Rev. William Frank Wright, Jr. was born in Aiken, SC to Mr. William Frank and Mrs. Willie Weaver Wright. He was reared in Nash County, NC and graduated from Nash Central High School. He matriculated at North Carolina A and T State University in Greensboro, NC and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree. In 1979, he received the Master of Divinity Degree from Shaw University, Raleigh, NC.
Rev. Wright worked for 19 years with Lorillard Corporation in Greensboro, NC and retired as a Manager. He also served on the Lorillard Credit Union’s Board of Directors.
Rev. Wright was called to the Gospel Ministry in 1975 and was licensed by the Guilford Association and moved forward to continue the Lord’s calling with his first pastorate at West End Baptist Church in Reidsville, NC.
Here at New Zion, we know Pastor Wright to be an old- fashioned preacher who can preach, pray and sing. He is wrapped in educated packaging, filled with the Essence of Love, and God’s Precious Holy Spirit. Being one of the descendants of a long line of eloquent South Carolina preachers, Pastor Wright is a regionally renowned evangelist and preaches many revivals in the Virginia, North and South Carolina areas yearly.
Pastor Wright is a member of several community and interfaith coalitions and groups. Some of which are: The Guilford County Department of Social Services Board of Directors, the Bicentennial Mosaic Partnership Project, Ole Asheboro Planning Advisory Committee, The Malachi House II Board of Directors, Greensboro Housing Resource Board, Greensboro Fair Housing Board, Greensboro Human Relations Commission, Greensboro 100, NAACP, and the Greensboro Pulpit Forum where Pastor Wright was president for 12 years. Under his leadership, the Pulpit Forum has undertaken some of the community’s most challenging tasks, i.e., Operation Presence, the Youth and Drugs Program, Community Cal to Action against insensitivity toward the poor and the oppressed. He led the coalition which undertook the Health March in 1991 and in support of the K-Mart workers in 1996. In 2019, Rev. Wright was selected as one of ten pastors to join Hampton University’s PRIME (Pastoral Renewal Initiative for Ministerial Excellence) program where he mentors other pastors. He is one of the Faculty of those Flourishing in Ministry.
Pastor Wright is led by God and has achieved many goals in his 40+ years as Senior Pastor of New Zion Missionary Baptist Church, Inc., whose congregation, under the leadership of Pastor Wright was blessed to move into its current $8.1 million state-of-the-art worship facility in August 2016. However, more importantly, he strives to grow spiritually in the knowledge of Jesus Christ and the Great Commission.
On a personal level, Pastor Wright is married to the lovely, Mrs. Narcissus Hargrove Wright of Henderson, NC. He is the proud father of four children: Billy, Wendi, Nicole and Ashley. He is well known in the Greensboro Community as “Pastor’s Pastor”, a “member’s Mentor” and a Friend to all.
