Spirit-filled, great visionary, loving, and dedicated are all words that adequately describe this great man of God, Bishop William Sheals. “Papa”, as he’s affectionately known by his flock. He has served as senior pastor of the Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church in Norcross, Georgia for the past 45 years.

Bishop Sheals, a Lakeland, Florida native, came to Hopewell in May 1980. Under his direction and leadership Hopewell grew from a small rural church to a suburban mega church. Bishop Sheals is extremely grateful to God for blessing this union of pastor and church for so many years, which is rarely heard of in today’s religious communities.

In 2011 Bishop Sheals began work on the award winning film Sunday Morning Rapture. He oversaw the project as Executive Producer and Director. To date the movie has been translated in both Spanish and Korean. In 2013 the movie was honored by the International Christian Film Festival, and received the BEST Feature Award at the Capital City Black Film Festival in Austin, Texas. His prayer is that “It Ain’t Over”, will inspire hope in the lives of those who feel there is no hope.