Dr. Jeffery J. Fugate was born August 25, 1964, in Dayton, Ohio, and was saved at the age of five. At the age of seven, the Fugate family returned to his parents’ home place of Hazard, Kentucky, where his father, Sam Fugate, started the Bible Baptist Church in 1972. Bro. Sam Fugate pastored this church until 1985 when he passed away with cancer at the age of 40. Pastor Jeff Fugate became the pastor of his father’s church in Hazard at the age of 21 on April 16, 1986. In 1987, he was married to Leah Michelle Cornett of Hindman, Kentucky. The Fugates have five children, eight grandchildren. 

Pastor Fugate became pastor of the Clays Mill Road Baptist Church in Lexington, Kentucky, in May of 1991. In his first service at the church, there were 18 people in attendance. The church has grown to an average attendance of over 2,000 with a record attendance of 3,398. In 1997, Bro. Fugate was awarded with two honorary doctorate degrees: a Doctor of Divinity from Oklahoma Baptist College and a Doctor of Humanities from Hyles-Anderson College. With a burden for the state of Kentucky, Pastor Fugate has a goal to see 50 soul-winning, Baptist churches planted throughout Kentucky, and has, to date, seen 28 of those churches started in the state of Kentucky in the cities of Ashland, Barbourville, Bowling Green, Corbin, Danville, Elizabethtown, Florence, Frankfort, Georgetown, Hazard, Hopkinsville, Lawrence, Lexington, London, Louisville, Minnie, Owensboro, and Somerset. 

To accommodate the growth of the church and the additional ministries that have been added, Clays Mill Road Baptist Church has had many building projects through the years. In 1993, the church built a gymnasium that was used for the church auditorium. In 1998, the church built a 1000-seat auditorium and office building. In 2001, the Anderson Educational Building was added and served as home to the Clays Mill Christian Academy. In 2003, the church purchased and remodeled the facilities of a motel in the city of Lexington. This 23-acre campus is the home for Commonwealth Baptist College. In 2005, the church voted to begin Circle C Baptist Ranch, a youth camp ministry on a beautiful 117-acre site in Lancaster, KY. In 2013, construction was completed on a 12,000 square foot building on our college campus including a 300-seat auditorium. In 2018, the church purchased 80 acres on Brannon Road in Nicholasville. In September of 2019, the church held its first service at the new property in a 25,000 square foot building. Construction began on a 40,000 square foot multipurpose building and in March of 2023, the church had its first service in this building. In the fall of 2023, this became the new home of the Clays Mill Christian Academy. The church still uses the original property on Clays Mill Road for its Spanish ministry and bus ministry and is now home of the Clays Mill Cares Daycare started in October 2024. 

Bro. Fugate grew up working in the bus ministry. Clays Mill Baptist Church runs 22 bus routes and 8 vans. Averaging over 800 each Sunday in the bus ministry, Pastor Fugate is known around the nation as “the Pastor of the Bus Ministry of America”. In 1994, Pastor Fugate became the speaker on the "Voice of the Appalachians" radio broadcast. His weekly Saturday evening television broadcast on WLJC is a favorite of many. He also travels frequently around the country preaching in conferences and revival meetings. In 2025, Pastor Fugate started The Jeff Fugate Podcast where he tackles real issues, challenges, and opportunities. 

Bro. Fugate is the author of several books, Can You See the Angels?, How to Be Close to Your Children, Balance in the Christian Life, Connecting the Hearts of the Father and the Children, Acquainted with Grief, Church Growth: Principles and Practices, and Church Growth: Through the Bus Ministry, and Where the Bourbon Trail Ends. In 2017, the Fugate family co-authored Keeping the Balance in Christian Music.