John Drew Sheard, Sr.

Bishop John Drew Sheard, Sr. (born January 1, 1959) is an American pastor and minister from Detroit, Michigan, who is the current Presiding Bishop of the Church of God in Christ, a 8.8 million-member predominantly African-American Pentecostal-Holiness denomination, that has now grown to become one of the largest African American Pentecostal denominations in the United States. He was elected as the leader of the denomination, in the denomination's first ever all-virtual online election, that was held virtually online due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, on March 20, 2021. He is the first Presiding Bishop of the Church of God in Christ from the state of Michigan and is the pastor of the Greater Emmanuel Institutional Church of God in Christ, one of the denomination's largest churches in Michigan. He also previously served as a member of the General Board, the twelve bishops who make up the national Board of Directors of the COGIC denomination, and as the president of the COGIC International Youth Department, the auxiliary ministry department of the COGIC denomination focused on youth and young adults, from 2001 to 2008, and the International President and Chairman of the COGIC Auxiliaries In Ministry (AIM) convention from 2008 to 2012.
Biography.
Bishop J. Drew Sheard was born on January 1, 1959 to Bishop John Henry Sheard and Willie Mae Sheard in Detroit, Michigan. He was raised as a Pentecostal Christian in the Church of God in Christ with his younger brother, Ethan Blake Sheard, who is also a pastor in the COGIC denomination. Upon graduating high school, he attended the Wayne State University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Education, and a Master of Education degree in Mathematics, and while balancing a career in Christian ministry as a clergyman, he also worked as a secondary school math teacher in the Detroit Public Schools District.
In 1984, he married Karen Clark Sheard, a Gospel singer and member of the famed Gospel vocal group, The Clark Sisters, who was also the daughter of the famed Gospel Choir director, Mattie Moss Clark, who served as one of the international music department presidents of the COGIC denomination. For several years, he helped Mattie Moss Clark manage the Clark Sisters' singing career throughout the 1980s until they parted their separate ways to endeavor on their own individual careers, and from then on became his wife, Karen's personal music career manager.
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Bishop Sheard served in various capacities with the COGIC denomination under the tutelage of his father, Bishop John H. Sheard, including as a choir director, chairman of both local and state youth departments in the COGIC denomination, as a National Adjutant Overseer, and eventually as an Executive Secretary of the International Youth Department for the COGIC denomination. He also served in various civic capacities including Executive Director of the Michigan Chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and as a board member of the Michigan Anti-Apartheid Council.
in 1988, he founded and became the senior pastor of the Greater Emmanuel Institutional COGIC in Detroit, Michigan, which at first started out as a very small all-African-American church parish in Detroit. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, the church grew to become what is now one of the largest and fastest growing COGIC churches in the state of Michigan, and although it is still predominantly African-American in membership, the church has also become a very widely multi-ethnic Pentecostal church as well in recent years.
In 2008, Sheard received an honorary Doctorate of Divinity degree, and in 2007 was inducted into the Morehouse College Martin Luther King, Jr. Board of Preachers. In 2009, Sheard and his wife, Karen, founded Karew Records, a Detroit-based Christian music record label focusing on various forms of Gospel and Inspirational music.
In 1996, he was appointed by the late Presiding Bishop Chandler David Owens, as the International President of the Youth Department, He served from 1996 to 2000. In 2001, he was appointed by the late Presiding Bishop Gilbert Earl Patterson as Vice Chairman of the Auxiliaries in Ministry (AIM) Department. He served until 2008. In 2008, he was appointed as the Chairman of AIM by former Presiding Bishop Charles E. Blake, Sr. He served until 2012, until he was succeeded by Bishop Linwood Dillard of Memphis, Tennessee. In 2009, he was ratified and approved by the COGIC General Assembly to become the jurisdictional bishop of the Michigan North Central Jurisdiction diocese of the Church of God in Christ. In 2012, he was elected to the General Board, the twelve bishops who serve as the Board of Directors of the church, where he served two four year terms from 2012 to 2016, and 2016 to 2020 respectively.
The scheduled election for the denomination in 2020 was canceled due to the ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic, and was rescheduled as an all-virtual online election for March 2021, and on March 20, 2021, subsequently after being re-elected to the General Board of the church, the church had a run-off election between him and Bishop Jerry W. Macklin, of Hayward, California for the Office of Presiding Bishop. He defeated Bishop Macklin in the run-off election and became the Presiding Bishop of the Church of God in Christ worldwide, and then subsequently appointed Bishop Macklin as his First Assistant Presiding Bishop, and Bishop Lawrence M. Wooten of St. Louis, Missouri as his Second Assistant Presiding Bishop.
The church denomination announced on its website that he would be officially inaugurated and installed as the Presiding Bishop of the Church of God in Christ in a ceremony at a later date to be determined, due to the ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic.
He was portrayed by actor Michael Xavier in the Lifetime biographical film, , a biopic produced by Mary J. Blige and Queen Latifah, about his wife and sisters-in-law, chronicling their careers as a Gospel group.
Personal life.
Marriage and Family.
Bishop Sheard is married to Karen Clark-Sheard, who is a famous Grammy Award-winning gospel singer and member of the gospel vocalist group The Clark Sisters. Together they have two children: Kierra "Kiki" Sheard-Kelly (born 1987) and John Drew "J. Drew" Sheard, Jr. (born 1989) and two grandchildren. Another pregnancy ended in a stillbirth. Kierra Sheard is also a gospel recording artist, with four albums, plus various projects to her credit. J. Drew is a musician and producer who often plays drums for the Clark Sisters, and other gospel singers and groups. In 2001, his wife Karen Clark-Sheard was faced with a life-threatening crisis when a blood vessel burst during a scheduled bariatric surgery. Her doctors only gave her a 2% chance of survival due to her complications. After the blood clot was surgically removed, Clark-Sheard fell into a coma. The coma lasted three and a half weeks, but Clark-Sheard says she made a miraculous recovery, which Bishop Sheard attributed to prayer and to "God's grace and healing power."
His father, Bishop John Henry Sheard is the current Chairman of the Board of Bishops of the COGIC denomination, which is the overarching body made up of all the bishops of the denomination collectively. His mother and father both contracted the COVID-19 virus and disease in 2020, and his mother, Willie Mae Sheard died from it in April 2020. His father survived his bout with the virus and recovered from it a few months later. His brother, Ethan Blake Sheard, is also a COGIC pastor as well. He was also the son-in-law of Mattie Moss Clark, who was one of the international presidents of the COGIC Music Department and who served as a head director for the international COGIC C. H. Mason Memorial Choir, the gospel choir that serves the COGIC denomination's music ministry at its international conventions and conferences.