Beloved Charlotte pastor dies. From her own struggle, a ministry was born.
A Charlotte pastor known for her dedication to the poor, Brenda Stevenson of the New Outreach Christian Center has died. She was 66.
Stevenson is survived by her husband, Norman Stevenson, and two children, Sharkeeta and Gerald. Her son Raman died in 1997 of osteosarcoma cancer. Funeral arrangements have not yet been announced.
Along with her work as a pastor, Stevenson was renown for her charitable work, often hosting Thanksgiving and Christmas meals for people in need, as well as back-to-school drives and other fundraising events. Each holiday, Stevenson and volunteers at the center would serve hundreds of people at a time. Through the years, thousands of Charlotte families were touched.
She built a reputation among her congregation and others in the community as a dedicated servant of people less fortunate.
“When I joined her church I found out what real love was,” Joyce Jefferson, a member of Stevenson’s congregation, said on Wednesday. “Unconditional love.”
Brenda Stevenson’s legacy
Stevenson came from poverty herself, according to an Observer article about her in 2013. When she was 18, she and Norman Stevenson had barely enough money during Christmas to cover rent, leaving no money for presents for then 2-year-old Sharkeeta. They went to a local ministry for help — a moment that inspired her to devote herself to helping people in the same position.
She instilled the same mission in her surviving children, both of whom are pastors.
“Growing up, every Christmas we could not open up any toys, we couldn’t do anything, until we went out and served,” Sharkeeta Stevenson said.
On her death bed, Stevenson asked her family members to make sure that her church continues, and to continue providing for Charlotte’s poor.
“The legacy is not going to stop,” Sharkeeta Stevenson said.
Her family declined to say what caused Stevenson’s death.
Stevenson launched her first food bank in 1972 and went on to lead, along with her husband, the New Outreach Christian Ministries in west Charlotte.
She said in the 2013 interview, while serving at the church Christmas morning, that her calling to give food, toys and clothing away came from seeing her own past struggles in the lives of those still needing help.
“I had the same need,” she said that morning as a crowd filled the church pews.
She often made headlines for her charity work, particularly around holidays, when she and her family would host a Christmas celebration.
The family is “a hardworking set of Christians that was always happy to help people less fortunate than they were,” said Johnny Allen, the pastor and executive director of Hoskins Park Ministries, just down the block from New Outreach.
He added that, even as her health faded and Stevenson relied on a wheelchair, “that didn’t stop her.”
Gerald Stevenson, during an interview on Wednesday, reflected on one of his mother’s favorite phrases: “Don’t worry, everything will be all right.”
Much of his mother’s mission, she said, was not only to provide food in times of hunger or clothes in times of need, but to instill hope for a brighter future among people who had all but lost it.
“When you give to the less fortunate like the poor who cannot help themselves, they see hope,” he said. “They see, ‘OK God cares about me.’”
In the news
Running as a Democrat, Stevenson made an unsuccessful bid last year for an at-large seat on the Mecklenburg County Commission. She received more than 48,000 votes.
On her campaign website, Stevenson said she was “dedicated to using my years of experience in designing well-crafted legislation and policies to make our community a better, safer place.”
Along with her political and charitable work, Stevenson also made headlines in 2015, when, after the mass shooting at a Black church in Charleston left nine dead, she said she would bring a gun to the pulpit along with her Bible.
“Like I tell everybody — just welcome two new members, Smith and Wesson,” Stevenson said, quoted by WBTV.
For all her prominence in the media, much of her work happened outside the spotlight.
Jefferson said Stevenson regularly visited her when she was in the hospital — and that she did the same for every member of her church, even though her wheelchair made it difficult.
Stevenson also gave Jefferson furniture when she had none. She would bake her pies (strawberry, Jefferson’s favorite). And in the face of health difficulties, “she never lost her faith,” Jefferson said.
“We’re going to hold on to everything she instilled in us,” Jefferson said. “We’re going to take on her strength.”
This story was originally published August 18, 2021 at 1:59 PM.
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