While teaching at Newton County High School about twenty years ago, I was impressed by several young students in my class. I discovered they had been brought up in the Murray Chapel Church of God in Christ, or COGIC, in Decatur, pastored by Eld. George Murray, Superintendent of District #2 of the COGIC churches in Mississippi. The Church of God in Christ, based in Memphis, Tennessee, is the largest Holiness-Pentecostal church denomination, and one of the largest predominantly African-American Christian denominations, in the United States.
Elder George Murray pastored in Philadelphia, Mississippi, then Walnut Grove, before being assigned to Decatur COGIC in 1969. There were at least three men who had pastored the Decatur church before Elder Murray became pastor. When they erected a new building in 1980, they named the church Murray Chapel, to honor Elder Murray, as he was the contractor who built the church. Incidentally, this was the home church of Medgar and Charles Evers and their mother Myrlie Evers. Their father attended the Baptist church across the street.
The present pastor of the Murray Chapel COGIC, Elder LeRonald B. Murray was born in Jackson, Mississippi, the eldest of four sons of Elder George and Mrs. Frankie Davis Murray. LeRonald attended Jackson Public Schools, graduating from Jim Hill High School in 1982, where he was a member of the drum corp. He attended Jackson State University and went on to attend Southern Technical College in Jackson, earning an A.A. degree in Business Economics in 1987.
At the age of twelve, LeRonald had a conversion experience in his grandfather Bishop Theo Davis’ church in Jackson. He says, “It was the best thing that ever happened to me in my life. I got into my Bible, reading, praying, fasting, witnessing and taking courses at the C.H. Mason Bible College in Jackson in my teens.” LeRonald received the baptism in the Holy Spirit at a revival in about 1992. Of this experience, he relates, “It made me even bolder than what I was, and I received my prayer language.” He became a junior deacon when he was fourteen and a deacon later. He was ordained as a minister in 2007 by the Church of God in Christ in Mississippi.
He said of his father’s ministry, that it consisted of “serving the community, preaching the gospel, exercising the gift of healing, seeing souls being saved and minds being renewed to have a Christ-centered mindset.” He told of a twelve-year-old girl with leukemia who was healed when his father prayed for her. He said, “She is grown now and has a family and is working in the medical field in Newton County.” Another time while traveling to another church, a church member had just stopped breathing in the church van when they arrived. Elder Murray said, “My father prayed, and in two or three minutes, she took a breath and recovered.”
In 2012, Elder LeRonald Murray’s father was ill and his appendix burst. He received surgery, and was unable to do ministry about two months. Then in October 2015 Elder George Murray had a stroke. In July 2016 his son Elder LeRonald Murray became the pastor of Murray Chapel in his place, and Elder George Murray passed away June 26, 2018, at the age of 86.
Elder Murray says of his father, “He was a fisher of men, and a great fisherman! He loved to fish. He caught a 45-pound fish in a pond on Highway 503 one day and had a fish fry for the church that night.” He told of his father’s famous collard greens he grew in his front yard. The Clarion-Ledger newspaper took pictures and published an article about his greens, while Rev. Murray and his greens were featured on the television program “Look Around Mississippi” with Walt Grayson.
Elder Murray’s mother, Mrs. Frankie Murray, is still active in ministry and attends Murray Chapel also. She has been the State Supervisor of Women of the Mississippi Southern First Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction for 25 years. Across each year, Elder Murray assists his mother with her ministry, by traveling with her throughout the seventeen districts in our jurisdiction as well as our national conventions. Being the daughter of a pastor, she has been in ministry all of her life.
As pastor, Elder Murray is concerned about the present state of our nation and the world. He told me, “We are in critical times. Much of the church is not just asleep, they’re in a coma.
He continued, “The millennial generation are dropping out of church like flies. They are being deceived by A.I. technology. Whoever controls the data controls the world. We as humans have become digital data to the power brokers. Big Tech are all tools that will be used by the Antichrist. Our present-day politicians are playing from a playbook that is not grounded in truth. Our freedom and democracy are under serious threats. Our republic is at stake. Our country is at stake. Our future is at stake, and if your soul is not saved, and you haven’t accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour, then your eternal destiny is at stake. “
“False security is always dangerous. The last thing I want to do is give anyone who doesn’t really know the Lord a false sense of assurance. I also do not want to see Christians develop a false sense of security that often manifests itself in one of two ways: Either the belief that we are above falling into temptation and failure because we are secure in Christ, or the equally mistaken notion that our eternal security means we can live in unrepentant sin or spiritual lethargy because we will make it to Heaven anyway. In other words, the church, not all but many, are in a state of being drowsy and dull, listless and unenergetic, indifferent and lazy, suffering from sluggish inactivity.”
“None of us are perfect, but that doesn’t mean we have to live in spiritual mediocrity, stumbling along from one setback to another. ‘Let us hold fast the profession of our faith, without wavering, (for He is faithful that promised) and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another; and so much the more as ye see the day approaching.’ Hebrews 10:23-25. Salvation gives us new life, and assurance gives us the security and confidence to develop that new life as we follow Christ in discipleship.”
I mentioned above the godly characteristics of Elder George Murray’s ministry, of which I detected the results back in the early 2000s at the high school. I attended a revival meeting at Murray Chapel recently and saw a couple of those same students, still attending and taking part in the worship service under Elder LeRonald Murray’s leadership. It takes dedication and determination on the part of both pastors and congregations to remain true to God and His Son Jesus Christ in this day of the “great falling away” of which Christ Jesus prophesied.
Live for Jesus! He’s coming soon!
You may contact me at lagnesrussell@gmail.com or 601-635-3282.
