Sanders Grove to install new pastor

Sanders Grove Baptist Church will install its new pastor, the Rev. Joshua Willis, during a ceremony at 3 p.m. Sunday, June 30, at the church, 6989 N.C. 210, Smithfield.

The Rev. Argo Matthews will speak. He is moderator of the Johnston District Missionary Baptist Association. The church will serve a meal before the ceremony.

Willis will be the 10th pastor in the church’s 80-year history, and at 30 years old, he will also be its youngest.

Willis was born in South Carolina but moved to Smithfield when he was 7 years old. He said that’s when he first felt the call to become a minister. Willis began preaching at 18 and was ordained as a minister and elder on July 21, 2019, at Rivers of Life Church in Fayetteville.

Willis became a licensed Baptist minister on Nov. 7, 2021, at Oakley Grove Missionary Baptist Church. The Union Missionary Baptist Association will ordain him a Baptist minister on June 23 at New Hope Missionary Baptist Church.

Willis is studying theology at Liberty University. He is also the founder of Willis & Keller Trucking and Clean Harvest Lawn Care. In addition, he’s a utility line mechanic with the Town of Smithfield.

A father of three, Willis and his wife, Demares, recently expanded their household to six children. When Demares’ sister passed away, they honored her dying wish to keep her three children together and raise them as their own.

Sanders Grove Baptist Church bills itself as “The Little Church That Can.” It’s surrounded on three sides by the graves of four generations of members.

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