Rev. Lavern Witherspoon, the twenty-ninth pastor of "Mother" Emanuel A.M.E. Church, is a native of Kingstree, South Carolina. He is the oldest son of Mrs. Harold Witherspoon and the late Rev. James W. Witherspoon Jr.

He is a 1972 graduate of Kingstree Senior High School, Kingstree, South Carolina. Pastor Witherspoon obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree from Baptist College at Charleston (now Charleston Southern University) in 1972; a Masters of Divinity from Turner Theological Seminary of the Interdenominational Theological Center (ITC), Atlanta, Georgia in 1982. He is also a 1989 graduate of South Carolina Alcohol and Drug School, Clemson, South Carolina, and a 1995 graduate of the United States Army Chaplain School and Center, Fort Monmouth, New Jersey.

Rev. Witherspoon has served as pastor in the A.M.E. church for twenty-eight years, an army reserve chaplain for ten years, a counselor for South Carolina Department of Corrections for eight years, and a chaplain in the critical care department for Richland Memorial Hospital, Columbia, South Carolina.

He is married to the former Julia Elaine Moton. They are the parents of two children, Jacintha Dyan Witherspoon and Andre Lavern Witherspoon.

His affiliations include Prince Hall Masonic Lodge and Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.