The Reverend Dr. James C. Perkins was ordained to Gospel Ministry in 1974.  He has served as pastor of Greater Christ Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan for thirty-six years.  He received his Doctor of Ministry degree from United Theological Seminary, Dayton, Ohio (1990, Samuel DeWitt Proctor Fellow). In August 2014, he was elected 20thPresident of the Progressive National Baptist Convention.

An internationally recognized minister, Dr. Perkins fulfills speaking engagements at churches, seminaries, and conferences across the United States and abroad.

He is the author of Building Up Zion's Walls: Ministry for Empowering the African American Family, Playbook for Christian Manhood: 12 Key Plays for Black Teen Boys, (published by Judson Press (Valley Forge, Pennsylvania), and Midnight Religion: Messages of Victory in the Midst of Adversity.  His other writings, as well as profiles of his ministry and details of his community activism, have been included in both secular and Christian publications such as Black Enterprise, USA Today, Ebony, American Baptist, The African-American Pulpit, several edited works published by Judson Press, and the best-selling Success Runs in Our Raceby George Fraser.

Believing that the church has a responsibility to serve both the temporal as well as the spiritual needs of the surrounding community, Dr. Perkins has established numerous enterprises that support that vision. In 1992, he founded the Fellowship Nonprofit Housing Corporation as a vehicle for community economic development. In the spring of 2006, Providence Place was constructed. This $10 million development provides fifty single-family homes for low and middle-income families. Responding to the crisis he witnessed in the available educational options for young, urban African American males, Dr. Perkins instituted the Benjamin E. Mays Male Academy in 1993. This Kindergarten through sixth-grade Christian school for boys operated for 17 years and positively impacted the future of hundreds of males.

Dr. Perkins currently serves on the Board of Trustees of Wiley College, Marshall, TX, Board of Trustees of Morehouse School of Religion, Atlanta, GA, NAACP National Board of Directors and National Council of Churches.  In addition, Dr. Perkins has served as a past President of the Michigan Progressive Baptist Convention.  He is a member of the Detroit Baptist Pastors Council, Detroit Chapter NAACP, and Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc.

He was a recipient of the Ghandi, King, Ikeda Award, Morehouse College, Atlanta, GA, the Pastor of the Year Award, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Benjamin E. Mays Award, Howard University, Washington, D.C., the Charles Andrew Hill Achievement Award, Michigan Progressive Baptist Convention, Michigan Chronicle's Pastor's Salute Award, Who's Who in Black Detroit (Inaugural Edition), the Outstanding Church Leadership Award, American Baptist Churches of Michigan, Distinguished Warriors Award, Detroit Urban League,  National Newspaper Publishers Association Power in the Pulpit Award and the HBCU Game Changers Award (Kentucky State University Alumni) and the 2018 Rainbow PUSH Church Community Award.

Dr. Perkins is married to Linda Adkins Perkins and is the father of two daughters and the grandfather of two grandsons.