Pastor Adam Carnell has been the pastor at Emmanuel since 2021. He holds a Bachelor's Degree in Music Education from the University of South Carolina where he was a member of the Carolina Band. His main instrument is the trumpet, and he still enjoys playing it when he has the chance. Throughout college, he served as a Lutheridge camp counselor during the summer from 2009-2013. After college, he went to Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary in Columbia, SC where he got his Masters in Divinity. While in seminary, he served as Youth Ministry Assistant at Mount Horeb Lutheran in Chapin, SC from 2013-2015. He completed his year long internship as the intern pastor at Sierra Evangelical Lutheran Church in Sierra Vista, AZ. He would go on to serve his senior year as the long term fill in for Our Shepherd Lutheran Church in Hartsville, SC while they were without a pastor. Prior to coming here, he was one of the pastors at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Aiken, SC. He was ordained August 4th, 2017 at St. David's Lutheran Church in West Columbia, SC (the church he grew up in).

He has a passion for connecting faith to our everyday life and lifting up the ways God is acting in the world. He firmly believes that the church is still relevant to our world, and the role of the church is to connect what happens inside a church with a world in need through concrete actions that seek to make the world a better place to live for ALL. 

He is married to his wife Angela since 2020, and they have one son Micah born in 2023. He is originally from the West Columbia area, and it is great to be back "home." In his spare time, he enjoys traveling, playing disc golf, and going to trivia nights at local restaurants.