October 27, 2025
‘I’m a soccer coach disguised as a pastor,’ Grey stated. ‘My workers are the coaches, and you’re the staff, and we’re equipping you to play.’
Former NFL participant Derwin Grey, who as soon as ran on the soccer discipline, now runs the scriptures to his congregation because the lead pastor at Transformation Church.
In line with Queen Metropolis Information, the previous defensive participant left his athletic desires on the gridiron to evangelise to the plenty after dropping his love for soccer. Whereas enjoying for the Carolina Panthers in 1998, Grey says a voice spoke to him throughout a sport, and he heard the message and determined to alter, not his defensive patterns on the sphere, however the path that led him to the ministry.
“We had been enjoying the Buffalo Payments in Buffalo, and their operating again broke via the road,” Grey stated. “I simply got here up and smashed him. However on the backside of that pile, I heard a voice say, ‘What are you continue to doing out right here?’”
That voice was the catalyst for the transformation he wanted to alter careers.
He suffered a knee damage that 12 months, and as a substitute of rehabbing it to get again on the sphere, he used the time to learn the bible.
“The will to play was leaving. So throughout injured reserve, I used to be within the chilly tub and all I did was learn the bible,” he recollects.
Now, as a substitute of waking as much as put together for soccer video games on Sundays, he’s getting as much as preach the phrase to his church members in South Carolina. The Transformation Church has two places, Indian Land and Lake Wylie. The congregation has greater than 12,000 parishioners.
“I’m a soccer coach disguised as a pastor,” Grey stated. “My workers are the coaches, and you’re the staff, and we’re equipping you to play.”
In line with the Transformation Church web site, Grey and his spouse, Vicki, the church’s co-founder, met at Brigham Younger College (BYU), the place each had been athletes; he performed soccer, and she or he threw the javelin on the observe staff.
Grey performed within the NFL for 2 groups throughout his five-year profession: the Indianapolis Colts (1993–1997) and the Carolina Panthers (1998).
The soccer mindset continues to be in his blood, even when he isn’t on the sphere making performs.
“Coaches are lecturers. Pastors are lecturers. Inspiration will solely final for a second. Transformation will final for a lifetime.”
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