Reverend Shontea L. Smith,
MA-RELS, MTS, MDiv.

A native of North Carolina, the Reverend Shontea L. Smith has served as the pastor of Mount Sinai African Methodist Episcopal Church in Pittsboro, NC, since July 12, 2022. Shontea is an ordained deacon in the African Methodist Episcopal Church and is matriculating through the Western North Carolina Annual Conference’s Board of Examiners.

She is passionate about education and is an avid learner. She earned a Master of Arts in Religious Studies in 2012 from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and became the University’s first student to complete a Graduate Certificate in Africana Studies. Captivated by her research in Black religious culture of the Americas, Shontea earned a Master of Theological Studies from Duke Divinity School in 2017, in addition to completing a graduate certificate in African and African American Studies. In 2021, she returned to Duke Divinity to earn a Master of Divinity degree where she fulfilled the requirements and graduated with graduate certificates in Black Church Studies and Gender, Sexuality, and Theology, May 2023. In Spring 2024, Shontea earned a certification from Duke Divinity’s Center for Reconciliation in Conflict Transformation and Reconciliation. Currently, she is continuing her studies in pursuit of a Doctor of Ministry where her focus is Leadership and Theologies of Care.

Shontea seeks to be about the Creator’s business as an active member of the body of Christ who is passionate about Christian Education, social justice and teaching principles of the Bible in a matter of fact way that makes the Word plain for all. She has written articles for the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Christian Recorder, and has presented her research, both nationally and internationally. She is a concerned mother, daughter, sister, and friend who cares and is engaged with the plights facing marginalized populations in the 21st century, both culturally and socially. She is a compassionate woman of God, who walks by Faith, and is radical enough to believe God can, and will, work all things for the good of those who love the Lord and are called according to God’s will and purpose.