Young, attractive and polished, Charles Harrison Mason Patterson is poised for something big.

"I want to serve, pure and simple," the Memphian says. "I've been waiting for this all of my life."

If everything turns out as he hopes, by this time next week Patterson will occupy a spot on the 15-member COGIC National Trustee Board.

"He's got everything going for him," says Pastor Charles E. Blake II of the West Angeles Church of God in Christ in Los Angeles. "He's got it. He's going places."

It will be the first election for the 28-year-old whose great-grandfather and namesake, Bishop Charles Harrison Mason, founded the denomination in 1897.

And he knows how many in the church will be watching.

"It's an honor and blessing to have this legacy and be a part of the family," Patterson says. "I have a deep respect for where we came from and a desire to help us become even better in the future."

It's that sort of dedication that sets Patterson apart, some say. Mother Willie Mae Rivers, general supervisor of the Women's Department, believes he's set for great things.

"He’s beautiful. Simply beautiful," Rivers says. So much like Bishop Mason in so many ways. He's a blessing.

Patterson was ordained elder in the denomination when he turned 21. The ceremony was performed by his father, Bishop J. O. Patterson, Jr., son of the late Presiding Bishop J. O. Patterson, who married Mason's daughter.

He's an associate minister and president of the youth department at Pentecostal Temple Church of God in Christ, a funeral director and owns his own community development company. He believes his breadth of experience will serve him well as an overseer of the national church’s holdings.

“I grew up in this church. It’s my family,” Patterson says. “And because I love it so much, I’m not trying to push my agenda. I want to do God’s will for the church.”

Patterson graduated from Whitehaven High School and attended Northwest Mississippi Community College in Desoto County and Southwest Tennessee Community College. He’s working on a bachelor’s degree in psychology at Crichton College with an emphasis in pastoral care.

“It’s all I’ve ever wanted to do,” Patterson says. “Whenever they held career days at school, I always wondered why they didn’t include preachers.”

He considers himself pretty ordinary, loves to bowl, hunt and fish.

And despite some predictions that one day he’ll lead the denomination his great-grandfather founded, for now he’s concentrating on Tuesday’s board election.

“I may not make the trustee board, and that’s OK because I know I’ve lived right and I’m going to make it to Heaven,” Patterson says. “And I’m going to serve God every day until I get there.”