Reverend Dr. Leonard Carpenter III, first and foremost, is a child of God and loves the Lord Jesus Christ. He is a bi-vocational pastor, a Board-Certified Pastoral Counselor with the American Association of Christian Counselors (AACC), and he is ecclesiastically endorsed as a chaplain by the World Council of Independent Christian Churches (WCICC). Since October 2018, he has served as Senior Pastor at Saint Mark Missionary Baptist Church in Brewton, Alabama.

On December 19, 1993, at 12 years of age, Dr. Carpenter accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Savior; he was baptized on January 16, 1994, at Mount Calvary Primitive Baptist Church in Quincy, Florida. On March 26, 2017, he was licensed to the gospel ministry at Greater First Baptist Church in Cantonment, Florida, and subsequently ordained three days later. In October 2018, Dr. Carpenter was called by the Saint Mark Missionary Baptist Church to become the 17th pastor in the church’s recorded history.

Dr. Carpenter earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Organizational Leadership from Columbia Southern University (Orange Beach, AL), a Master of Divinity from Apex School of Theology (Durham, NC), and both a Master of Arts in Theological Studies and a Doctor of Ministry in Strategic Christian Ministry from Liberty University (Lynchburg, VA). He is married to his beautiful wife, Casandria, a retired Navy Chief Petty Officer; they share six children, five who remain alive this day. He and his family reside in the Pensacola, Florida metropolitan area. He is the author of the book entitled "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms;" a brief devotional intended to help Christians pursue Christlikeness and bolster their spiritual health. Finally, Dr. Carpenter is retired U.S. Navy, he enlisted on May 31, 2000, and retired from active duty on July 31, 2020, holding the rank of Chief Petty Officer (E7). During his naval career, he deployed seven times on four different aircraft carriers and was awarded various personal, unit, and campaign awards.