Buddy Gray, pastor of Hunter Street Baptist Church in Hoover, announced today (Sept. 14) that he plans to retire in summer 2026.
“Next summer I plan to step down from full-time pastoral ministry,” Gray said during the church’s worship service. “I’ll be retiring from Hunter Street; at that time I will have been here more than 40 years, and I will be 69 years old. But I want you to know I have loved serving the Lord, and I’ve loved his people here.”
He said he had come to the decision by seeking the Lord’s guidance “with peace and tears,” and it was hard for him to find the right words to express the way he felt about the church.
“For almost 40 years, you have been my spiritual family. You are my church home. You have loved Tricia her entire life,” Gray said, noting that his wife was on the church’s cradle roll when she was born.
Gray first came to Hunter Street in 1978 as the church’s youth pastor, then returned in 1986 when they called him as pastor.
‘The greatest days … are just ahead of us’
“Every week at the end of the service when I say I love you, I just don’t mean feelings of affection, but I certainly feel those, but I mean commitment, a covenant love, a love that says I am with you no matter what,” he said. “And I have felt the very same from you.”
Gray said he knew some might be asking where the church goes from here.
“I have an answer for that. You will continue in the grace of God,” he said. “The strength of a church has never rested in one man. It has always rested in the unchanging faithfulness of God.”
Gray said Hunter Street had already been walking with the Lord for 79 years before he arrived.
“And when I step aside, I want you to remember that the same God who has carried this church now for 119 years will still carry you,” he said. “By His grace and for His glory, I believe that the greatest days of the life of our church, the greatest days of kingdom ministry, are just ahead of us.”
To watch the entirety of Gray’s announcement before his sermon, click here.
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