Rev. Dr. Jermaine D. Covington is a native of Warren, Ohio, and is the fourth of five children born to John and Quereda Covington.
He encountered the Lord at Grace African Methodist Episcopal Church and in 1997 preached his trial sermon.
He is a 1998 graduate of La Brae High School in Warren, Ohio. In 2003 Rev. Covington earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Wilberforce University with an emphasis on philosophy and religion. He earned his Master of Divinity Degree from Payne Theological Seminary in Wilberforce, Ohio in May 2012 and received his Doctor of Ministry Degree in the inaugural class of 2018 at Payne Theological Seminary.
While at Wilberforce, he served in many capacities including as a member of Alpha Omega ministries, student manager of the Wilberforce Bookstore, and editor of the yearbook. He played the lead role in reinstatement of the Charter and Chapter of the Wilberforce campus NAACP. In addition, he was blessed to be a recipient of an America Reads Grant and served as president of the North Ohio Conference Young People’s Division of the Women’s Missionary Society of the A.M.E. Church for seven consecutive years.
He was the Church Administrator/Assistant Pastor of the Allen Temple A.M.E. Church in Cincinnati, Ohio, from 2000 to 2005 serving under the brilliant tutelage of the late Rev. Dr. Donald H. Jordan. While there he also served as Youth Minister and Minister of Visitation.
In October 2004, Rev. Covington was ordained an Itinerate Deacon in the African Methodist Episcopal Church and was ordained as an Itinerate Elder in June 2012.
In 2005, the late Bishop Robert Webster assigned Pastor Covington to St. John A.M.E. Church in Columbus, Ohio where he currently serves. Since his appointment in November 2005, over three hundred fifty (350) members have been added to the church membership roll. A number of ministries have been added to the up-building of God’s Kingdom including: Young Adult, Dramatic and Visual Arts, Seniors, Sons of St. John and a Technology ministry. With the blessing of the late Bishop McKinley Young in 2016 Pastor Covington was given an additional appointment at Quinn Chapel A.M.E. Church in Marion, Ohio and in 2018 he was given Grace A.M.E. in Bellefontaine, Ohio, both as one-year appointments.
Pastor Covington is a member of King Solomon Lodge #87 P.H.A., Bezaleel Consistory, and Chi Lambda Chapter of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. He is also a 33rd Degree Mason, and a former Master Counselor of Brotherhood Chapter Order of Pythagoreans. He was appointed the Treasurer of the 3rd District by the late Senior Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, The Rt. Rev. McKinley Young and serves on the Trustee Board of Wilberforce University.
Pastor Covington and his wife, Lucinda Messiah Covington, reside in Westerville, Ohio.
If you ask Pastor Covington about all his titles and merits, he will tell you, “The thing I cherish the most is being called a child of God.”