Our Mission

The mission of the Bethlehem Community Church is to demonstrate the love of God by going beyond the four walls of our church and into our community. Above all, we are fully committed to seeing souls saved. Whether you’re new to church or have been saved all your life, we believe that everybody is somebody. Come and join our Community! Let’s do life together, All With One Accord!

Our Pastors

Pastor Leo C. Smith III and First Lady Aimie Smith are the leaders of the Bethlehem Community Church in East Orange. Pastor Smith became the head pastor in 2017, succeeding his parents and founders, Bishop Leo Smith, Jr. and Shepherd Mother Joyce Smith. Pastor Smith and First Lady Aimie are dedicated to preaching the liberating Gospel of Jesus Christ to those that are lost, sick, and in captivity, so that they may be saved, healed, delivered, and set free.

Our Founders

Bishop Leo C. Smith Jr and Minister Joyce Smith are the founders of the Bethlehem Community Church (BCC). On April 6, 1970, with the consent and blessing of his pastor, the late District Elder Sanders, Bishop Smith established the Bethlehem Community Church in Irvington, NJ. Bishop Smith and Shepherd Mother led BCC for years. They have dedicated their lives to sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ through dynamic preaching and teaching.

Our Beliefs

  • We believe the bible (scripture) is the mind and the plan of God revealed. All that we need to know about God is written in the bible (II Timothy 3:16-17).

  • We believe in one God (strict monotheism). God is the eternal and infinite one (Isaiah 42:8; 43:11; 45:5-6).

  • We embrace the doctrine of the Trinity as a plausible but not definitive explanation relative to the composition of the Godhead; however, we believe that the Trinity is best explained through oneness theology. There is only one eternal “Spirit-Being” God (Isaiah 44:6,24), who is pleased to manifest Himself in many ways but most particularly as the Father (I Corinthians 8:6), the Son (Colossians 1:12-20), and the Holy Ghost (St. John 15:26). God is personified and distinct in operation but not separate in the economy of His divinity. God the Father is positional. He preceded all things and all things come from Him. He is immutable omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. There is no place in the universe where God is not present. The Son is the eternal Word of God and the visible manifestation of God the Father (St. John 1:1, 14; 14:6-9). The Holy Spirit is what God is by nature, the spirit of truth, the energizer of life and movement. When a person is baptized in the Holy Spirit and or receives the gift of the Holy Spirit they are empowered by God to do His work on the earth. Therefore the Holy Spirit indwells, empowers, and guides the believer into all truths (St. John 16:13-16).

  • We believe that salvation is for all those who hear, believe, and respond affirmatively to the Gospel of Jesus Christ (St. John 3:16). New Birth is the enablement which allows us to respond to hearing the preached Word of God. New Birth is manifested when one has been enabled to accept the finished work of Jesus Christ and repents of sin, and confesses the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior. Water Baptism is in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ according to Acts 2:38; 19:5-6, Matthew 28:19, and being filled with the gift of the Holy Spirit is an immediate response to New Birth.

  • The perceived conflict between Matthew 28:19, Acts 2:38; 8:16; 10:48, and 19:5 continues to be problematic within many Christian denominations. We believe that water baptism is a divine requirement and that the name of Jesus should always be invoked over all believers when they are water baptized. Matthew 28:19 nor the scriptural references relative to water baptism in the Book of Acts are inappropriate or conflicting statements. Therefore, this variance over which name to use when we baptize is resolved by invoking, "I now baptize you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." Please note, that this is a resolution; by incorporating these scriptural references we have now moved away from this age-old conflict.

  • The ultimate sign of the baptism of the Holy Spirit is when one supernaturally speaks in tongues (other languages) as the Spirit of God gives the utterance (Acts 2:4; 10:44-46).

  • The believer should strive to live a victorius life through holiness and sanctification of oneself (Hebrews 12:14).

  • We believe in the rapture, the second coming of Christ, and the final judgement of the quick and (living) and the dead (I Thessolonians 4:16-18; II Timothy 4:1; Revelation 20:1-5, 20:7-15).

  • Man was created to exist forever. He will exist either eternally separated from God by sin or in union with God through forgiveness and salvation. To be eternally separated from God is Hell. To be eternally in union with Him is Heaven. Heaven and Hell are places of eternal existence (John 3:16, 36; Romans 6:23; 1 John 2:25; 5:11-13; Revelation 20:15).