“Formed by God’s Power. Perfected by God’s Grace.”

Earl Levi Pendleton was born in Louisa County, Virginia, to the late John and Alberta Pendleton, he is the sixth of seven siblings. He accepted Christ at the age of eleven and was baptized in a nearby creek near the Foster Creek Baptist Church by the late Rev. William Shultz in Louisa, Virginia. He is affectionally known as Dr. “P” and is married to Tammy Bolden Pendleton and has two adult sons, Earl II, and John. 

He was educated in the Louisa Public Schools and graduated as class president in 1971. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Norfolk

State University, a Master’s in divinity and a Doctor of Ministry degree from the Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology at Virginia Union University.

He is a community activist and has served on various community agencies and boards in Central Virginia, including Offender Aid and Restoration (OAR), Monticello Area Community Action Agency Board (MACAA), the Child Advocacy Center Board in Charlottesville, Virginia and the B.E. R.E.A.L board.  He served on the Louisa County School Board from 1990-1995.  He taught Bible study at the Charlottesville-Albemarle Jail and served as a volunteer at the Greenbrier Elementary School in Charlottesville, VA.  

He was employed by the Louisa Department of Social Services as an eligibility worker and later as a social worker in foster care and adoptions from 1976-1982. After a long career of working with juveniles and families as a Probation Officer and later as a Court Service Unit Supervisor, he retired from the Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice in Charlottesville, VA in 2004.

He accepted the call to ministry in May 1990 and was ordained in April 1993. Since this time, he has served in ministry in various capacities. He served as Senior Pastor of Salem Baptist Church in Buckingham, Virginia from 1992-2003. He has also served as Interim Pastor and Transitional Pastor at First Baptist Church in Lexington, Virginia and Interim Pastor at First Liberty Baptist Church in Dillwyn, Virginia. He joined the Mt. Zion First African Baptist Church staff as Youth Pastor in 2004 and later served as the Assistant to the Pastor at Mt. Zion First African Baptist, Charlottesville, VA until December 2022. In January 2023, he accepted the call to become Senior Pastor at Union Baptist Church in Waynesboro, Virginia

He has served as an instructor for the Evans-Smith Leadership Institute, a certificate program equipping laity for servant leadership.  He also conducts leadership workshops, classes and seminars to train ministers, lay leaders, and church members regarding the many facets of church ministry and church leadership. For more than fifteen years, he has provided consulting and coaching services to assist churches without pastors. These services are designed to navigate the transitional time between a pastor leaving until the next one comes.

Dr. P loves to teach and preach and believes the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the power unto salvation and can transform every soul unto the likeness of Christ.