Our Pastor

We are Jon, Melissa, Makenna and Mia Alverson. What a tremendous joy it is to serve as the pastor of Linwood Baptist Church since the summer of 2013. I was born into the home of a pastor in Newport News, Virginia, where I was pointed to the truth of God. As the years passed, The Lord convicted my heart, and I was saved as a five-year-old boy while my father pastored in Shelby, North Carolina. My salvation experience was so real that I have never been able to get over what The Lord did for me. Through the years, The Lord has stoked the fire He built in my soul that day, and it is my deepest desire to spend the rest of my life telling as many people as I possibly can about the same loving God who redeemed me.

In 1986, my family answered the call to missions. We spent the better part of the next ten years on the mission field in Germany ministering to the U.S. military. After completing school, I started, owned and operated three companies in the greater Chattanooga and North Georgia area for 15 years, and The Lord showed His kindness to us through them. Little did I know, God was using a ministry upbringing and business experience to prepare me for the call He would place on my life.

After answering the call to preach, God allowed me to pursue my education further by obtaining a Doctorate of Theology. It was my privilege to serve at Temple Baptist Church in Chattanooga, Tennessee, as the Mission, Administrative and Assistant to the pastor for about three and half years before accepting the call to come to Linwood Baptist as the pastor. My family and I have been amazed to watch what God has done through the years at Linwood.

My life verses are Psalms 40:8, “I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.” and Psalms 91:1 “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.”