Pastor

Dr. Juanita A. W. Harrison is a native of the Eastern Shore of Virginia. She journeyed to Richmond, Virginia in 1985, to attend Virginia Commonwealth University. While at VCU, majoring in Rehabilitation Counseling, she met her husband, Craig Harrison. She is blessed to call him husband for 35 years.  Pastor and First Gentleman Craig are the proud parents of three beautiful daughters: Jasmine, Joclyn, and Camille. Pastor worked diligently for 21 years in the field of Rehabilitation Counseling, as a licensed Rehabilitation Provider, at Supported Employment of Virginia, Inc. She also worked as a Direct Service Professional, and in her last ten years with Supported Employment of Virginia she served as Vice-President. Pastor was licensed in the gospel ministry in 1999 and ordained in 2001. She received a Master of Divinity, with an emphasis in Christian Education, in 2004, from The Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology, Virginia Union University in Richmond, Virginia. Prior to being called to Bethesda, Pastor served as the Minister of Christian Education at Tabernacle Baptist Church, Chesterfield, Virginia. She also served in a dual capacity at The Tabernacle Divinity School as an Instructor and Dean. In December of 2008, Pastor received an Honorary Doctorate in Christian Studies from the Tabernacle Divinity School for her devoted, dedicated, and invaluable service to Religious Education. For 17 years, she has pastored the Bethesda Baptist Church in South Chesterfield, Virginia where Pastor and people are about “Revealing the Heart of Christ to Everybody, Everywhere, Every Time.” Pastor believes that we must not let mercy and truth forsake us; we must bind them around our necks and write them on the tablets of our heart. If we do, we will find favor and high esteem in the sight of God and man.