Pastor Jim Ogle – Senior Pastor
Pastor Jim Ogle holds a M.Min. degree from Ambassador Baptist College. He became our Senior Pastor in January 2013, after the retirement of Pastor Surrett. Pastor Ogle served as the Youth Pastor at Emmanuel from the fall of 1994 until December 2012. He also served as assistant to the Pastor in the areas of administrative work and counseling. He has been on faculty at Ambassador Baptist College since 1997, teaching Youth Ministries 1 and 2, an Assistant to the Pastor class, and Fundamentals of Christian Camping. He and his wife, Lisa, have been married since 1986 and have worked with teenagers since 1987. They have a passion for teens and also a passion to help marriages. They have 4 children and 17 grandchildren. Mrs. Ogle is her husband’s secretary and actively serves by his side in his ministry.
Adam Valenzuela – Assistant Pastor
Adam Valenzuela is a native of Southern California. He accepted Christ at the age of fifteen. Although he attended church regularly from a very young age, Adam realized it was not anything he could do for God to earn his way to heaven but only what Jesus Christ had done for him. Adam graduated from Ambassador Baptist College of Lattimore, North Carolina in 2009 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Biblical and Pastoral Studies. In college, Adam met his wife Jamie, and they were married in the winter of 2007. After graduation, the Lord led the Valenzuelas to Chatham, Illinois where the Lord blessed their family with two sweet girls. While there, Adam worked as a sales & service representative and served as an Assistant & Youth Pastor. In 2014, the Lord brought them back to North Carolina and they reunited with Emmanuel Baptist Church, where they especially love working with the youth and children’s ministries. In 2021, Adam became Assistant Pastor with primary focus on children and youth. Adam and Jamie are excited for what the future holds in the ministry here.
Steve Hefner – Music Director
Steve Hefner was raised in Parkersburg, WV where he married his highschool sweetheart, Diane in 1982. Both had some background in church while growing up but did not trust Christ as Savior until after marriage. Both have been active in local churches since 1983. In 1988, they moved to northwest Indiana where Steve studied Pastoral Theology. He has previously served as an Assistant Pastor and Music Director and served as Emmanuel’s Assistant Music Director until becoming Music Director in September of 2020. His passion is fresh, conservative, Christ-honoring music and vibrant congregational singing as part of the corporate worship services. He has taught the Young Married Couple’s Class since 2012 and has a burden to help young families honor and serve our Lord. Steve is also an experienced heavy commercial and industrial HVAC technician, Sales Representative, and assists with the computer networking at Emmanuel.
Diane serves as Church Secretary and Church Financial Secretary and assists Steve as his secretary as well. Steve and Diane have five children and 17 grandchildren.
Jeremiah Clark – Staff Evangelist
Jeremiah was born and raised in a Christian home. He was born again while attending Christian camp when he was 16. After fully surrendering to full time service for God, he attended Ambassador Baptist College where he met his wife Janelle. He majored in Bible, Evangelism. During this time the Lord began to burden his heart for teenagers through summer ministries such as Neighborhood Bible Time and The Wilds Christian Camp. Upon graduating in 2004 he began his masters in Bible Theology while working as Ambassador’s Activities Director and Campus Host. He also preaching for traveling music groups in the summers and throughout the school year. Beginning in July 2007 he served as youth pastor at Grace Baptist Church in New Castle, Indiana, where several young people surrendered their lives to full time Christian service. In 2013 through much prayer and counsel Jeremiah felt the definite call of God to the ministry of revival work and Evangelism. He is now a staff evangelist of EBC.
In addition to the ministry of evangelism in the United States, Jeremiah leads Project Go. This ministry endeavors to take the gospel to those who have no gospel witness and have no foreseeable future of hearing it. If you would like to take part in Project, reach out to Jeremiah at info@ebckingsmountain.com.
Pastor Jorge Buitrago – Spanish Church Pastor
Pastor Buitrago is originally from Bogotá, Colombia. He accepted the Lord when he was 17 during a special youth conference at his local church. For several years, he served in his church, preaching and teaching Sunday school. He also taught Bible, science, chemistry, and mathematics at a Christian school for 13 years.
God called him to full-time ministry in the mission field during a youth camp, and that call was confirmed at a missions conference. In 2014, he married Yulie, and together they visited the United States on vacation where God showed them the great need to reach the Hispanic people in this country. In 2021, they came to serve as Hispanic church planters.
Currently, they serve at La Gracia Baptist Church in the Charlotte area, as well as in our Hispanic ministry here at Emmanuel. Jorge, Yulie, and their children Briana and Jeremías are excited to reach the Hispanic community in the area and to teach and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ in Spanish.
Dr. Charles Surrett – Pastor Emeritus
Pastor Charles Surrett holds a B. A. degree from Pillsbury Baptist Bible College, and an M.R.E., M.Div., and D.Min. degrees from Central Baptist Theological Seminary. He entered the ministry full-time in 1967, and has served only in Independent Baptist Churches for his entire ministry. He was a youth pastor for ten years, and has spent thirty-four years as a senior pastor. Since 1991, he has served full-time on the faculty of Ambassador Baptist College, where he is currently the Academic Dean. He pastored for over twenty years at Emmanuel, until his retirement in December 2012. He is the author of the book, Which Greek Text?, which is a layman-oriented defense of the Textus Receptus, the Greek text from which the Kings James Version was translated. He and his wife, Rosanne, have five children and nineteen grandchildren.
Dr. Larry Brubaker – Retired
Dr. Larry Brubaker is a native of Freeport, IL, and was saved there as a child. He preached his first sermon at the age of 14 in 1954. He attended Bob Jones University and Pillsbury Baptist Bible College, where he met LaVanda Oyloe. After their marriage in 1963, he served as Music and Youth Director at First Baptist Church in Rockford, IL, and Music Director at Eagledale Baptist Church, Indianapolis, IN. The Brubakers joined the Ron Comfort Evangelistic Team in May, 1976. His responsibilities for the team included leading the congregational singing and directing the Crusade Choir. The Brubakers moved to Kings Mountain, NC in August 1993 where Pastor Brubaker served at Emmanuel as Music Pastor when not in revival crusades. Pastor Brubaker retired in August 2020 after serving faithfully for 37 years.