Greetings,
My name is JArthur Grubbs, Jr. I serve as Sr. Pastor of the Greater Friendship Missionary Baptist Church. It is wonderful to greet you virtually!
I am a native of Gulfport, MS and married to my beloved college sweetheart, Sis. Vertrina Grubbs. In June of this year (2026) if God is so gracious, Sis. Grubbs and I will have celebrated 31 years of an amazing and blessed covenant relationship called marriage. She is truly the love of my life! She is the sweetness in my Kool-Aid! She is my God given and God-fearing helpmeet. And I am not ashamed to say… I love my wife!!!
God has blessed us to have a handsome son, JArthur III, a beautiful daughter Madison Ashley, and a wonderful daughter-in-love, Kiah Grubbs; and let me not forget our grand-dog, Bubba.
In February of 2026, God willing, I will have celebrated my first-year anniversary of service as pastor. I truly count it all joy to have been blessed with such a God-fearing, loving and supportive church family.
I have had the privilege of serving as Associate Minister at Greater Peace Missionary Baptist Church in Opelika, Alabama for 28+ years under the leadership of a great man of God in the person of the Rev. Dr. Clifford E. Jones, past president of the Southeast District of the Alabama State Missionary Baptist Convention USA, Inc.
I am a strong advocate of servant-leadership. One who leads by first understanding how to serve.
For 20+ years Sis. Grubbs and I served as Director/Co-director of the Couple’s Ministry at Greater Peace; and for roughly 15 of those years, I was honored to teach the Couple’s Sunday School Class. I also served in the Prison and Door-2-Door Evangelism ministries for over 20+ years.
So often was the case that our attempts to bless and encourage the incarcerated men and women at the Justice Center were substantially overwhelmed by the uncountable blessings and uplifting encouragements we received from those we intended to serve. To God be the Glory! Please remember these men and women in your prayers.
By God’s grace and mercy, I found my beautiful wife at Auburn University and graduated with a “thank-you-lordy” degree in Computer Engineering. With God’s help, He navigated me through the troubled waters of the corporate workspace; taking a little nappy headed boy from Gulfport, Mississippi and making him a global senior managing director in cyber intelligence and threat management for a fortune 500 company.
My Mom often shared how she wished she could have given more financial support while I was at Auburn; and I shared with here every time that she sent me to Auburn with the most important thing I needed, a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. I was perhaps one of the “brokest” brothers on campus, but I was also one of the happiest on campus. Again, to God be the Glory!
I went on to earn a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from Columbus State University, and then a Master of Arts in Christian Religious Studies at the Luther Rice Theological Seminary.
I was given the double honor of teaching as an adjunct professor at the Christ Our Redeemer Seminary. The testimony of the apostle Paul when he says, and I paraphrase, “…I would rather speak five words of instruction that people can understand than ten thousand that cannot be understood” resonates with me and has been my constant companion and passionate goal in the preaching and teaching ministry God has given.
There are many board of director positions, special recognitions, and nonprofit organizations where I have served. However, of all the accomplishments for which I am deeply thankful and grateful to God for His grace and His mercy, I sincerely and humbly believe my greatest asset is this:
“I simply love the Lord.”
I pray this summary helps shine at least a small amount of light on my personal journey. I am not perfect and Greater Friendship is not a perfect church. But for every heart who joins Greater Friendship in-person or virtually, I encourage you to keep your eyes on Him who is perfect, the Son of the True and Living God, Jesus Christ as we strive to live out His teachings and His life lessons. We as a church and church leaders may fail you. I may fail you. But Jesus Christ will never fail you.
Our ultimate goal is the same for all of creation, to give and bring glory to the singular and holy and matchless God of our salvation who exist in the perfect unity, and harmony, and oneness of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. While we are incapable of fully comprehending how this is, this is exactly what the Holy Bible, the Scriptures, the inerrant, perfect, and infallible Word of God teaches and therefore why we believe it.
I welcome you to prayerfully consider joining us.
Yours in Christ,
Rev. JArthur Grubbs, Jr.
Sr. Pastor, Greater Friendship Missionary Baptist Church