Pastor David Malcolm McGruder

About David

David Malcolm McGruder is a minister, historian, theologian, and emerging prophetic voice for the contemporary church. He serves as Executive Pastor at Friendship West Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, where Rev. Frederick D. Haynes III, PhD, is Senior Pastor. He previously served the congregation as Pastor of Youth and Collegiate Ministries.

A native of Kansas City, Kansas, Pastor McGruder was baptized at the age of five and licensed to preach at eleven at Salem Baptist Church under the pastoral leadership of the late Rev. C.B. Bailey.

Before arriving in Dallas, he served as Pastor of Young Adult Ministries and Ministry Assistant to the Senior Pastor at Mt. Ennon Baptist Church in Clinton, Maryland, a congregation of more than 8,000 in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, led by Rev. Delman L. Coates, PhD.

Pastor McGruder’s ministry and professional experience spans church, civic, and public leadership spaces, including work with the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel at Morehouse College; the offices of U.S. Senators Jerry Moran and Pat Roberts; the THRIVE Internship & Leadership Program; the Black Church Center for Justice and Equality; the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change; and Faith Formula Human Services, Inc., where he currently serves as Executive Director.

He is a graduate of Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA, where he was awarded the Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship and Prize; Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, NJ, where he received the Aaron E. Gast Prize in Urban Ministry; and Wolfson College, Cambridge, in the United Kingdom, where he specialized in political history, focusing on the role of religion, theology, and law in shaping racial constructs during the Tudor age (1485–1603).

Pastor McGruder takes pride in his family and remains committed to faith, scholarship, and service. He enjoys chess, collecting presidential biographies and classic jazz albums, horticulture, Kansas Jayhawk basketball, and cheering on the Kansas City Chiefs. His greatest joy is being the devoted husband of Toiya Marie McGruder (née Smith) of Fort Worth, Texas.