The 115th Church of God in Christ Convocation almost had to start without one of its speakers after he received a call about his wife’s health scare.
More than 3,500 people from around the nation and the world made the pilgrimage to downtown Memphis, Tennessee, for the COGIC convocation. The event filled with “prayer, worship, and business” took place earlier this month and with multiple guest speakers.
The presiding bishop, John Drew Sheard was all set to speak at the COGIC event when he received a call about his wife, Grammy-winning gospel singer Karen Clark Sheard. Bishop Sheard talked about the call while he was preaching in the pulpit to the international crowd.
“We’ve had several distractions on the night and it’s nothing but the devil that’s trying to mess us up,” he said to his congregation in a resurfaced clip.
Sheard had his wife by his side, and he praised her in front of the congregation. Sheard said that Clark Sheard was his “heart.” He said he could not describe his love for the “Balm in Gilead” vocalist because “there are not enough words in the dictionary.” He said that when he isn’t with his wife, it is hard to get her out of his mind, which is why it was so troubling when he got a call from an unknown number about her.
“My phone kept ringing and so I gave my phone to my brother and I said see who that is ’cause it was a no-ID caller,” he explained.
Sheard said that the night before he was supposed to talk, his phone kept ringing. He said that he gave the phone to his brother so that he could see who it was, because he was in the middle of service. He said his brother took the phone and went outside to see what was happening.
His brother was gone “so long” that the bishop started to wonder about his whereabouts. “He was gone so long and I turned back and I say to Thurgood, ‘I said where is Ethan?’ and he said, ‘Oh, Bishop, we got an issue here.” When he asked someone what was going on they told him that the person on the phone said, “They said first lady had collapsed.”
Sheard said he jumped up and found his brother, who was on the phone with the hospital, trying to see if Clark Sheard had been admitted to the hospital that the caller “claimed she was in.”
Sheard said that once he got his phone back he called his sister to ask what had happened to his wife, and she said, “Nothin’, she’s sitting right here.” He then explained to his sister that they had received a call saying that Clark Sheard was in the hospital, which he later realized there was no truth to.
The Sheard’s fans were happy to see that Clark Sheard was OK, but they also called out the person who started the rumor about her health scare. One commentator said, “Thank GOD our First Lady is fine and doing well. Bishop and First Lady continue to stand in JESUS’ NAME.” Another wrote, “That was so evil for someone to scare him like that. People need #Jesus.”
An unknown caller texted #gospel singer Karen Clark-Sheard's husband while he was in church saying she collapsed.He called her sister Dorinda to see where Karen was and she was with her the whole time.That was so evil for someone to scare him likethat. People need #Jesus.
— God Is A Healer🕊️This I Know❤️🙌🏽 (@GodDBestAvenger) November 13, 2023
Bishop Sheard also called out the prank caller saying that they were “evil.” He said, “As my mother-in-law would say, ‘That was wicked.’ I don’t know if you sittin’ in here now, but you need to repent for tryin’ to mess with my heart.”
He added that he brought his wife on stage to let everyone know she was okay.
The Sheards have been married for 39 years, and they have two children, John Drew Sheard II and Kierra KiKi Sheard-Kelly. Both children followed in their mother’s footsteps as John is a producer/songwriter, and Kierra is also a Grammy-nominated gospel singer. The entire family once had a reality series called “The Sheards” that aired on BET.