Celebrating the 41st Pastoral Anniversary of Rev. Dr. Julius Scruggs as pastor of First Missionary Baptist, Huntsville

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama – The congregation and friends of First Missionary Baptist Church, 3509 Blue Springs Road in Huntsville, honored senior pastor, the Rev. Dr. Julius Scruggs, for 41 years of ministry at the church on Sunday, March 18, 2018.

Guest preacher for both the 8 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. services was the Rev. Gregory Haygood, pastor of the Pilgrim Baptist Church in South Bend, Indiana.

Haygood accepted his call from God into the Gospel Ministry in 1973, under Pastor W. P. Petty. He later joined the First Missionary Baptist Church where he was further developed and cultivated in the ministry under the superb leadership and tutelage of Rev. Dr. Julius R. Scruggs. Since 1990, Rev. Haygood has pastored the Pilgrim Baptist Church in South Bend, Indiana.

Scruggs, who holds master’s and doctorate degrees from the Vanderbilt University School of Divinity, is the author of four books from the practical “How to Study and Teach the Bible” to the scholarly, “Baptist Preachers with Social Consciousness: A Comparative Study of Martin Luther King Jr. and Henry Fosdick,” to the devotional, “Meditations on the Church” and “God Is Faithful.”

During his 41 years in the pastorate at First Baptist, the church has initiated witnessing/evangelism teams, jail ministry teams, scholarship funds, and health fitness and recreation ministries. The Christian Education ministry has been enhanced with weekly Bible study for all ages, and a licensed Child Development Center and Academy serving children ages 2-1/2 through fifth grade. The church property consists of a twelve-acre lot on which the church and parsonage are located and the four-phases (Sanctuary, Educational Complex, Family Life Center and Administration/Educational Wing) have been constructed. In 2009, Pastor led the church in starting the FMBC Foundation, a mission and education foundation made possible by gifts of 2 million dollars by two families in the church.

More than 4,877 new members have united with the church during Dr. Scruggs’ tenure. He has led the church in giving to Home and Foreign Mission causes annually. The church has built and paid for 23 houses in partnership with Habitat for Humanity, allocated funds annually to the program, and members of the church have assisted in building fourteen other Habitat homes.

On September 10, 2009 in Memphis, Tennessee, Pastor Scruggs was overwhelmingly elected as the 17th President of the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc. The National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc., is the nation’s oldest and largest African American religious convention with an estimated membership of 7.5 million. He served as president from 2009-2014.