Pastor Earl Pennell is a native North Carolinian .
His wife is Susan Gabriel Pennell and they have three daughters. Amy, Natalie, and Jessica.
He was licensed by Springs Road Baptist Church in Hickory, NC in 1980.
Rev. Pennell was ordained by the Grace Baptist Church in Taylorsville, NC.(1983)
He is a graduate of Catawba Valley Community College and Lenoir Rhyne College with a Bachelor of Arts Degree.
He is also a graduate of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (1987) with a Master of Divinity Degree.

After serving in the NC towns of Wise, Louisburg, Winston-Salem and Boger City
he has been serving at Woodlawn Baptist in Charlotte since 1998.

Pastor Earl is a musician and likes to play drums, guitar, and keyboard.

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Patricia McBrayer is a native of Shelby, North Carolina.  She received a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance Degree from Mars Hill College and her Master of Church Music Degree from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.  She has served churches in the Charlotte area for many years and has also been a faculty accompanist at Davidson College.  She was the first woman to be ordained by a Baptist Church in North Carolina, while serving at Providence Baptist Church in Charlotte.

Patricia has served as a piano and organ specialist for the Baptist State Convention.  As a Children’s Choir director and clinician, she has premiered a Christmas musical at Ridgecrest and published articles with the Sunday School Board and Chorister’s Guild.  In past years, her handbell choirs have performed at national conventions.

She continues to do professional work as an organist and pianist, with opportunities to perform at churches around America, as well as Russia, England, France, Switzerland, Austria, Germany and Sicily.  When Patricia is not at Woodlawn, she is busy with her studio of piano students in Huntersville and Charlotte.  She is also involved in a new interior design business.

Patricia enjoys travel, especially yearly trips to New York and Breckenridge, Colorado.  As the daughter of a car dealer, she does appreciate a good “driving machine”, and, yes, she does drive faster than Pastor Earl on Interstate 77.

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     Hi my name is Matthew Holloman and I am 26 years old.  I grew up in Greensboro North Carolina and moved to Belmont in 1990.  I gave my life to Christ in tenth grade and fully dedicated my service to him at the end of 2001. Before coming to Woodlawn Baptist Church I was college facilitator at Catawba Heights Baptist Church.  I was leader to a college ministry which did things like coffee houses, skateboard ministry, and reached out to the community.  In 2008 I became a worker at the West Gastonia Boys and Girls Club in Gastonia NC.  I was a program aide to first and second graders.  When I rededicated my life to Christ I led worship at churches all throughout the Gastonia, Belmont and Charlotte area.  My passion or hobby that God gave me as a gift though is tennis.  I started playing tennis in 1995 and played competitively all the way till college.  I achieved a North Carolina Ranking of nine in the state and 220 in the South East. My desire through all of this is to use my gifts and abilities to see youth grow in the Lord.  God has done things in me and I know and can in them.