Alabama has garnered a spotlight on the national scene with the Sept. 10 election of Julius R. Scruggs as president of the nation’s largest predominantly black denomination, the National Baptist Convention (NBC) USA Inc.
Scruggs, pastor of First Missionary Baptist Church, Huntsville, overwhelmingly defeated (4,108 to 924) former president Henry Lyons, who resigned from the post 10 years ago after being convicted of stealing millions of dollars from the denomination and its partners.
The 67-year-old Scruggs, who has served as the denomination’s vice president at large since 1999, acknowledged the trust involved in electing a president. “I do not take your trust lightly,” he said. “I will do everything in my power to seek to live up to your trust.”
Scruggs said during his campaign that he hoped to expand the missions work of the denomination beyond Africa to countries like Haiti, where individual NBCUSA churches have had a presence. He also said he wanted to see the denomination develop a public policy commission to better address issues such as public education and health care.
Scruggs, who has been in the ministry nearly 50 years, began his service at 18 in Harvest and served in Tennessee and Indiana before returning to Alabama in 1977 to his present pastorate.
At First Missionary Baptist, Huntsville, Scruggs has led the church to grow to more than 4,000 members and build a $10 million facility. The church staff has increased from two part-time employees to 32 full-time employees and 25 part-time employees and has a $3 million annual budget.
An author of four books, Scruggs holds a master of divinity and doctor of ministry from Vanderbilt University School of Divinity in Nashville. He was president of the Alabama State Missionary Baptist Convention from 1995 to 2006. And while he said he didn’t anticipate making a lot of organizational changes in the NBCUSA, he may have to deal with issues stemming from Lyons’ charges that the election process was unfair.
Lyons, pastor of New Salem Missionary Baptist Church, Tampa, Fla., filed a lawsuit two days before the election seeking to stop it, but his attempt was denied by District of Columbia Superior Court Judge Jeanette Clark. Lyons is opposed to a 2006 bylaw amendment limiting the number of votes a representative entity can cast. At press time, supporters of Lyons claimed they planned to challenge the election results in court.
Lyons, a charismatic preacher elected as president in 1994 on promises that he would help alleviate the convention’s financial woes, remains a polarizing figure. His downfall came after his wife, Deborah, (who has since divorced Lyons) set fire to a $700,000 waterfront home he co-owned with a mistress, and the resulting investigation revealed that he had stolen money from the organization.
Lyons served nearly five years in prison after his conviction on state racketeering and grand-theft charges and pleading guilty to federal tax-evasion charges in 1999.
Supporters say he is a changed man who has paid his debt to society, but opponents fear his election would have split the Nashville-based NBC, which claims 7.5 million members.
Lyons’ successor in the office, William Shaw, pastor of White Rock Baptist Church, Philadelphia, has worked to restore confidence in the organization. He has helped institute new guidelines for conducting convention business that became known as the VISA Principles — an acronym for “Vision, Integrity, Structure and Accountability.”
Shaw, elected president in 1999, has served two five-year terms and is ineligible for a third. (Compiled from wire services)
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