Bishop Vaughn McLaughlin was born on April 20, 1957 to Monroe and Elease McLaughlin. He attended the public schools of Jacksonville, Florida graduating from William M. Raines Senior High School. He attended the University of Tampa on an athletic scholarship, and later transferred to the University of Tennessee on a full athletic scholarship to play basketball, majoring in psychology. He holds a Master?s and Doctorate Degree in Theology from North Florida Theological Seminary and Jacksonville Baptist Theological. In 2017 graduated with a graduate degree in Philosophy and Leadership from Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary, Summa Cum Laude.
At age 26, Bishop McLaughlin made a personal profession of faith and submitted to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. In just a few months after his conversion he began preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ anywhere and everywhere there was someone who would listen. He worked with several outreach ministries to youth and the homeless and was eventually staffed at the Mt. Calvary Baptist Church where he served the local body in any and every capacity imaginable. In 1987, at 30 years of age, Bishop McLaughlin accepted the pastorate of his first church in Green Cove Springs, Florida. He served as interim pastor for eleven months. Bishop McLaughlin answered the call of God to pioneer a local church that would exemplify the biblical pattern of a non-traditional and Kingdom focused ministry.
In 1988, he founded The Potter?s House Christian Fellowship. Today, The Potter?s House is home to over 5,000 members after starting with approximately 40 members in the first Sunday?s worship service. Over the years, Bishop McLaughlin and The Potter?s House ministry have been acknowledged and awarded by local, state and federal agencies for its outstanding and consistent work in the area of jails and prisons, nursing homes, hospital ministry, food and clothing efforts and community transformation.
After years of mentoring other pastors and demonstrating a father?s heart, he was consecrated into the office of bishop on March 6, 1999. In preparation for the office of bishop, he submitted to the tutelage of the Joint College of Bishops and successfully completed the courses of study required by the Joint College at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Bishop McLaughlin, through Covenant Fellowship International, now provides covering for over 100 ministries and pastors around the globe. Churches have been birthed and reformed and helped by the ministry of the bishop from the Caribbean to Africa and all of India.