Q & A with Dr. Scott Hagan, Coastal District and Northeast District Superintendent
ADVOCATE: Tell us a little about yourself. Where did you grow up? Have you always lived in South Georgia?
DR. HAGAN: I was born in Brunswick, Georgia, when my dad was teaching at the junior college there. We moved to Athens for him to get his doctorate and my brother Kirk was born there. Dad was hired as the first anatomy teacher of the new nursing school started at Georgia Southern the summer before I started first grade, so we moved to Statesboro. I graduated from Statesboro High School and moved away to attend college at Georgia Tech.
ADVOCATE: What’s your faith journey?
DR. HAGAN: I was blessed, so richly, to be born into a family that carried my brother and me to church multiple times a week. My parents grew up the same way. My father grew up in the baptist church in Newington, Georgia. My mother grew up as the oldest child of a United Methodist pastor. Altogether, we were in worship somewhere every weekend, even when we went out of town. Kirk and I attended summer camp at Epworth by the Sea, and it was in the Nalls Auditorium that I remember walking down front to give my life to follow Jesus.
We were active in MYF at Pittman Park as teenagers, and it was in my junior year of high school that I discerned God was calling me. I just was not clear if I was being called to enter the ministry like my grandfather, or to become a college basketball coach. At the time, coaching sounded like more fun so I pursued a plan to make it happen. I ended up working as a team manager, then got promoted, and started traveling with the men’s team at Georgia Tech and working for Coach Cremins. After graduating, I worked a summer for the Atlanta Hawks and another summer for the Olympic Men’s Basketball ‘Dream’ team, while also coaching for two years. But, for all the fun I was having as a coach, I came to realize that I found the most fulfillment on Sundays as a volunteer youth counselor in the churches I attended. I prayed and asked God what I was missing, and God’s response was kind but straightforward - I had been called to serve as a pastor in the local church! While I heard this calling back in high school, I had taken the long way to get there. So, I enrolled in seminary and started as a youth minister that summer.
ADVOCATE: What’s your favorite Bible verse and how does it help shape your ministry philosophy and your guiding principles?
DR. HAGAN: You caught me with a great question. I have a favorite chapter of the Bible, John 4. I have loved, since I was a teenager, the back-and-forth banter between the Samaritan woman and the stranger that is later revealed to be the Savior of the World. I also have a favorite book of the Bible, the Letter to the Philippians. Paul is so honest in discussing his own mortality and his past pursuits of success that failed him. However, I cannot say I have a single favorite verse!
ADVOCATE: What are your hopes for the two districts you will be serving and for the South Georgia Conference as a whole?
DR. HAGAN: I am hopeful that every church will find some space, by the grace of God, to refocus on our mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ. We are all busy, but I have seen how too much time spent on the urgent and things that distract has kept me from the essential. We need to get back to asking the bigger questions of discipleship. Sure, there are committee meetings to attend, buildings to maintain, and budgets to adopt and fund, but all of this effort should serve the greater mission - inviting people into God’s unique plan for growing people by grace in the local church.
ADVOCATE: You’ve served as a local church pastor for 21 years. How do you anticipate serving as a District Superintendent will differ, and what similarities are there?
DR. HAGAN: I anticipate that much of it will carry over. Pastors and Superintendents both need to begin by grounding themselves in their identity as the Beloved of God. That daily pursuit of returning to our True Self should translate into our daily efforts in our ministry with others. Both roles include the need to have difficult conversations, to plan ahead, travel some, and connect with and honor people. I think the biggest difference is that the local church allows for all of that to happen with many of the same folks each week. I am already missing the rhythm of relationships that came with serving in the local church. Yet, the new people I am meeting as I travel around are incredible and their stories inspire me.
ADVOCATE: What are the things that most excite you about the local churches, clergy, and laity in the South Georgia Conference?
DR. HAGAN: Every person has a story. Every story is filled with grace. I love how faithful God is to travel with us through the struggles, the suffering, and the self-inflicted hurt that we cause ourselves and others. Every church ever started came out of a conviction that the Good News needs to be shared in this place and to these people. Then to think about how that initial answer to a call by that small group was used by God to acquire property and begin regular worship and care. Every church is a story of triumph over adversity. The same is true for every person who has answered the call to serve in pastoral ministry. The world is not for the church nor is the world for people answering God’s call to serve the church. There are so many distractions and temptations that would steal people away. Yet, here we are.
ADVOCATE: Tell us about your family.
DR. HAGAN: My wife Julie and I celebrated our twenty-third wedding anniversary in June, yet again occurring during Annual Conference. We definitely did not check our future calendars when we were planning that wedding at Northbrook UMC, her home church in Roswell, Georgia. She is the daughter of Lynda and Larry. She grew up in church on Sundays and in Athens on Saturdays. Much to my consternation, she is a die-hard Georgia Bulldog and an avid follower of the Atlanta Braves. When she is not watching sports, she works as a Media Specialist at Portal Middle-High School. We have two sons, Sam and Jack. Sam is a senior at Georgia Southern who spent his summer serving on the Leadership Team at Camp Connect with Suzanne Akins. He loved it! Jack just graduated from Statesboro High and will start at Georgia Southern in a couple of weeks. Both of them love to beat their dad in anything competing, with tennis and disc golf being regular favorites.
ADVOCATE: Beyond your immediate family, share about your family connections in the South Georgia Conference.
DR. HAGAN: My grandfather, Carlton Carruth, and his identical twin brother, Edward Carruth, entered the ministry from their home church, Statesboro First, back in 1944. Because of the war and being needed as Chaplains in the US Navy, Bishop Moore ordained them as deacons one day and elders the next. They each served in South Georgia for over forty years. My grandmother, Augusta, was a Conference President of the United Methodist Women, elected to serve as a delegate to General Conference six times, and attended the World Methodist Conference three times. My mother, Miriam Carruth Hagan, served as the Director of Administrative Services for fourteen years before retiring in 2014. My brother Kirk and I are also joined by our cousin Tom Carruth, the oldest grandson of Edward, from our generation serving as pastors in South Georgia.
ADVOCATE: What’s fun for you? What do you enjoy doing when you’re not working?
DR. HAGAN: The four of us started a summer tradition of traveling around the country to watch Major League Baseball games in different cities and stadiums. My parents did something similar for Kirk and me, so it was fun to extend it. We plan a trip to see two or three games in a week, while also doing something else while in the area. We have hiked in national parks, visited incredible museums, all while checking another stadium off the list. We have been to thirteen together, so far. During the year, I play some tennis with the boys, try not to die in the Crossfit cardio classes I attend, and enjoy walking around the neighborhood listening to audiobooks.