Our Founding Pastor

Louis A. Butcher, Jr., a native of Lancaster, PA, was educated in the Lancaster School System, graduated from Franklin and Marshall College with a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature, from the Lancaster Bible College with a Master of Arts in Ministry, and from Lancaster Theological Seminary with a Doctor of Ministry degree. He has also received honorary doctorates from Franklin and Marshall College, and Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology. He has held various positions in the corporate world, including serving as a sales representative for Hamilton Watch Company and as Corporate Employment Manager for that firm. He worked in retailing for ten years with John Wanamaker Department Stores, holding the positions of Branch Personnel Manager, Operations Manager and Divisional Merchandise Manager.  He spent nearly twenty years with the County of Lancaster as Executive Director of the County Human Relations Commission. He has also operated his own business.  He is an organizer of the Bright Side Baptist Church and has been its Pastor for the past thirty-seven years.

He has served on numerous community boards, including the United Way, South East Lancaster Health Services, Lancaster Regional Medical Center, the Urban League, Leadership Lancaster, LIVE Green, and the Lancaster General Hospital. He is a past Moderator of the Central Baptist Association and a former Regional Vice President of the Pennsylvania Baptist State Convention. He is a former Chairman and current member of the Board of the Bright Side Opportunities Corporation, a nonprofit corporation that operates the Bright Side Opportunities Center.

Pastor Butcher has been married to the former Katie A. Rogers for more than fifty-two years.  They are the parents of four children, eight grandchildren, and five great grandchildren.  They were also foster parents for thirty years, helping to raise more than twenty children. After serving as Pastor at Bright Side Baptist Church for 37 years, he retired in June 2017.