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Rev. Milford Earl Netterville, Sr.
Our Pastor of Pearly Gate Missionary Baptist Church is the Rev Milford Earl Netterville Sr. He was duly chosen by our church and previous pastor to serve as our church leader. He was installed as our Pastor on January 7, 2018, and he is a tremendous blessing to our church. He was called by God to lead leaders and to serve as a powerful inspiration for our entire congregation. He is an avid reader and a great storyteller. His messages leave you inspired to change the world. He uses parables to teach us lessons as Jesus did, but he applies his lessons to the world as we see it now. He is very knowledgeable about God’s word. His biblical teaching began under the leadership of Pastor Grier who challenged his minister staff to learn and study the bible. His motto is “When you read the bible, you’ll know what is says. When you study the bible, you’ll know what it means but only when you apply the bible, you’ll know what it does.”
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Pastor Netterville was born in Shreveport, Louisiana. He was the third child born to George and Claudette Netterville. He grew up in Los Angeles, California but later moved to Detroit, Michigan and graduated from Western High School. Ten days after graduating from high school, he enlisted in the United States Army and trained as an Infantry man. Fortunately, the war ended, and he didn’t have to go to Vietnam. Then later in 1975 he was honorably discharged as a Vietnam Era Veteran. God led him to Pearly Gate after speaking to Pastor Grier about his veterans’ benefits. Then on the 2nd Sunday of February in 1980 he joined the church. While studying the bible, he realized that he had to tell God thank you. God revealed himself to Pastor Netterville in a vision showing him that He would be his bridge over troubled waters and would move all obstacles out of his way. Then he confessed his calling to Pastor Grier who already knew what he was called to do. Eight months after joining Pearly Gate on October 26, 1980, he preached his first public sermon.
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Pastor Netterville believes that a preacher is like a dessert traveler that has found the water, and then goes back to find the thirsty to lead them to the water. He loves many stories in the bible, but his favorite scriptures are Philippians 1:6, Deuteronomy 31:6, Psalm 27:4 and Revelation 2:17, and his vision for our church is that we Love God, Love People and Make Disciples.