Hoodland
  Lutheran Church
Affiliated with ELCA
Called by God's Grace,
empowered and unified
by the Holy Spirit.

Pastor Berry Scruggs' Biography

 Reverend Berry Scruggs has served the Hoodland Lutheran Church since October of 1995 as sole pastor, teacher, and servant leader.  His history and faith journey are summarized as follows:

 A native Oregonian, he and twin brother Larry were born at Camp White, Oregon (near Medford) in October of 1943, and were adopted by William and Claudia Scruggs six months later.  He was raised in Southern Oregon, graduating from Medford High School in 1961.

 Pastor Berry and Judy were married in July of 1962, and have two sons who still reside in the Brookings, Oregon area, along with two of their grandchildren.  A third grandson serves in the Army and lives in Wasilla, Alaska, with his wife and two children.

 After graduating from Southern Oregon College in 1970, and having worked in the wholesale seafood business and a particleboard plant, Pastor Berry began his accounting career in the Portland, Oregon area with a national firm.  After 5 ½ years there, the family moved to the Brookings area where he opened his own CPA firm.  Then, after about 10 years in this career, the complications and hypocrisies in the Federal Income Tax Code led him to search for another calling.  He never dreamed it would be in ministry.

 Yet, about four years earlier he and Judy had returned to the church, hearing the Gospel of Jesus Christ within the Trinity Lutheran Church in Brookings.  In August of 1984, while at the Communion rail, Pastor Berry first experienced the Holy Spirit and the reality of trusting in Jesus Christ.  Then, while serving as Council President and attending a statewide denominational gathering in Springfield, Oregon, he and pastor Gordon Myrah were having a conversation about what they did each day.  Pastor Berry explains it this way:
       "After hearing what his days were like, I told Gordy how it seemed
        like he was involved in real life, while my days were stuck with this
        incompetent bureaucracy.  Pastor Gordy turned to me and asked why,
        since I could see this, I didn’t do what he was doing as well."
Life has never been the same since.

 It took three more years before they were able to leave the accounting firm he had founded and other business matters, and they were off to Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley, California.  Being small town folks, the East Bay of California was just too big, so Pastor Berry took extra classes to leave a semester early for an internship at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church at Boardman, in Eastern Oregon.  Twenty months later he received a call to Hoodland Lutheran, and was ordained as a pastor in November of 1995.

 During the last thirteen years Pastor Berry has had the privilege of serving the congregation as we worked through purchasing and remodeling our first church building in Brightwood, the ups and downs of church life, and the many joys and sorrows of so many personal lives, both in and out of the congregation.  He volunteered with the Hoodland Fire District as a chaplain and firefighter, being named firefighter of the year in 1998.  He and Judy have also participated in many community and church activities as well.

 It has been a challenging journey, following God’s call to ministry, and to service here in the mountain area.  Yet it is also exciting living a life where every phone call, every meeting in the local stores, and every worship service is an opportunity to share the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  We give Him the praise and the glory for all of this.  Amen.