know our staff

Erica Cooper was called to serve as the Sixth Pastor of BCOC in October 2020. Her first Sunday as Pastor was Sunday, December 6, 2020. Before accepting the call at BCOC, Erica was Assistant Minister of Plymouth Church in Brooklyn, New York. She received a Masters of Divinity from McAfee School of Theology in Atlanta where she won the John R. Claypool Preaching Award in 2009. She was ordained by Druid Hills Baptist Church Baptist Church in Atlanta. She is married to Chris Cooper, a native of Nashville. They have one child, Rosi.

Daniel (Dan) Edward Lawhon was called to be the Organist-Choirmaster in 2008. He received a Bachelor of Music degree from Belmont University in Nashville, TN and a Master of Church Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the School of Church Music at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.

Eric Clark was called as BCOC’s Minister of Community Engagement in 2022. Eric received his Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from Georgia State University and his Master of Divinity from Emory University’s Candler School of Theology. Along the way, he spent two years studying philosophy and theology in Germany, the first year at the University of Tübingen, the second at the University of Munich. Eric began attending BCOC in 2017 after he moved to Birmingham to be closer to his future wife, Lyndsay, and to undertake a yearlong clinical pastoral residency at UAB Hospital. Lyndsay and Eric were married by BCOC pastor emerita Sarah Shelton in 2018. They have two children, Miriam and Amos. Eric was ordained by Baptist Church of the Covenant in February 2025.

Paxton Vaughn serves as the Associate Pastor for Christian Formation at BCOC. Paxton worked in several ministry settings before coming to BCOC, including serving with PASSPORT Camps, College Ministry, and with Greystone Baptist Church in Raleigh, North Carolina. She received her undergraduate degree from Western Kentucky University and her Master of Divinity from Duke Divinity School. Paxton was ordained to the Gospel Ministry by Highland Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky.

Sarah Jackson Shelton served as pastor of Baptist Church of the Covenant from 2002, when she was called, to 2019, when she retired. She is a graduate of The University of Alabama and The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. She and her husband, Lloyd, have two children, David and Dan.