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.