The Rev. Dr. Reginald Woullard describes his time growing up in the Hub City as a rich and rewarding experience, a great place to grow up.
“I guess you could say it’s good soil,” he said. “I had a lot of positive people in my life and a lot of wisdom along the way from people who were patient with me. They taught me some very worthwhile principles to live by. But I kind of developed my own philosophy of life based on those people that God placed in my life.”
These days, Woullard is pastor at Shady Grove Baptist Church in Eastabuchie. And while the church may be off the beaten path, the Hattiesburg High graduate and wife, Joyce, who is also a product of the Hub City, have raised their four children within the city limits of Hattiesburg. “We love Hattiesburg; it’s a great place to raise our children,” she said. “We have people in our lives who were and have been very supportive of us.”
He and Joyce (Wilson) grew up in the same neighborhood, their families knowing each other before they were ever born. “Our families had similar backgrounds, so very close backgrounds. Once we met, we’ve been together ever since.”
“We liked each other in junior high, but weren’t dating, puppy love,” Joyce said. “
“I went off to school and she went to Southern,” Woullard said. “We continued to date and eventually got married.” They will have been together for 40 years in March.
Mostly an athlete at HHS, Woullard played football, basketball and ran track. His lifelong dream was to play professional football or be a coach. “That was always my dream from the time I was a child,” he said. “If I didn’t make it at professional football, then I wanted to be a coach. And I accomplished one of those.”
After graduation, Woullard received a football scholarship to Ole Miss, where he was a four-year letterman. His athletic prowess at Ole Miss led him to walk on as a free agent with the New Orleans Saints in 1980. But soon after that he was called to preach, following in the footsteps of his father, grandfather and great grandfather.
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, Woullard was licensed and ordained by his father as a fourth generation minister.
He returned to school at William Carey and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Education. He furthered his studies at the University of Southern Mississippi and worked in the education field for more than 20 years, teaching and coaching, before retiring in 2007. It was then that he started following the Lord’s play calls.
When the call to preach fell upon his heart, he received a Bachelor of Theology from Mississippi Baptist Seminary and did additional studies at the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. He is also a graduate of the Harvard Divinity School Summer Leadership Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In May 2007, he received his Master of Theology and his Doctor of Theology from the New Foundation Theological Seminary. He also completed the Proclaimers Place, a four-day intenstive training tutorial study at Regent’s Park College, Oxford University, Oxford, England.
Almost 20 years later, he was called to follow in his father’s footsteps as the pastor of Shady Grove Baptist Church in Eastabuchie, where he has remained since 1989. Prior to Shady Grove, Woullard’s other pastoral assignments included Mary Magdalene of Eatonville, Good Hope of New Augusta, and Antioch Baptist Church of Hattiesburg.
The couple has four children – Dan’yelle, the oldest, lives in Maryland, while oldest son, Reginald, works for the hospital here. Son, Isaiah, a football standout at Presbyterian Christian during his high school days, is following in his father’s footsteps playing for the Rebels at Ole Miss. And Cameron, their youngest, is currently a freshman at PCS, where he makes good grades, participates in honors classes and is interested in debate, journalism and politics.
While Isaiah has followed in his father’s footsteps, Woullard just wants his son to be happy and to get his education.
“A lot of people think I influenced him to go to Ole Miss, but I never did, because it’s a difficult place to go to school and play football,” he said. “Some people with four-year scholarships never even hit the field. Honestly, we found out late in his recruiting that he wanted to go to Ole Miss. We thought he wanted to go somewhere else. We’re proud he’s there. He’s making the best of it and doing all he can do.”
While athletics is not Cameron’s niche, his father reminds him, “You don’t have to be an athlete to be successful. In our family, we do more than just play ball. You can have gifts in other areas. You are equally as talented as Isaiah and I really believe that.”
“He keeps us on top of all current events,” said Joyce who served as a mortgage loan officer/vice president at Trustmark Bank for 25 years before retiring three years ago.
Cameron has also expressed an interest in going to Ole Miss and was one of 50 students selected across the state to attend the Trent Lott Leadership Conference, which is held each year for two weeks on the Ole Miss campus. He also serves for the second year on Toby Barker’s Mayor’s Youth Council.
“We will support him whatever he does,” said Woullard. “I love Ole Miss, but I also went to school at William Carey too.”
Woullard believes Ole Miss helped make him who he is, because when he attended school there he played football with the first African American football players.
“It was a different era,” he said. “I feel like we were probably instrumental in bringing about that change. But I love Ole Miss. I’m a Rebel forever. It’s a special place. I met a lot of great people up there, I mean fantastic. I cherish my experience up there, I really do.”
But also pretty special is following the men in his family as a fourth-generation pastor.
“It’s special, but there’s a lot of expectation that comes along with that. But I’ve learned to please Him, and not them,’ he said, pointing upward.
Woullard’s great-grandfather was a pastor. And his grandfather was at Shady Grove Baptist Church for 42 years and his dad was there for 36. A week after Woullard’s father died, he was contacted by a church representative saying they were calling him to be their new pastor.
“I prayed about it and felt led to go and I’m so glad I did,” he said. “I had no dream that the church in the country would grow like it has. God has done amazing things.”
Woullard explained that the church is the oldest African American church in this area, was founded by slaves. It came out of Providence Baptist Church after church deacons decided to organize another church.
“Civil Rights leader Vernon Dahmer had a long history with the church and his widow, Ellie, has been teaching Sunday school there for 70 years,” Woullard said. “A lot of history, a lot of people from history came from that community. One of my friends told me that God is moving off the beaten path, so I guess God wants to go where nobody can take credit for it.”
The church is located in the middle of Eastabuchie with no houses around, which allows for room to expand and build even bigger. “I’m happy that God let us be a part of it,” Woullard said.
The church has two Sunday services, one at 7:45 a.m. followed by Sunday school and a second service at 10:45 a.m. Wednesday night services begin at 6 with small group Bible study then large group study at 7:30 p.m. The youth have a separate Bible student.
The church also has an Internet broadcast, which is available to people across the world. It was launched on Easter Sunday 2007.
“It ministers to a lot of people,” said Woullard, and isn’t just for those who aren’t able to attend church services. But we try and reach hospital patients, prisoners, those on the battlefield, in military service, those in other countries and church members who live in other states We want them to be part of the service all the time and watch regularly. We call them online members.”
During their free time, the couple follows Ole Miss football, naturally, and travels to games. “We didn’t do that before Isaiah,” Woullard said.
“And we record it, so we come home and watch it over and over again,” added Joyce.
Woullard said he had been doing that since before they met. “When USM and Ole Miss used to play we couldn’t stay in the same room. And when Southern started to beat Ole Miss, she’d yell, ‘What’s the score?’ I was so glad when they stopped playing I didn’t know what to do.
They also like travel and spend time with their one granddaughter. Woullard loves going to the movies and remembers that was always something special for him when he was growing up because his mother would take he and his brothers and sisters. “He gets the biggest popcorn and an Icee,” said Joyce.
“At the movies I’m not Rev. Woullard anymore, but a big kid. It’s like a short vacation. No phones to ring or people to bother me, not that I’m complaining. Pastors have to deal with people problems all the time, but that goes with it. You can get burned out. There’s always someone sick and usually pastors are called when things are most tragic.”
Woullard has special memories of Hattiesburg. “Hattiesburg has grown a lot since I was a child, but it’s always been a close knit community with a family atmosphere,” he said. “It’s had problems, but it seems like we’ve always been able to work them out and they didn’t escalate to something that hurt the community. When we integrated the schools, my parents told me, ‘Those white kids are just like you. You treat them just like you would a black kid.’
“Some people would say it’s got some clicks, but that’s in any town. But for the most part, it’s been a very very supportive community and we’ve not ever wanted to leave. Whenever we go somewhere we always look forward to getting home. There’s no place like home.
