Derwin Gray

Derwin Lamont Gray (born April 9, 1971) is an American pastor, evangelist, author, and former professional football player who was a defensive back for six seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the BYU Cougars.

Gray is now the lead pastor of Transformation Church in Indian Land, South Carolina and has authored several books regarding race and faith. Crosswalk named him one of their top 12 most influential pastors in 2024.

Early life Gray was born to teenage parents in San Antonio, Texas and raised by his Jehovah's Witness grandmother, living in poverty. At age 13, he told his grandmother he would do something with his life, and found solace playing football for his high school, which he mentioned was ethnically diverse. As Gray describes it, football "was his god" and he was, in his own words, a "black kid from a lower socioeconomic, multiethnic context with a Jehovah's Witness religious background (whose god is football) attending a Mormon university" when he accepted a football scholarship to Brigham Young University (BYU).

Professional football career After a college football career with BYU and graduating, Gray was selected in the fourth round with the 92nd pick in the 1993 NFL draft. He played for five years with the Indianapolis Colts (1993–1997) and one year with the Carolina Panthers (1998). It was during his time with Indianapolis that teammate Steve Grant, who was nicknamed the "Naked Preacher", mentored Gray and led him to accept Christ.

Pastoral career Gray and his wife Vicki began an itinerant speaking ministry, One Heart At A Time Ministries, in 1999. He went on to graduate magna cum laude from Southern Evangelical Seminary with a Master of Divinity degree in 2008, with a focus in apologetics. In the mid-2000s, Gray made an appearance as the "Evangelism Linebacker" as part of an evangelistic video series parodying Terry Tate: Office Linebacker.

Gray and his wife founded Transformation Church in January 2010. He cites his football experience frequently in his sermons, using it as an allegory for many of his messages. Transformation Church was listed by LifeWay Research and Outreach Magazine as one of the fastest-growing U.S. churches in the 2010s,

NFL statistics Team Year Games Played Tackles Indianapolis Colts 1993 11 124 Indianapolis Colts 1994 16 129 Indianapolis Colts 1995 16 112 Indianapolis Colts 1996 10 6 Indianapolis Colts 1997 11 9 Carolina Panthers 1998 3 0