Joel Gray

Joel Gray was the “Mission Visitor” for in the Fall of 2014. In 2014, Joel was on Home Assignment from Burkina Faso where he serves as Director of SIM in Burkina Faso and in Mali. Joel was born in France and grew up in Burkina, and Cote d’Ivoire. In 1986 Joel moved to Boston to go to Gordon College where he earned a BA in Biblical Studies in 1990. Joel also completed an MDiv at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in 1994 and an STM combining coursework done at Trinity in Deerfield, IL and Boston University in 2006. Joel married Karen in 1991 and they have 4 children: Daniel (18), Joshua (13), Jessica (11) and Katie (8). They have served as missionaries in Burkina Faso since 1997. Joel founded the IMS – Institut Missiologique du Sahel which is a field-oriented competency-based mission leadership training school. Pastors from 12 different African countries and over 18 different denominations have studied at IMS. Joel is also a facilitator with Development Associates International and has taught modular leadership courses in many different African Universities. His passions include reading, grant writing, expository preaching, mission mobilization, reading to and playing games with his kids, and following the Red Sox. Joel is currently part-way through a DMin program at Columbia International University in Columbia, SC.

Joey delivered a presentation exploring the power and peril of mission in West Africa, entitled “God’s Mission and West Africa.” The presentation was held at 12:00 pm on Thursday, October 9, 2014.