Rev. Dr. Allen Stephen Potts was born in Sumter, South Carolina and spent his early years in Newark and East Orange, New Jersey. He earned the Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Kean College of New Jersey, the Master of Divinity Degree and the Doctor of Ministry degrees from the Colgate Rochester Divinity School/Bexley Hall/Crozer Theological Seminary in Rochester, New York, with a concentration in Biblical Studies & Prophetic Preaching respectively. Rev. Potts is an ordained Baptist Minister with ministerial standings in the National/American Baptist Convention, USA Inc. and is a member of the Lott Carey Foreign Mission Convention.

At the conferring of his Master of Divinity degree, the faculty of Colgate Rochester Divinity School recognized Rev. Potts as showing unusual promise in becoming a faithful pastor, preach, and parish minister with the institution's highest award, the Theodore Louis Trost Memorial Prize. He was a recipient of the J.H. Jackson Scholarship Award; Jessie Brown Scholarship Award, and a two-time recipient of the Gordon S. Deer Memorial Scholarship Award.

Rev. Potts was a participant in a post graduate leadership and mission immersion program with the University of Zimbabwe in affiliation with the Lott Carey/Lilly Foundation Foreign Mission International Pastoral Excellence Program (Lott Carey PEP). With the Lott Carey PEP, Rev. Potts has traveled abroad with 20 pastor colleagues to South America, West Indies and South Africa on Missions, which he completed the program in December of 2008, receiving the degree in missionary studies.

Rev. Potts is a former member of the Mount Zion Baptist Church of Newark, under the pastorate of the Reverend Dr. Granville A. Seward. He was licensed to preach at the age of nineteen at Mount Zion in January, 1988. In order to fulfill God's call upon his life Mount Zion ordained Min. Potts in April, 1997, where he served as Assistant to the Pastor and Minister of Operations.

On November 15, 1999, the membership of Greater Abyssinian elected to call Reverend Potts, as it’s third pastor and through much prayer and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, he accepted. With God’s help, Rev. Potts has made substantial developments in the life of this church, recognizing God calling us to become “A Church Determined to Take Jesus Seriously.”

Reverend Potts is the proud son of John Henry, Sr. and Daisy Mae Potts, and is the middle of five children. He is the husband of Keeva Denise and the father Shelby, Allen II and Aaron.