Reverend Dr. Jefferson N. McDowell is a native of Laurens, South Carolina and attended the public schools of Laurens County.  He grew up in Beaverdam Baptist Church in Enoree, South Carolina.  He later joined Mount Cowell Baptist Church in Joanna, South Carolina where he served as Minister of Music, Sunday School Teacher, Trustee, and a member of the Deacons’ Ministry.  Dr. Jefferson McDowell is married to Dorothy Harper McDowell.  This union has been blessed with three daughters, one son in law, three grandchildren and one great-grand son.

Dr. McDowell  is a 1971 graduate of Laurens High School.  He furthered his education at Greenville Technical College and the American Baptist Theological Seminary.  He is also a graduate of the South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy.  In 2001, he received an Honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from S.T.I. School of Religion in Richmond, Virginia.  Dr. McDowell is also a 2005 graduate of the Morris College School of Religion Pastoral and Continuing Education Program.  He has studied under some of the most renowned instructors of expository preaching in America at the E. K. Bailey Expository Preaching Conference in Dallas, Texas.  On July 11, 2013 he earned his certification in Expository Preaching in Dallas, Texas. Dr. McDowell also received the NAACP Martin Luther King Award for February 2020.  
 
Dr. McDowell is currently serving on the Executive Board of Tumbling Shoals Baptist  Association, Laurens County.  Also, Past President of the Laurens County Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance and a member of the National Baptist Convention, USA Inc.
 

He was also a past vice moderator of the Saint Vaughnville  union of churches in Union county. He has served on several Laurens District 55 School Improvement Councils.  In February 2011, Dr. McDowell was honored by the council of  Church and Community Relations of the Upstate and the South Carolina House of Representatives for his ministerial work.    

Dr. McDowell served as pastor of Wyatt’s Chapel Baptist Church in Union County for fifteen years.  He is currently the pastor of Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church in his hometown of Laurens, South Carolina.  But most importantly, Dr. Jefferson N. McDowell is a born again Christian.  He is an anointed preacher, teacher, and revivalist.