By: Jim Pyatt, WNCC Archivist & Historian

Rev. Kenneth Locklear

The Rev. Kenneth W. Locklear is the first pastor of a Native American congregation in the WNC Conference outside of the Cherokee area. According to the history of Triad Native American UMC, as a group of people in the Greensboro area were meeting and planning the organization of a Native American United Methodist congregation in the area, the Rev. Kenneth Locklear was suggested as a possibility to be the founding pastor. After meeting with him and hearing him preach, this group felt that he was the right person to serve as the founding pastor. Kenneth Locklear served as pastor of the congregation later named Triad Native American UMC from February 1993 until June 1999. Triad Native American held their first worship service on Easter Sunday 1993 and was formally organized on June 5, 1994.

The Rev. Locklear was born in Scotland County, North Carolina. He received his B.A. from Pembroke State (now UNC-Pembroke) and his M. Div. from Duke Divinity School, was ordained Deacon and received as a Probationary Member in the North Carolina Conference in 1991, and was ordained Elder and received in Full Connection in 1993 by the NC Conference. Kenneth transferred into the WNC Conference in 1995, then transferred back to the North Carolina Conference in 2004, entering the retired relationship in 2023.

The Rev. Locklear has served the following appointments: 1989-93 Branch Street (Lumberton); 1993-1999 Triad Native American (Greensboro); 1999-2004 Director, SEJ Agency for Native American Ministries; 2004-13 Prospect (Maxton); 2013-15 Hickory Grove Campus (Clio, SC); 2015-23 District Superintendent, Gateway District; 2023-present Pleasant Grove (Rowland). Throughout his ministry he has provided leadership to the churches that he has served, to Native American Ministries throughout the SEJ, and the whole UMC. As we celebrate Native American Heritage Month, we celebrate the ministry of the Rev. Kenneth Locklear.

Be sure to read the other biographies written by WNCC Archivist & Historian Jim Pyatt:

Daphine Strickland, part of the Task Force that led to the organization of Triad Native American Church, the first Native American congregation in our Conference outside of Cherokee.

Thomas Queen, the Director of the Cherokee Mission from 1973 until his death in 1992.

Jeremiah Wolfe, the first Native American to be elected a delegate to General Conference from the WNCC in 1976.