Bishop John Drew Sheard is Presiding Bishop and Chief Apostle of the Church of God in Christ, Inc., one of the largest African American Pentecostal denominations in the United States with 12,000 churches in over 112 countries.
Bishop Sheard was first elected to the General Board in 2012 and re-elected in 2016. In 2021 he was again re-elected Bishop as a member of the Presidium (General Board) of the Church of God in Christ, Inc., at that time he was also subsequently elected to the Office of the Presiding Bishop as Chief Apostle.
Bishop Sheard has over 30 years of leadership in the Church of God in Christ. In 1988, he was installed as Pastor of Greater Emmanuel Church. In 1996, the then Elder J. Drew Sheard was appointed Superintendent of the Emmanuel District, by Bishop Herbert J. Williams, Sr., Prelate of the North Central Michigan Jurisdiction. From 1997-2001 Bishop Sheard served COGIC as President of the International Youth Department; and he served as Chairman of the AIM Convention from 2004 to 2012. In 2010 Superintendent J. Drew Sheard was consecrated as Jurisdictional Bishop, succeeding Bishop Herbert J. Williams, Sr., the founding prelate of North Central Michigan Jurisdiction.
Bishop J. Drew Sheard is a former public-school teacher. In 1982 he earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Education, and in 1998 he earned a Master of Arts in Mathematics from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. Bishop Sheard was inducted into the prestigious Morehouse College Martin Luther King, Jr. Board of Preachers.
Bishop Sheard is married to Evangelist Karen Clark Sheard. They have two children, Kierra Kelly and John Drew Sheard, II, one son-in-love, Jordan Kelly, and two grandchildren. Together he and his wife, Karen, founded Karew Records, a faith-based record label focusing on various forms of Gospel, Christian and Inspirational music.
