MONTGOMERY, Ala. (ABP) — He's a former drug dealer and gang member, hardly the credentials sought by most churches looking for pastors. But Huey Harris' dramatic conversion from gangster to preacher has opened doors of ministry in the roughest areas of Montgomery.
Harris, 29, was 12 when he began selling cocaine under the direction of his grandmother while his mother was in prison. By 14, Harris — or “Shockey,” as he was called — joined the Disciples gang and set up turf at a local junior high school.
At 16 he was charged with capital murder after driving the shooter away from a street killing, but he avoided prosecution. Meanwhile, he ran a crack house behind a Montgomery high school for five years.
In 1997, at 22, he was arrested for selling drugs. He received five years probation. Then, after shooting at someone who owed him $250, Harris, then 23, was himself shot in revenge — three times in his side.
In 2001 Harris was looking forward to getting off probation and going back to selling drugs. “But God had another plan,” he recalled.
One night Harris went home, drunk and high from marijuana, and fell asleep. He said he dreamed of Christ's second coming in a vivid, intense panorama of an earth destroyed by fire, a land strewn with dead bodies, and then the beauty of a newly created world.
He said God told him in his dream to “get your life together.” Harris woke up a new man. He began taking drug addicts and gang members to church and preaching Christ to them.
Harris wrote more than 200 Montgomery churches in June 2001. Jay Wolf, pastor of First Baptist Church of Montgomery, was the sole respondent. Wolf got Harris involved in Project Hope, a ministry that plants cell groups in the housing projects of Montgomery.
In 2003 Harris started a church at a Montgomery motel frequented by drug dealers and prostitutes. In the 14 months he ministered there, 2,000 people accepted Christ, according to Harris. When the congregation could no longer afford to meet at the motel, it moved into a building at First Baptist and became Fresh Waters Christian Church International, with Harris as pastor.
Harris' efforts among Montgomery's 16 housing projects has drawn praise from Alabama's attorney general, TV mogul Oprah Winfrey and evangelist Billy Graham. His background as a drug dealer commands respect, he said, but so does his decision to leave that life and follow Christ. He started Brothers for Life, a nonprofit organization to encourage students to avoid gangs, and another ministry that distributes food and clothing to the needy.
While drug dealers and gang members are his primary audience, Harris doesn't limit the gospel's appeal. “It's 'whosoever.' That's my calling. To preach the gospel of Jesus Christ in cities where traditional churches won't go.”
-30-
— Kima Jude is a correspondent with The Alabama Baptist.