A Church Home on Washington Boulevard
New Mount Olive Baptist Church stands at 4412 Washington Boulevard in Wilmington, Delaware, a brick-and-spirit home where members describe the community as a place to receive hope, healing, redemption, salvation, and restoration. The congregation is family-oriented and aims to help every visitor build a relationship with God, connect with other believers, and discover themselves in the process. The pastor's guiding motto, repeated often around the church, is "If I can help somebody as I travel day by day, then my living shall not be in vain," and the body has grown under her leadership into a place where, as members like to say, "Everybody is Somebody, and Christ is the Head."
Pastor Lavina J. Smith
Pastor Lavina Johnson Smith has led New Mount Olive Baptist Church since March 2006, and her long walk to the pulpit began in Williston, South Carolina, where she was born on September 24, 1950, the youngest of eight children of Fred and Maggie Johnson. After completing school through the fourth grade in South Carolina, the family moved to Chester, Pennsylvania, where she continued her education and graduated from Chester High School in June 1968.
She went on to a forty-three-year career in public education - seventeen years as a teacher, seventeen as a principal, and nine years in the district office serving as Homeless Advocate for thirty schools. Twenty-two of those years were spent in the Chester-Upland School District and twenty-one in the Christina School District, ending with her retirement on July 1, 2016. She has studied for over twenty-eight years through the National Baptist Congress of Christian Education, completing every class offered in Christian Education and graduating with a Family and Marriage certification.
Pastor Smith was a member of Shiloh Baptist Church in Chester, Pennsylvania, from the age of nine. She became Shiloh's first Director of Christian Education, the first woman ordained there, and the first woman ordained in the New Hope Baptist Association. She then served as Shiloh's first Assistant Pastor for four years before coming to New Mount Olive as Interim Pastor and, eventually, Pastor.
She has been married to Brother Garfield Smith, Sr., for more than fifty years, and the couple has five children - Garfield, Damon, Brian, Jason, and Lavina Jeneen Roberts - and eight grandchildren. Her favorite scripture is Luke 1:37, "For with God nothing shall be impossible." Her favorite songs are "Precious Lord" and "God Specializes," and her go-to thought in any hard situation is this: "The situation itself is only ten percent; how you HANDLE the situation is ninety percent."
Sunday Worship and the Weekly Rhythm
Sunday morning begins at 9:15 am with Sunday Morning Church School, followed by Morning Worship at 10:30 am. The service gathers in the sanctuary on Washington Boulevard and draws on the musical gifts of the Mass Choir, the Male Chorus, the Morgans Juniors Choir, and the Young Adult Choir, with the Senior and Junior Ushers greeting every person at the door.
Mid-week life centers on Wednesday. At 10:30 am the Weekly Bible Study is broadcast live on Facebook; at 6:30 pm the Prayer Meeting gathers in person; and at 7:00 pm the Bible Study resumes in the sanctuary. Tuesdays bring a separate thread of community at 6:30 pm, when Grief Share meets for those walking through loss.
The Many Ministries of the Mount
New Mount Olive runs a wide slate of ministries, each rooted in a specific passage of Scripture and tied to a written mission statement. The Deacon's Ministry, anchored in Acts 6:3, exists to glorify God by serving and assisting the Pastor in ministering the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the church family and beyond. The Deaconess Ministry, drawn from Ephesians 4:1-3 and 4:12, focuses on the spiritual matters of the church, fostering peace, love, and unity and reaching out to those who are hurting as "God's angels of mercy."
The Hospitality Ministry follows 1 Peter 4:9, "Use hospitality one to another without grudging," and seeks to transform strangers into friends through warm, deliberate gestures of God's love. The Pastor's Aide Ministry exists to support the Pastor in every practical way and to help bring her visions for the church to life.
Music carries a great deal of the worship. The Mass Choir aims to sing "until the power of the Lord comes down." The Male Chorus works to "break the cycle of defeat with victory through singing and praising our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." The Morgans Juniors Choir Ministry gathers youth ages 6 to 21 to learn to sing with the anointing of the Lord and to minister the Word through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.
The Senior/Junior Usher Ministry, grounded in Psalm 84:10, takes seriously its calling as the first face visitors meet, working to make every person feel welcome, wanted, valued, and special. The Men Fellowship Ministry and the Women Fellowship Ministry walk alongside their members in prayer, study, and service; the women's ministry, anchored in Proverbs 31:30, focuses on building a stronger prayer life, conquering jealousy and heaviness, and learning to love themselves as Christian women.
Generational ministry runs deep. The Young Adult Ministry gathers members ages 21 to 45 around Isaiah 43:18-19, helping one another recognize and operate in their gifts and talents. The Youth Ministry, grounded in Romans 8:28, offers Christian guidance and leadership through Christ-centered activities that shape young people spiritually, emotionally, physically, and socially. The Sunday Morning Church School at 9:15 am anchors teaching for children alongside the rest of the family.
Other ministries round out the work. The Ministerial Ministry seeks to preach and teach the Word, lead lost souls to Christ through evangelism, and be example-setters in the church and beyond. The New Disciples Ministry embraces new members with Christian love, walks with them in prayer, and helps each one join a ministry of their own. The Willing Workers Ministry serves those in bereavement. The Seniors of The Century Ministry brings souls to Christ, imparts wisdom, and supports the sick and shut-in through phone calls, visits, and meals, while also visiting nursing homes in the wider community.
The Temple Care Wellness Center
The church's Health Care Ministry operates under the name Temple Care Wellness Center, drawn from 3 John 1:2: "Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth." Its mission is to promote awareness and education by providing resources, information, health fairs, and other programs to increase knowledge about physical, mental, and spiritual well-being. The ministry is committed to addressing the congregation's health needs through education, prevention, and early detection, with a goal of reducing both the occurrence and the impact of health problems and promoting wellness of body, mind, and spirit.
Grief Share and Community Outreach
On Tuesdays at 6:30 pm, the church hosts Grief Share, described by the congregation as "a safe, Christ-centered place to heal, find hope, and walk together toward wholeness after loss." The Seniors of The Century Ministry carries the church's outreach further, visiting nursing homes and bringing meals to the sick and shut-in. Members also travel together as a body to support other churches' anniversaries and Friendship Days around Delaware and Pennsylvania, a practice known around the Mount as "Travel with The Mount."
Leadership and Officers
Pastor Lavina J. Smith leads the congregation. Deacon Nathaniel Saunders serves as Chairman of Deacons, Trustee Derrick Goslee as Chairman of Trustees, and Sis. Tara Righter-Akpan as Church Clerk. The Deacon Ministry includes a chairman, vice chairman, secretary, treasurer, and a long bench of additional deacons who share in the work of ministry and service. The Trustee Ministry is structured similarly, with a chairman, vice chairman, two financial secretaries, and a wide group of trustees overseeing the temporal affairs of the church.
The Ministerial Council includes Reverends Quinton Massey, Velma Emmens, Ker'Robyn Briscoe, and Thomas Ryan, alongside Ministers Anthony Newman, Kimwanda Brown, Tamara Alexandre', Audrey Alexandre', Ronda Frazier, Melody Swing, Cynthia Goslee, Virginia Biggs, and Lisa Hutt. Many of these ministers deliver the weekly Words of Encouragement video segment alongside the pastor.
Words of Encouragement and Online Life
The church maintains an active online ministry. The Weekly Bible Study at 10:30 am on Wednesdays is broadcast on Facebook, and the Words of Encouragement LIVE series features rotating ministers - including Ministers Anthony Newman, Audrey Alexandre', Tracy Newman, Tamara Alexandre', Kim Brown, Monty Anderson, Leslie Massey, Cynthia Goslee, Melody Swing, Lisa Hutt, and Carols Hackett, and Reverends Thomas Ryan, Velma Emmens, Robyn Briscoe, Ronald Fowlkes, and Quinton Massey - each delivering a short message in turn. Sunday morning worship is also broadcast live, and recordings are preserved in the Media Center. The Health Care Corner hosts the "Enlightening Moment" with Pastor Smith, with past guests including Annie Slease from NAMI Delaware speaking on mental health. Giving is handled online through Givelify.
Visiting New Mount Olive
First-time visitors will find the church at 4412 Washington Boulevard, Wilmington, Delaware 19802, with the phone line at (302) 764-4979 and the fax at (302) 764-5421. Correspondence is welcomed at Pastorlavina@icloud.com. The Sunday schedule gives space for Christian education at 9:15 am before the 10:30 am worship service, and the church welcomes anyone looking for a place where the doors are open and the family is ready to receive them.