Meet Dr. Parker

About the Professor

Dedicating his life to sharpening the spiritual aptitude and expanding the theological proclivity of some of the nation’s most accomplished pastors, preachers and teachers, the Reverend Dr. Aaron L. Parker is most appropriately described not as a preacher, but as an educator who answered the divine call to preach.

As a young, serious professor and preacher, Rev. Dr. Aaron L. Parker, was installed as Pastor of Zion Hill Baptist Church in 1994. Having served as the church’s former youth minister, he had both a heart for the people and a vision for the church’s future. Within his first year as pastor of the historical church, God led the Mississippi preacher to hit the ground running, establishing the Care to Love Outreach Ministry, implementing four new music ministries including the Voices of Oluwa and Azizi Children’s Choir, establishing the now nationally-recognized Rites of Passage Program for youth ages 13-18 and designating what would be the church’s declarative creed, Living to Love and Loving to Serve. The following years resulted in history-making ministry after ministry to include more than 50 ministries designed to impact the world! Now, with a rapidly growing congregation of over 3,000 members, Dr. Parker is leading the church to deepen its focus on service to the community through the church’s expansive outreach ministries and its support of the Zion Hill Community Development Corporation, a non-profit organization devoted to spiritual, economic, and educational enhancement of those in need. Dr. Parker is the visionary and shepherd of Zion Hill’s “Rock Project,” a $20 million building program that completed first of three phases in December of 2010 and relocated Zion Hill from the historical Southwest Atlanta community to a 43.5 acre site in South Fulton County at 6175 Campbellton Road.

In addition to serving as Pastor of Zion Hill, Dr. Parker is currently an associate professor of philosophy and religion at Morehouse College, where he has spent over 30 years molding and shaping daring youth into Morehouse Men.

He is the author of several articles including “African Religion in African American Religion,” “Revisiting the Concept of God in Light of the Thought of Henry Highland Garnet,” “The Joy of Molding Morehouse Men,” and “The African American Church: Major Role Player in the African American Struggle for Freedom.” Prior to accepting the pastorate of Zion Hill, Dr. Parker served as pastor of Butler Street Baptist Church, adjunct professor of Theology at the Interdenominational Theological Center, and assistant to the pastor of Grace Covenant Baptist Church. Doctor Parker is a member of the Concerned Black Clergy of Atlanta, the Society for the Study of Black Religion, the American Academy of Religion, among other leadership positions. The seventh of seven children born to the late Reverend P. F. Parker and the late Mrs. Amy C. Parker of Canton, Mississippi, Dr. Parker was a serious child who knew early that God had a plan for his life. At the age of eight, he accepted Jesus Christ into his life at the Mount Zion Baptist Church in Canton, where his father served as pastor. At the age of eighteen, he heard and answered the call to minister. After completing elementary and secondary school in Canton, he attended Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, where he received a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in philosophy and religion. As a student at Morehouse, Dr. Parker received several academic awards, including induction into the Phi Beta Kappa National Honor Society. He furthered his formal education at Emory University, earning the Master of Arts in religion and the Doctor of Philosophy in systematic theology. Dr. Parker is married to Shelia Smith Parker, his high school sweetheart, and they are the parents of two children, Aaron Larry Parker, Jr. and Asha Parker Booth.