DOM William Gray turns computer hobby into ministry
by: Connie Davis Bushey - Apr 5, 2009
DOVER, Tenn. — William Gray, director of missions, Judson-Stewart-Truett Baptist Associations based here, provides discounted computers and printers to ministers and others. He also helps them learn how to use them.
Gray’s hobby/ministry got its start in 1988 when he taught himself about computers “out of necessity,” he said. Several years after he began serving as DOM here he saw a personal computer which belonged to a minister. At that time he was trying to deal with office work without any other staff and a limited budget.
Gray recalled that he was using a mimeograph machine for copying the association’s publications. Even more of a trial was making up revival posters, he said, by cutting and pasting pieces of paper onto paper.
Gray was so intrigued by the computer and what it could do that soon he bought one with his personal money. He bought a computer, printer, and monitor for about $1,500 in about 1988, he recalled.
Soon Gray wished he hadn’t taken the typing class in high school just to be the only guy — a basketball player in Kentucky at that — to be around the many girls taking the class. Now he wishes he had not flirted so much and typed more, he admitted.
But Gray, who has never taken a computer class, learned how to type and more, he explained.
He was fascinated by computers and was frugal so he figured out how to fix them. For instance, he learned how to take two broken computers and produce one working computer.
In the 1990s he began building computers out of used and discarded computers. He was given some by the Tennessee Baptist Convention. He was given some by several companies who were upgrading theirs. He gave the computers to ministers who needed them and churches which needed them. Judson-Stewart-Truett Baptist Associations have about 50 member churches which Gray tries to help.
By the end of the 1990s the prices of computers had dropped so much that Gray stopped building them. Also many people and churches had computers by then. But he began providing used but refurbished computers to ministers and friends who needed a discounted computer.
He takes a computer someone has given him and restores Windows ME or XP from software which comes with computers. Then he loads free programs such as Star Office or Open Office for word processing. For Bible study he loads programs from E-Sword.net. The company allows Gray to download a translation of the Bible once a year for a small fee and then share it free-of-charge with ministers and churches.
Gray also makes sure the ministers have access to e-mail and the Internet.
Over the years, he has given about 100 computers and printers to folks who needed them.
The Internet, he noted, is great and though it has some bad areas, has so much to offer people. The Internet and computers, he said, are important for a minister and especially a bivocational minister because the bivocational minister must be efficient and use his time well.
Gray uses the computer and access to the Internet all the time. The main way Gray communicates with members of the churches in Truett-Stewart-Judson Associations is through its website. The website is a place for networking and sharing information with each other, said Gray. For example, he and Joe Shannon, ministry assistant for the associations, produce three newsletters each quarter for the associations which only can be accessed by way of the website, http://www.jstba.com.
Gray uses the Internet in other ways, said Gray. A minister will call him and ask a theological question. Because of the technology, he often can answer that question while he and the minister are still on the phone, said Gray. He doesn’t have to know the answer just “which buttons to push,” he described.
His work with and knowledge of computers has become well-known in the area. Of course, Gray is generally well-known, having served as DOM here for 23 years. He has repaired computers at a post office and a sheriff’s office. Of course, he doesn’t charge the $200 fee of most computer techs, said Gray. To him the solution is usually simple and he enjoys helping people and the challenge of trying to fix the problem.
Gray helped his brother become interested in computers. Since then his brother has begun working in information technology at a firm. Though his brother has received computer training, he still calls Gray to ask for help.
Gray said he keeps up-to-date with the technology by accessing http://www.komando.com and other technical websites and listening to Kim Komando’s radio show.
Currently he is preparing a computer for the wife of a person he met at the Good Samaritan Center, a ministry to the needy provided by the associations and area Christians. Gray also is preparing a computer for a friend who is developmentally challenged. He recently delivered one to Dan Post, a former bivocational pastor who is serving as a supply preacher in the area. Post is a member of Big Rock Baptist Church, Big Rock, and is a Sunday School teacher when he is not preaching at another church. Gray also is teaching him how to use the computer and software.
Gray said his hobby used to be playing chess. Now it is working with computers. He’s just glad the computer hobby overlaps into his ministry, he explained.
This article is reprinted from the March 18, 2009, issue of the Baptist & Reflector, the newsjournal of the Tennessee Baptist Convention.
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