When Harvest Community Director Shawn Gray and his wife moved to Texas in 2009, they were looking for a change of pace, an adventure. What they found was a family at The Woodlands Methodist Church.

“TWMC has given us everything that’s made our life what it is,” Shawn says.

Shawn, who grew up in Seattle, felt a call to ministry in high school. He says that once he started student ministry as a seventh grader, he never left, working in student ministry throughout college at Northwest University.

When he and his wife moved to Texas and started attending the Loft worship community at TWMC, they also volunteered in student ministry.

“What drew us to this church was the student ministry. In 2012, I was hired part-time, and then in 2013 I was hired full time in Recreation Ministry,” Shawn says. “After about a year, Bob Swan invited me to return to student ministry and serve as the junior high youth pastor, and then I was moved to high school.”

When Bob Swan retired from student ministry in 2019, the ministry was restructured, and Shawn became the lead shepherd.

“I thought I was going to be in student ministry forever. When I was approached about the Harvest position, I was completely blindsided,” he says. “After a lot of prayer and discernment, I realized this was what God was calling me to next.”

In his new position as Harvest Community Director, Shawn is most excited about getting to know the Harvest community. “I’m looking forward to ministering to the parents and grandparents of the students I’ve known for so long.”

Shawn and his wife Tonya live in The Woodlands with their two daughters: Molly and Maya.