Pastors John and Aventer Gray of Relentless Church in Greenville, South Carolina, agree that the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 was an awakening.
“I think the pandemic has literally forced us to recenter,” Aventer Gray said. “It was [a] hardship but also an awakening. We had been so acclimated into our way of life … and last year taught us that we weren’t able to do that. So, how do we figure out, reinvent, recreate and understand that at any point in time what you knew may not exist anymore.”
Aventer Gray looked for the spiritual meaning of the past year. “The pandemic was a blessing and a curse and shocked us with our way of living and literally made us reset and refocus on the things that are most important,” she said. “Now people are trying to get back to normal, but God wants us to catch the message that there was a necessary pause that needed to happen with the pandemic.”
John Gray said he also realized he had to hit the reset button as a result of the virus. “The illusion of balance has gone away,” he said. “What I realize is that I have far more value in my house than I do to the public space. That is something that was important to me.”
The pandemic also allowed time for the Grays to move forward with plans to expand Relentless Church to a second campus in Powder Springs, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta.
The Grays discuss their third annual Relentless ONE Conference and more on the next page.
