Pastor & First Lady
Natives of Houston, Texas, Rev. Elgia and Carolyn Wells were married in 1970 inFort Campbell, KY. After serving four years in the military, Rev. Wells left as a Captain and became employed as a Sales Rep for Ortho Pharmaceuticals in San Jose, CA. There, they joined and became active members of EmmanuelBaptistChurch. In 1979, he made the decision to go into the ministry, attending Golden Gate Seminary in Mill Valley, CA. After receiving his Masters of Divinity in 1983, the family returned to San Jose, where he became Emmanuel’s Minister of Education, later taking on the role of Associate Pastor.
Both Rev. and Sis. Wells served as home missionaries while he worked as a consultant for the State of California Southern Baptist Convention. They moved to Mt. Juliet, TN in 1989 after he accepted the manager position of Black Church Development at the Southern Baptist Sunday School Board, now LifeWay Christian Resources. They became Pastor and First Lady of Simeon Baptist Church in 1993. Bi-vocational, Rev. Wells has remained an employee of LifeWay for the past 19 years where he currently serves as Director of African American Ministries.
Rev. Wells is an alumnus of TuskegeeUniversity in Alabama. He and Carolyn have three children, Denise, Warrick, and Craig, two granddaughters, Jaylin and Alexis, and a daughter-in-law, Michelle.