Pastor Smith is married and his wife, Kimanne, heads the Art Department at Bergen Catholic High School.  The Smith's have two teenage daughters, Caroline and Kristen.

Education

• B.A. - English - Virginia Union University
• M. Div. - Theology - Virginia Union University
• D.D - Doctor of Divinity - Simmons University
• L.H.D. - Doctor of Humane Letters - University of Kentucky

Graduate Specialized Education

• Executive Corporate Management - Harvard University
• Executive Management - General Electric Corporation
• Executive Administration - O.I.C. Academy
• Epidemiology - University of Pennsylvania

Work Experience Highlights

• Social Worker - PA Department of Welfare
• Senior Minister - First Baptist Church of Huntington, W. VA
• National NAACP - Deputy Executive Director
• Senatorial Aide - Senator John Glenn of Ohio
• Public School Teacher in Brooklyn, NY
• Assistant Program Director - American Bible Society - NYC

Leadership Highlights

Construction of a new Church edifice with internationally recognized Church Stain Glass Windows

Construction of 150 apartments for low-income residents

Establishment of a successful Church-sponsored Seafood Business

Editor/Author of Special Edition Jubilee Legacy Bible, Jubilee Legacy Guide, seven historical posters and two books highlighting the virtues of Frederick Douglass and Fannie Lou Hamer.

Reverend Valerie Griffin, affectionately known as 'Rev. Val', was born and raised in Newark, New Jersey.  She attended the Newark Public Schools, graduating from Arts High School in 1974.  After graduation she graduated from William Paterson (College) University in Wayne, New Jersey with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Communications/Radio & Television Broadcasting. 

She has worked in various areas of the secular workplace including Essex County Welfare (REACH Program) and the New Community Corporation (Youth Motivation Programs).  In 1998 she was called into the ministry and left her full-time employment to attend Seminary.

In August of 1998, she was licensed by the Rev. Dr. Granville A. Seward and the Mount Zion congregation as the Minister of Pastoral Care.  Following her licensing, she attended Drew University, Theological School in Madison, New Jersey where she received her Masters of Divinity in 2000.  She has also completed several hospital chaplaincy programs in Clara Mass Hospital – Belleville, NJ; Christiana Hospital – Newark, Delaware; Hackensack University Hospital – Hackensack, NJ; and Wake Forest Medical  Center (Baptist Hospital ) Winston Salem, NC.   She also attended Blanton Peale in Manhattan, NY for the study of Pastoral Care Studies where she received certification.  

The Mount Zion Baptist Church, the church where she was spiritually nurtured, ordained her in June of 2004 as the first woman in the 127-year history of Mount Zion Baptist Church.  In May of 2006 she completed her doctoral thesis (Ashes to Beauty – End of Life Concerns in the Baptist Perspective ABC/USA) earning her Doctor of Ministry Degree in Pastoral Care & Counseling at Drew University, Theological School in Madison.    

She presently serves as Associate Minister at the First Baptist Church of Madison, NJ, where Rev. Dr. Charles H. Smith is the pastor. On Wednesday mornings, 'Rev. Val' can be found at the Nellie Grier Senior Center "Community Church" in Newark, where she spiritually leads the seniors in Bible Study and worship services.  She is currently employed by Atlantic Home Care & Hospice in Millburn as the per diem Hospice Chaplain on the Essex County Team.  She is also part-time Protestant Chaplain at St. Barnabas Medical Center, Livingston, NJ.

She is the eldest of two children to her parents M. Blanche Hooper and the late James Hooper, Sr.  She is married to Minister Wayne L. Griffin and is the mother of a blended family of four boys, grandmother of three grandsons and two grand -daughters. 

Minister Drewery was licensed by the late Rev. Johnnie W. Brewster on April 18, 1999.

Minister Wayne has been a licensed minister since 1997. Since licensing, Minister Wayne has preached on numerous occasions in the church. He has preached, served and taught on hundreds of occasions by “tracing the Master’s footsteps” through his involvement in outreach ministry. He has ministered to AIDS patients at the Broadway House in Newark New Jersey and the physically challenged at the Cheshire Home in Florham Park. He reached out to feed and minister to the homeless, the drug dealers, the drug addicted and the neglected folks on the streets of Newark by co-chairing the “Friday Nights Rescue” program at Mt Zion Baptist church in Newark. He has ministered to youth in crises at the Neighborhood House program for troubled youth and has provided spiritual counseling to men transitioning back into life after incarceration and drug addiction at the Morristown Neighborhood house. He took the gospel to Alzheimer’s patients at Arden Courts in West Orange NJ and to seniors at the White House Nursing Home in Orange NJ. At his former church, he initiated a nursing home outreach program that is still in operation and that provides worship services to Care One, Morris Hills, Morris View, and Spring Hills. Ministry in music has included men’s choir, adult choir, praise and worship team,  youth choir director, Ebony and Ivory choir and the New Jersey symphony Orchestra (NJSO) choir.

Minister Wayne is currently serving as a manager at Verizon Communications in the Broadband Data Services Division where he is writing and trialing methods and procedures for managing new video and high speed data services. In his 34 years with the company, he authored well over 60 technical standards publications that are still in use across the Verizon footprint. He has personally trained Managers and Technicians in Verizon customer centers located in D.C., Md., New York, Baltimore, Texas, New Jersey, Florida, Boston Virginia and West Virginia to help them understand and manage new technologies and services. 

Minister Wayne is currently attending The Pace University in NY majoring in the field of Information Technology. He received a 2-year degree in Christian Ministry at the New York Theological Seminary along with a certificate in the NYTS summer chaplaincy training workshop. Wayne was trained in the Catholic University of America School of Engineering and Applied Science, and attended courses at the Drew University Depart of Psychology. He has attended numerous programs for certification and for personal enrichment. Among those are the Rockhurst College of Baltimore for Project Management, the Rummler Brache Institute for Project Management, the Atlantic Research Center for advanced data technology training, and the American Institute.