Welcome, and thank you for visiting Mount Vernon Baptist Church online. We hope that our website highlights the wide variety of worship, fellowship and service opportunities available. Please feel free to read more about our church on this site, or come in for a visit. We would love to greet you and share with you our love for Jesus Christ and for you, our neighbor.

 

Here at Mount Vernon Baptist Church our mission is to promote abundant and new life through a relationship with the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This relationship is strengthened through fellowships as well as consistent biblical and practical teachings.

It is our endeavor through the help and guidance of our Lord to be a place of refreshing and refuge. We believe that the door to salvation is always open and so are the doors to our church.  We are fully devoted to Jesus by opening our arms to those in search of.  We show God’s love and concern for our fellow man by opening our doors to listen and love at every opportunity.

 

Our Mission

Our mission and goal is to Restore, Revitalize & Renovate

Originally and formally the Bethel AME- Germantown Philadelphia location, the building located at 454-460 E. Rittenhouse Street was built in 1893 by the affluent and prominent freed Black residents as the central meeting place for locals of the area. Now owned by Mount Vernon Baptist Church, while a continued staple within the community, the structure needs restoration, renovations and revitalization to continually and enhancely provide what it was purposed for- a centralized place for people to meet and obtain information, support, and services.

Executive Leadership

Pastor ChaChira Smith-Robinson

Psalm 121:1,2 (KJV) I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.

Through the test, trials and teachings of life, ChaChira Smith- Robinson has learned, and continues to learn, how to trust in the written Word of God, in the form of the Holy Bible, for daily instruction.  Her faith and trust in God has continually increased and strengthened throughout the years while also holistically enhancing her life.

Her Christian journey began as a child at Mount Vernon Baptist Church, in the Germantown area of Philadelphia, PA. Here her father served as the minister of music, playing the organ and piano, and her mother assisted as the choir director.  She and her eldest brother remember, as a young children, the choir rehearsals,  gatherings at the house,  as well as the late night and early morning church services they would have to attend.  Church was their life which has had a great impact to date.  The four (4) children of Minister Bernard and Sister Audrey Smith: Dwayne, ChaChira, Derek and David, also received teaching and rearing from other ministry leaders and organizations that their parents were affiliated with.  The varied church and religious experiences have attributed to a well rounded understanding of religion, faith and beliefs for Sis. ChaChira.    

Growing up ChaChira strayed from the church but not too far and not for too long.  The foundation, that her parents and those that were a part of her rearing, could not be broken.  The tug of doing God’s work remained and in the fall of 1993 she found herself attending St. Phillips Baptist Church, Philadelphia, PA,  under the leadership of Pastor Willie I. Graves for a short period of time.  During this transition God began another work within her.  She sat, listened and applied the teachings from the pulpit to her life.  The call to work in ministry strengthened however the opportunity was not there.

Upon invitation in 1994 she visited Ford Memorial Tabernacle, Inc., now Ford Memorial Temple, under the leadership of then Pastor, now Bishop, Andrew J. Ford, II.  It is here that God did a miraculous change in, with and through the life of Sis. ChaChira.  After visiting twice she was led by the unction of the Holy Ghost to join the flock of this ministry in March 1994.  She was baptised, in Jesus Name, on March 27, 1994 and her life has not been the same since.  She served the leadership and congregation of Ford Memorial for over fourteen (14) years in various capacities.  Her duties included Children’s Church co-director, Youth and Young Adult Leader, Vacation Bible School organizer and instructor, assistant administrator for Next Generation Fellowship Ministries, choir member, Welcome Ministry Leader,  Marketing and Communication Ministry, Culinary Ministry and Adjutant /Assistant to visiting clergy and most importantly the Adjutant & Armorbearer to First Lady Jean C. Ford.  God does all things well as this assignment turned into a bond like no other.  The mothering, tutalage and mentorship provided by the late Lady Ford matured and molded ChaChira into the Woman of God that she is today.  I am forever grateful...

 Out of obedience after much prayer Sis. ChaChira returned to Mount Vernon Baptist Church in 2008 to assist her father, Pastor Bernard C. Smith, in ministry.  She currently serves through the leading and guidance of the Holy Ghost.  Sis. ChaChira has taken the things that she has learned over the years, professionally, religiously, and socially, and put them to work in this area of the vineyard.  Her goal is to enhance the Kingdom by serving people and assisting, when possible, where there is a need.  With a servants heart she approaches those that she comes in contact with in love, compassion, understanding and guidance.  Though difficult, at times, through pray she continues to cheerfully and passionately serve people.  While remaining truthful and honest, she is different things to different people:  sister, daughter, confident, friend, trainer,  and mentor, to name a few.  Through these roles she strives to make significant Godly impact to those that she comes in contact with.  On January 31, 2016 she became a licensed minister in the Lords Church,  and made history as the first woman licensed to minister at Mount Vernon Baptist Church as well as by her father and Pastor, Bernard C. Smith.

 Faithful to keep her promise to God and herself in 2006 God saw fit to bless her with a man of integrity and honor that would protect, cover, instruct and support her in life.  She has been the wife to Harvey E. Robinson since October 6, 2012.  They do not have children however, together they work daily to enhance each other and the Kingdom.


Pastor Emeritus Bernard C. Smith

Pastor

Pastor Bernard C. Smith is a native of Philadelphia. Reared here, he attended and graduated the Philadelphia Public School System and furthered his education by attending Penn State University and Antioch University, earning the equivalent of an Associates Degree in Human Services.

The Lord called Pastor Smith to the work of ministry, preaching and teaching the gospel of Christ, at age 17. Preparation for the task led him to study at the Main Bible Institute and Manna Bible Institute. A counseling ministry developed as he continued to share the gospel to hurting and searching individuals. He has maintained as a motto for himself – "there is always hope, if you trust in God".  Ever before him is the commissioning verse which the Lord gave him upon his call to service. Luke 4:18-19 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.”  Therein his vision for his ministry was set.

The congregation at Mount Vernon Baptist Church called Reverend Smith to serve as pastor in 1988. His ministry and prayers are for the development of more workers in the vineyard through training and opportunity given at Mount Vernon. He loves his congregation and that emotion is returned to him by each of them, especially the little people. The children are his special congregation. Prayer is the central theme for the church and God has honored their prayers.

Pastor Smith is the father of four, three sons and one daughter. He has three daughters-in law, one son-in-law, nine grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. His desire is that you pray with him for families everywhere and most assuredly LOST SOULS.

People are trying to find their way. We know the way. Help them find JESUS.