Pastor suddenly drops dead while preaching on pulpit

oge okonkwo

December 23, 2014 1:44 PM

Soon after he began preaching, it was gathered that the pastor suddenly dropped dead on the pulpit

Barely a two weeks after the celebration of his 60th birthday, a pastor in Chicago dropped dead while preaching on the pulpit during the Sunday sermon.

According to reports, Gordon A. Humphrey Jr. of United Ministries sang melodiously musician Pharrell Williams' hit song "Happy" from the pulpit shortly before preaching a Christmas-themed message about "hope in the manger" at Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church of Chicago.

Soon after he began preaching, it was gathered that the pastor suddenly dropped dead on the pulpit.

"I'm not sure if they determined the cause of death but it's been said he may have had a heart attack," said a pastor Greg Hunter whom Humphrey recently installed as pastor of Olivet Institutional Missionary Baptist Church in Oakland, California after pastoring there for more than 30 years.

"They did call paramedics right away. They had people in the church that are in the medical field working on him as well and he was taken to the hospital. Every location was devastated. Stockton, Oakland, Shiloh, everybody was devastated," said Hunter who wants his mentor to be remembered for doing what he loved and doing it well.

"We are putting emphasis that he passed doing what he loved to do and he loved preaching and that's the relationship he had with God and when he preached he gave it his all. So he passed doing the thing that he loved to do and that is [to] share the word of God and minister to the body of Christ," explained Hunter.

"For years he walked the streets and met with drug addicts and gangbangers that was against each other and [made them] begin to love. He brought all people together," Hunter added. Humphrey was a person that "everybody liked".

Humphrey was serving as senior pastor of 3 churches at the time of his death: Olivet Church in Oakland, California; Olivet Church in Stockton, California, and the Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church in Chicago, which his father, Gordon Humphrey, Sr. had pastored for some 40 years before his passing forced Humphrey Jr. to relocate there a few years ago.

oge okonkwo