Alex Slitz/Daily NewsThe Rev. William Easley Jr., the new pastor of Taylor Chapel Community AME Church in Bowling Green, preaches Sunday at the church. — Click here for a photo slideshow with sound from the Taylor Chapel Community AME Church.

People say God calls on people differently. Sometimes it’s a dramatic calling, and sometimes it’s a quiet calling.

For William Easley Jr., it was a dramatic calling, and it started at the age of 10.

“At first, I resisted the call. I wanted to be a doctor,” he said. “But it got to a point where I couldn’t sleep at night … I prayed a prayer, ‘Lord, I’ll say what you want me to say, I’ll do what you want me to do, I’ll go where you want me to go’ … after, I heard this music over the house.”

Easley was 12.

Since then, the Lexington, Tenn., native and Nashville resident has traveled to several states spreading the Gospel, and now he is the closest to home as the new pastor of Taylor Chapel Community African Methodist Episcopal Church.

“This church has a lot of potential for growth and development,” he said.

Taylor Chapel was left without a permanent pastor early this year after Pastor William Hardy retired. Since his absence, the church has been in the hands of Elder Ralph E. Johnson, who became the presiding pastor.

Easley’s first Sunday at the pulpit was Nov. 15, which he said was a joyous occasion.

“I can see myself staying here for a while,” he said with a smile.

Following in the footsteps of his paternal and maternal grandfathers, as well as two uncles, Easley became known as the boy preacher. Licensed at 13, he has been pastoring to congregations since age 14.

“This had to be my destiny,” he said.

As a child, Easley said, he preached at his home church, during which several Baptist churches had asked him to preach, too.

“When I go home, the Baptists say AME can’t take all the credit,” he said with a chuckle.

A 1967 Tennessee State University graduate, Easley attended Payne Seminary at Wilberforce University. He also attended the University of Dayton and Austin Peay State University for graduate and post-graduate studies. Easley said that after graduating from Wilberforce, he came back to Tennessee to pastor at Ebenezer AME Church in Clarksville. Then he went to Asbury Chapel AME in Louisville, where he pastored for six years. While there, he studied psychology at Eastern Kentucky University and was employed by the Kentucky Department of Justice, Department of Corrections.

From Louisville, Easley and his family moved to Durham, N.C., where he pastored at St. Joseph’s AME Church for 17 years, and then to Washington, D.C., where he pastored for eight years at Campbell Southeast AME Church.

“I don’t try to pattern my preaching after someone else. I try to be myself,” he said. “I preach the way I would want to be preached to. I want to receive something from God’s word that would tell me how to walk the right path.

“I want to be fed, not just entertained – all gravy and no meat, you’d die.”

— Click here for a photo slideshow with sound from the Taylor Chapel Community AME Church.

Easley and his wife, Ora, moved back to Nashville in 2000 to be closer to family. Living in church parsonages, Easley pastored at Bethel AME in Nashville, New Tyler AME Church in Memphis and Bethel AME Church in Chattanooga since returning.

Easley was appointed by Bishop Vashti Murphy McKenzie, who appoints the next pastor, to the position at Taylor Chapel AME.

The African Methodist Episcopal Church is sectioned by districts, and in each district is a set of conferences – regions of states – headed by a presiding bishop. Taylor Chapel Community AME Church is in the 13th Episcopal District under McKenzie.

“This is my first time here, and I am impressed with the church as a whole,” he said.

Easley said he was first impressed by the fact that Taylor Chapel AME is a multiracial, multicultural church, which is something he has worked toward in the communities he has pastored in.

“Most churches I’ve pastored at have not been (this way),” he said. “In the South, this is unique for an AME church. But it is a reflection of the times we live in.”

He said he is also impressed with the people of the church and their desire to work.

As pastor, Easley said he would like to see the church have greater involvement in the community.

“This city has a lot of potential,” he said. “We want to capitalize on that. I hope to make inroads with the university and other clergy and pray we continue to grow.”

He said he would also like to increase membership and support building a new worship facility that would host conferences and district meetings.

“I’m impressed here,” he said. “I will enter into a period of prayer and fasting to see where the Lord leads. We must be led by the Lord to accomplish these things.”