 The Reverend Dr. Aaron L. Parker is the Pastor of Zion Hill Baptist Church in Atlanta, GA. A rapidly growing congregation of over 2,500 members, Dr. Parker is leading the church to focus on service to one another and to the community through more than 35 active outreach ministries and facilitated the formation 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 also shepherding Zion Hill’s “Rock Project,” an effort to build sanctuary and community outreach facilities on a 43 acre campus in South Fulton County.
Dr. Parker was born the seventh of seven children to the late Reverend P. F. Parker and the late Mrs. Amy C. Parker of Canton, Mississippi. 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 the gospel ministry.  After completing elementary and secondary school in Canton, he attended Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, where he received the Bachelor of Arts Degree, majoring in Philosophy and Religion. As a student at Morehouse, Doctor 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 Degree in Religion and the Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Systematic Theology.
Dr. Parker is currently an Associate Professor of Philosophy and Religion at Morehouse College and 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, the Advisory Board of Capitol City Bank. Doctor 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 Liana Parker. | 
