Rev. Dr. Reginald Woullard, Sr.
Rev. Dr. Reginald Woullard was born in Hattiesburg, Mississippi to the late Rev. Dr. R. W. Woullard, Jr. and the late Mrs. Annette Woullard. After graduating from Hattiesburg Public Schools, where he received his formal education, he attended the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) on a football scholarship where he was a four-year letterman. His athletic prowess at Ole Miss led to his signing on as a free agent with the New Orleans Saints in 1980. He graduated from William Carey University with a Bachelor of Science in Education. He broadened the scope of his education with further studies at the University of Southern Mississippi. He served in the field of education as a teacher/coach for over 20 years before his retirement in 2007.
Rev. Dr. Woullard entered the ministry in 1989 under the tutelage and nurturing of his father, the Rev. Dr. R.W. Woullard, Jr. After accepting God’s call, Pastor Woullard was licensed and ordained by his father as a fourth-generation minister. Almost 20 years later, he was called to follow in his father’s footsteps as the illustrious pastor of the Shady Grove Baptist Church in Eastabuchie, Mississippi. Prior to Shady Grove, Pastor Woullard’s other pastoral assignments included the following churches; Mary Magdalene of Eatonville, Good Hope of New Augusta, and Antioch Baptist Church of Hattiesburg. Pastor Woullard received a Bachelor of Theology from Mississippi Baptist Seminary and did additional studies at the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. He is a graduate of the Harvard Divinity School Summer Leadership Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In May 2007, he received his Master of Theology and his Doctorate of Theology from the New Foundation Theological Seminary. Pastor Woullard recently completed a course of study in the proclamation of the Christian gospel entitled “Proclaimers Place” under Dr. Joel Gregory, a Distinguished Fellow. He attended this four-day intensive tutorial study which placed special emphases upon textual exegesis, hermeneutics, and homiletics at Regent’s Park College, Oxford University in Oxford, England.
He is relentless in his community involvement which includes serving on the Board of Trustees for the Forrest General Hospital, operating with a billion-dollar budget. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the YMCA of Hattiesburg, MS. His past and present accomplishments are numerous. He is passionate about his fight for the underprivileged and the unsaved. His vision for outreach to the community-at-large is being realized through witnessing opportunities in various neighborhoods in both Forrest and Jones counties. Under his leadership, the church has shown phenomenal growth both in membership and finances. He is the visionary and architect of many new ministries at Shady Grove Baptist Church which are designed to take the church to the next level. A youth minister and a ministry coordinator have been added to the staff. We continue to be astounded and grateful for the expansive growth we have seen in our people resources, our physical resources, our financial resources, and our real estate resources under Pastor Woullard’s leadership. We thank God for the global growth we have seen via our webcasting. Our reach has been expanded on a worldwide basis and we consider this our newest avenue for fulfilling the Great Commission and the Great Commandment. New outreach programs are being added to reach the unsaved and to offer them the only alternative - Jesus Christ.
Pastor Woullard is known for the creed he lives by: “The grass withereth, and the flower fadeth: but the Word of God shall stand forever. (Isaiah 40:8)
He and his lovely wife Joyce have four children, Dan’yelle, Reginald, Jr., Isaiah, and Cameron.