Rev. John W. Polite, III
John Polite was born and raised in Riverside California where he attended public schools and was active in the life of the church. He received his bachelor of arts in communications from Cal Poly Pomona in 1992, where he served as president of the campus chapter of the NAACP, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity inc. and was an editor of the campus newspaper, and active in Cal Poly’s chapter of Campus Crusade for Christ. He was a staff writer for the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, and holds a Master of Divinity degree from the American Baptist Seminary of the West in Berkeley, CA. He has been active on a national level in the American Baptist Churches in the USA since 1997 serving as a member of the Biennial worship team (2009, 2011,) Youth Ministry Resource Team, and the planning and worship teams for ABCUSA national youth gatherings for more than a decade. He is a past president of the Alumni Council of American Baptist Seminary of the West and current member of the board of trustees. In 1997, He became the first African American pastoral staff member at the historic First Baptist Church of Los Angeles in 1997 and was ordained into the gospel ministry early on in his tenure at First L.A. From 2001 to 2012 he was the Senior Pastor of Panorama Baptist Church in Arleta CA.