Bucas Sterling, III has been serving God with excellence as Senior Pastor of Kettering Baptist Church since April 2000. He is a born-again Christian who loves the Lord with all his heart, soul, and mind and is determined to serve Him with all his heart, soul, and mind. His prior ministry service includes thirteen years at Mt. Calvary Baptist Church in Lanham, MD, where he served full-time as Assistant Pastor for six of those years. He also served at the House of Prayer in Grand Forks, North Dakota, where he began fulfilling his ministry calling in 1985. Pastor Sterling attended Prince George’s Community College, the University of North Dakota, Washington Bible College, and more recently, Lancaster Bible College. He holds degrees in Criminal Justice and Pastoral Theology, a Master of Science in Business Administration with a nonprofit business management focus, and an MBA. He also holds a Business Coaching Certification from Kingdom Coaching Institute. He is a graduate of E.K. Bailey Ministries Expository Preaching and has completed educational studies through Proclaimers Place at Georgetown College in Georgetown, Kentucky, and Oxford University in Oxford, England. He served six years with the United States Air Force.

Pastor Sterling’s commitment to God and his pursuit of seeking God first in all his endeavors make him an ideal leader, preacher, teacher, and counselor, empowered by the Holy Spirit to accomplish the divine call on his life. Week after week, he presents the unadulterated Word of God with such power and passion that impacts the hearts and lives of others. We are fortunate here at Kettering to have a pastor who believes in equipping the saints with the truth. In December 2025, Pastor Sterling was selected by the National Informer as the Best Pastor of the DMV, an honor recognizing his impactful leadership and service.

Under Pastor Sterling’s leadership, we experienced an overwhelming increase in our membership, which necessitated an increase in the number of services (from 2 to 4 over a period of 11 years) and the use of alternate facilities (the auditorium at Prince George’s Community College as well as Eleanor Roosevelt High School). The need for space led Pastor Sterling to desire to erect a place of worship large enough for our members to worship as one and one that would allow for future growth and the building of eternal legacies. God answered that prayer with our current 27-acre location, the Legacy Center, which we moved into on December 25th, 2016, and which we were blessed to pay off in 7 years.