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Full-circle moment for new pastor at Hazelwood church | The Homepage
By Managing Editor Juliet Martinez
It has been a momentous year for St. John the Evangelist Baptist Church of Hazelwood. Its members celebrated 117 years of ministry and officially installed a new pastor on Oct. 17. Rev. LaTiece Daniels became the church’s 12th pastor in June. Members of the congregation voted for him to assume the role after a one-year candidacy.
Becoming the pastor elect at St. John the Evangelist Baptist Church is a full-circle moment for Mr. Daniels. He often visited Hazelwood as a young child to pick up a family member from Jones & Laughlin Steel. He also has fond memories of attending music workshops at the church when he was 12 and 13 years old.
“So, I know the rich history of the church as well,” he told The Homepage on Oct. 9. “It’s a real honor to be back in that community.”
Mr. Daniels was born in Tacoma, Washington but grew up in the Hill District. That is where he attended Central Baptist Church since childhood.
“My great-grandmother insisted that I needed to be in church at an early age,” Mr. Daniels said. “So, if it was walking to church or if it was the van coming by to pick me up, it was a requirement for me to be there.”
But attending church became a personal relationship with Christ later. Mr. Daniels received what he described as his calling after being badly wounded in a car accident in 1999 at age 17.
Mr. Daniels’ wife, Nina, joined the Oct. 9 call. They were friends when he had the accident, and she visited him in the hospital at the time.
She remembered how severe it was.
“It was a scary time,” she said. He was in a coma, had broken one of his legs and had third-degree burns on one of his arms.
That was when he made a life-altering choice.
“I heard the voice from God stating to me that either I was going to live for him or it was over,” he recalled. “And so, from that moment forth, I decided that I was going to live for God and do what God had called me to do.”
Youth and homeless people have a special place in Mr. Daniels’ heart. His youth ministry work stems from his gratitude to the people who helped him when he was a teenager and his mother was not well, he said.
“I was thankful because I had different people that opened up their homes to me and different programs that was there in the time that I needed them.”
One of those was a program called Cross Trainers. It was run by Tim Smith before he founded Hazelwood-based Center of Life. Mr. Daniels started as a camper in that program and became a counselor.
“Those programs were very helpful to guide me to make sure I didn’t get involved in the streets and to stay the course. Because of those programs, it helped me develop a love of working with the youth,” he said.
No strangers
The Daniels’ ministry and youth engagement has spanned across states and countries. They have done mission work in Africa and Mexico and supported efforts in the Caribbean. But the Hampton Roads region of Virginia is where the majority of their work has happened.
“My wife and I, we’ve been doing ministry together for 16 years,” Mr. Daniels said. “From youth outreach programs to just regular church programs to even just opening our door to foster kids [and] to the kids in the neighborhood.”
“So many of the children that we worked with came from broken homes,” Ms. Daniels said of the couple’s time in Virginia. “Our doors were always open for whomever was in the vicinity and wanted to stop in. They knew they could have dinner with us.”
Ms. Daniels works remotely as a corporate recruiter for a North Carolina company. She grew up in Pittsburgh as the only child of academics who divided their time between the U.S. and Mexico. She and Mr. Daniels celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary last July and have three sons in their 20s. They raised their children in Virginia, where Rev. Daniels was licensed by Second Calvary Baptist church in Norfolk in 2009 and ordained by Morning Star Baptist Church in Virginia Beach in 2025. The couple also spent several years living in Mexico where Mr. Daniels coached junior college and youth athletics.
Ms. Daniels said people seem to sense that Mr. Daniels has a calling to help others.
“He’s never met a stranger,” she said. She said people often approach him in public and ask if he is a pastor. “They’ll walk up to him and just know that he has a calling, a certain anointing on him, you know?” she said. “They’ll say, ‘Are you a pastor? Are you a minister? There’s something about you.’”
Becoming pastor elect
Church member Juanita Godfrey Humphrey volunteered for the pulpit committee at St. John the Evangelist Baptist Church. This committee presented Mr. Daniels as a possible new pastor. The church had been without one for three years after Rev. Shelton R. Colbert moved to a church in Chicago in 2023.
Ms. Humphrey explained during an Oct. 8 call that the pulpit committee screened and interviewed the applicants. Those who seemed promising were invited to teach Sunday school or preach to the congregation. The congregation then voted on the applicants. This is why Mr. Daniels’ formal title is pastor elect, because the church members elected him.
“I liked the way he delivered the word,” Ms. Godfrey said.
She said she also likes that he sees people’s talents or interests and encourages them to use those for the good of others.
“Helping people use their gifts, seeing what people are doing and saying, ‘They might do good in this position’ or ‘They might fit in here.’ Seeing what they could be doing and letting them know,” she said. “Sometimes they say, ‘I’m too busy,’ but I like the way he observes and tries to encourage people.”
Learn more about St. John the Evangelist Baptist Church by visiting stjohnpgh.org.
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