Dr. Bill Hagewood has been the Senior Pastor of Stanton Memorial Baptist Church since August 1st, 1996. He grew up here in Miami after his parents moved from Clarksville, TN in 1948, when he was a baby. He graduated from Palmetto Senior High School, Miami Dade Community College, and Carson-Newman College. It was while at Carson-Newman, he met and married the love of his life, the former Donna Jean Freshour. After getting married in June 1969, they moved to Lousiville, KY, for Bill to finish his seminary degree and Donna to complete her BA. In 1973, Bill had graduated and Donna had finished her BA the year prior. It was also at that time, their first son, Stephen was born and they were called to their first full-time pastoral ministry in Sterling Virginia. They would serve there for eight and a half years before being led to go as missionaries to the Dominican Republic after their second son, Andrew, was born in 1981.
Bill, Donna and their two sons, Stephen and Andrew, would serve as missionaries in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, with the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention from 1983-1995, after a year of language learning in San Jose, Costa Rica. While in the Dominican Republic, he was involved in church planting and church development ministries, doing various evangelistic and outreach events throughout the country, encouraging a country-wide youth ministry, coordinating numerous volunteer work teams from the USA to build several church buildings and a youth camp and to do improvements of several other churches. In addition, he was an adjunct professor at a Baptist Seminary in Santo Domingo and mentored several young people called into ministry. Pastor Bill and Donna and his family returned to the USA in the summer of 1995, due to a chronic health problem that Donna developed while serving in Santo Domingo with her husband and doing administrative work in the mission office.
While serving as the Pastor of Stanton Memorial, The Hagewoods have seen a number of people both young and old come to know Christ as their personal Savior and Lord, be baptized and become involved in many different ministries over the years. They have offered premarital classes, couples retreats, and been involved in counseling with many over the years. They have also used their home to minister to a variety of people going through difficult times as well as caring for Donna’s parents in their twilight years before they went to be with the Lord. Their missionary hearts have also had them engaged in planning and supporting many overseas volunteer trips to both Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Pastor Bill has led numerous construction, medical projects and evangelistic ministries through the years, as well as leading a major effort to purchase a home for 55 orphaned children in Port Au Prince following the devastating earthquake in January, 2010. This continues to be a ministry the church supports after all these years, along with a children’s ministry in Santo Domingo and a home for elderly Haitian sugarcane workers in San Pedro, Dominican Republic.
Stanton Memorial Baptist Church is an international Bible preaching and teaching church with a big heart for missions and sharing the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ with a lost world. We welcome all who want to know Him and serve Him.