Rev. Dr. Ambrose Carroll, Sr. ([email protected])

The Rev. Dr. Ambrose Carroll, Sr., senior pastor at Renewal Worship Center Oakland, CA, is one of the nation’s premiere Practical Theologians. After graduating from Oakland High School in 1987, Ambrose went on to do his undergraduate work at Florida Memorial College in Miami, FL. He further received a Master of Divinity (M.Div.) from Morehouse School of Religion in Atlanta, GA, a Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.) from United Theological Seminary in Dayton Ohio, and a Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) from Golden Gate University in San Francisco, CA.

Dr. Carroll was licensed to the Gospel ministry at Mt. Calvary Missionary Baptist Church in 1989 and ordained at the Beth Eden Baptist Church in 1994. He has served as the Youth and Young Adult Pastor of Third Baptist Church in San Francisco, Interim Pastor of the Rising Star Baptist Church of Oakland, Senior Pastor of the St. Paul Tabernacle Baptist Church of San Francisco, Senior Pastor of the New Hope Baptist Church of Denver, Co. and the Founding Pastor of the Renewal Worship Center Christian Church of Denver, CO. At the time, Renewal Worship Center was one of the first foundationally environmentally friendly “Green” Churches in the country. Dr. Carroll combined theology with ecology and challenged the church universal to embrace its mantle of creation care. This church was listed in the May edition of Fast Company Magazine and on CNN as one of the most innovative business ideas of 2011, stating, "Carroll has taken faith-based initiatives to a new level with what you might call initiative-focused faith. His inner-city church has an explicitly environmental emphasis and an outreach arm that offers green-job training and placement."

Using that momentum, Dr. Carroll expanded his work to California's Bay Area by creating a national campaign to “Green The Church”, a national non-profit charged to educate the Black Church and lead in the creation of sustainable programs to undergird the work of creating green and efficient church buildings. Dr. Carroll and the Green The Church initiative were profiled in a CNN.com piece in 2019 detailing how Black churches are mobilizing nationwide to combat climate change and pollution for a more sustainable future. This forward thinking movement has also received coverage from Jet Magazine in an article entitled "Black Ministers Team Up to Green the Church".  Pastor Carroll is also a signature contributor to HuffPost.com, part of The Huffington Post Media Group.

Because of his work with Green The Church and its national reach, Dr. Carroll was selected by Congresswoman Maxine Waters to be in the Senate Chambers during the January 2017 confirmation hearing for the nomination of Senator Jeff Sessions to be Attorney General of the U.S. Carroll joined other prominent and progressive voices of concerned clergy in attendance from around the country, such as, Rev. Dr. Amos C. Brown, senior pastor of Third Baptist Church in San Francisco, CA and president of the San Francisco Chapter of the NAACP; Rev. Shane Scott, senior pastor of the historic Macedonia Baptist Church in Los Angeles, CA; Rev. Dr. Frederick Douglass Haynes, III, senior pastor of the Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas, TX; and the Rev. Dr. Delman Coats of Mt. Ennon Baptist Church in Clinton, MD.

Dr. Carroll also oversees the Home & Foreign Mission District Association serving approximately 15 churches of the Berkeley Black Ecumenical Ministers Alliance (BBEMA). Dr. Carroll is also connected to the CA State Baptist Convention which has affiliated clergy throughout the state, and he serves on the Steering Committee of the California Interfaith Power and Light (CIPL).

Dr. Carroll served as a commissioned Lieutenant in the United States Navy. Dr. Carroll is married to the former Miss Katresa Williams and they have three children, Amber Marie, Ambrose Jr., and Amani Nicole.