meant it was time for him to move on. In May 1999, they moved to Gastonia. They returned to Whitley in November.
"It was just a whole lesson -- we can get out of God's will, other people can get out of God's will," Hardison said. "They knew in three weeks (his replacement) was the wrong guy, and he had been very successful before. When I got (to Gastonia) I knew I wasn't the guy and miraculously God just worked it out for me to come back."
It took two years to win his congregation's trust back, he said.
Hardison has never considered leaving again, even in today's climate when ministers typically do not stay for long stretches of time.
"The difference, the reason I have been there so long is because they have let me operate in my gifts and they have let me be the leader of the church," he said. "They let me cast a vision, where I believe we're headed."
Pastor Ferrell and Millie are also "best friends," they say, supporting each other, even when the chips have been down. Like when eldest son, Mitch, 31, died in March 2014 from a drug overdose.
"There's nobody who could have been better as a pastor's wife," Hardison says of his mate. "We live our lives in the open."
"We've had to. We couldn't hide what our son was doing," Mrs. Hardison said of the addiction their son battled for 10 to 15 years.
"I couldn't act like I'm not battling some of the very things I'm preaching about," Hardison said, admitting they "lived in denial" for awhile in the beginning.
"We didn't fold up camp and stay home," his wife said. "I needed my church friends."
Pastors are no different than anyone else, Hardison said. So when their world came "crashing in," he took to the pulpit and shared it there, allowing his congregants to love them through it.
"I just felt like the best way to help people is to go, 'Hey, this is what we do when I go through it,'" he said.
"If we tried to act like we lived perfect lives, the church wouldn't have grown," Mrs. Hardison said.
They are blessed and thankful for the milestone but mindful of changes down the road.
"I know that my time at The Bridge is coming to an end," 58-year-old Hardison said. "I have been very honest with the staff and the church. I'm not going to be that guy that won't leave.
"We're actually in a succession plan. I have got a few more years at The Bridge. (They) will know who their next pastor is, at least two years before they come."
Meanwhile, Hardison still has two tangible things he hopes to accomplish while still at the helm -- developing a "Dream Center" concept like the one in California that has been such a success in meeting an array of community needs, and planting another church campus.
"I want to challenge our church, I want to challenge my staff, my deacon board, because when you get where we are, there's a tendency to want to just rest, 'hey, we can coast,'" he said. "Until Jesus comes, you've got to pioneer.
"The Bridge isn't for everybody, the size. We believe in churches who do it differently, because the message is the same."