Our Pastor
Reverend Michael D. Buckson
Reverend Michael Dennis Buckson is the youngest of three children born to the late Lunette and Dennis Buckson. He is a native of Spartanburg, S.C. and was educated in Spartanburg city schools. He is one of the oldest surviving members of the Mt. Moriah Missionary Baptist Church of Spartanburg, who was born and reared within the church. Reverend Buckson is a veteran of the United States Air Force with his last duty station being at the Elmendorf Air Force Base located in Anchorage, Alaska where he worked in the office of the Judge Advocate.
While attending the University of Alaska at Anchorage, Reverend Buckson was called by God into the Gospel Ministry in 1979, however, it wasn’t until he returned ‘state-side’, (South Carolina), where he answered that call of God, on Mother’s Day 1980, at the Mt. Moriah Baptist Church under the pastorate of the Reverend Doctor Benjamin D. Snoddy. Reverend Buckson was ordained in June of 1981 to serve as
pastor of the Greater New Zion Baptist Church of Spartanburg. He has since served as pastor of the Monarch Baptist Church in Union, SC, Gold Hill Baptist Church in Rutherfordton, NC, and the Monarch Baptist Church, (again).
While attending the University of Alaska at Anchorage, Reverend Buckson was called by God into the Gospel Ministry in 1979, however, it wasn’t until he returned ‘state-side’, (South Carolina), where he answered that call of God, on Mother’s Day 1980, at the Mt. Moriah Baptist Church under the pastorate of the Reverend Doctor Benjamin D. Snoddy. Reverend Buckson was ordained in June of 1981 to serve as pastor of the Greater New Zion Baptist Church of Spartanburg. He has since served as pastor of the Monarch Baptist Church in Union, SC, Gold Hill Baptist Church in Rutherfordton, NC, and the Monarch Baptist Church, (again).
He also served as pastor of the Good Aim Baptist Church in Blythewood, SC, the Little River Baptist Church in Silver Street, SC, and the Ebenezer Baptist Church in North, SC. Reverend Buckson, following the voice of God, joined the St. Peter AME Church in North, SC where he was licensed by the Presiding Elder, the Reverend Doctor James Cooper. Under the leadership of Presiding Elder Phillip Anderson, Reverend Buckson was pulled to supply the Mt. Pisgah AME Church in Fort Motte, SC where he served for two conference years. In October of 2018, Reverend Buckson was assigned, by the Presiding Prelate, Bishop Samuel Lawrence Green, Sr., to the Cedar Grove AME Church in Orangeburg, S.C and there he and his wife served for four years. Reverend Buckson is a fourth-year student in the Columbia Conference Board of Examiners, a 2024 graduate of Allen University in Columbia, SC, and is currently enrolled in the Dickerson-Green Theological Seminary with fifty-nine of the seventy-five credit hours earned towards the Master of Divinity Degree. He retired in July of 2023, as a Driver Trainer for Concrete Supply. He is a member of the Willie Cureton Chapter, Order of the Eastern Star where he served as the Worthy Patron as well as Spirit Masonic Lodge #84 Free and Accepted Scottish Rite Masons where he served as the Junior Warden and the Past Assistant State Grand Chaplain of the Be NATURAL Grand Lodge of South Carolina. Reverend Buckson is also a member of the Columbia, SC Branch of the NAACP and serves as Board Chair of the Greater Historic Waverly Community Corporation, a 501 C-3 community empowerment organization, in the Waverly and Five Points Community of Columbia. He is also a Board Member of the Martin Luther King Park Association, a member of the S.C. Legislative Watch-Dog Organization, and the Regional Director for the South Carolina Conference of the NAACP covering Lexington, Richland, and Fairfield Counties.
Reverend Buckson loves the Lord and his life as a Shepherd of God’s people and is also happily married to the Reverend Zareatha Harley-Buckson and they have two wonderful daughters, Jamilah and Shantikea. Lastly, he is the pastor of the greatest Church on the Captivating Columbia District of the AME Church, Chappelle Memorial AME Church, better known as ‘The Five Points Church’.