Meet Our Pastor 

Pastor Myra Jean Hicks was born in Farmingdale, New York.  She has served faithfully throughout the AME Zion California Conference and was appointed as Pastor of First Church, San Jose on June 3, 2023, by Bishop Brian R. Thompson, Sr.  Pastor Hicks is a servant-leader, with a deep compassion for what Matthew 25:40 calls "the least of these."

 

As the former Pastor of Clinton Chapel AME Zion, she and the Church were honored in 2019 and 2021 by the Mayors of the City of Modesto for their work in the community.  She credits her parent, Rev. Joseph and Sister Winifred Sharper for setting the bar high with their 100 years of combined service in the AME Zion Church.

 

Pastor Hicks' formal and informal education has shaped the woman she is today.  She attended Jordan High School and graduated from Cudderley Senior High School with honors, later furthering her studies at Mission College in Santa Clara, California and Solano Community College in Fairfield, California.

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It was the "school of hard knocks" where Pastor Hicks encountered life's altering experiences. She soon realized that her testimony and deliverance would be the key that God would use to help others heal from their pain and past hurts, allowing them to become the free women and men God intended them to be.

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Rev. Hicks has been blessed to walk life's journey alongside her longtime friend and husband Terry Hicks.  She is the mother of four, grandmother of 22, and great grandmother of 10.  She has adopted one daughter and is the grandmother of her son.  Many lovingly call Rev. Hicks "Mom."

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Psalms 34:9, "Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivered him out of them all." is one of her favorite scriptures.  Pastor Hicks' life and deliverance is a testimony that God can use the worst situations to bring out the best.  We know that what Paul wrote in Romans 8:28 is still the unadulterated truth "all things work together for the good, for those that love the Lord and are called according to His purpose."  

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