Our pastor
PASTOR OMARI K. HUGHES
Pastor Omari K. Hughes is a husband, father, brother, son and pastor. Born in Richmond, VA to Frank and Cheryll Hughes, he received his primary education through the Richmond Public Schools system and gave his life to Christ during his teenage years. He is a proud alumn of Hampton University, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude in the spring of 2006 with a Bachelor’s degree in Broadcast Journalism from the Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications.
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Upon his graduation, he moved to Baltimore Maryland where he was offered the position of Director of New Media at the local ABC affiliate Channel 2 News. While serving there as the youngest department head on staff, he was heavily mentored by many of the station’s top level executives. Their input and hands on approach to teaching helped to shape his heart and mind as leader and cultivate a foundational understanding of what true organizational leadership is all about.
During his tenure at Channel 2, he was blessed to serve on a number of key boards within the greater Baltimore region, including the Young Professionals Board of Good Samaritan Hospital and the Maryland Humanities Council. The combination of those experiences and other key opportunities helped Pastor Omari’s mind and understanding of leadership to grow and expand even further. The lessons learned during that season of his career, impacted him in a profound way as a developing leader and they continue to influence and guide his approach and understanding of leadership to this day.
He eventually went on to leave Channel 2 and to become a managing partner at MsgWorx (Message Works) a start-up tech company in Baltimore that focused on online communications. At MsgWorx, he learned what it takes to literally build an organization from the ground up. Those lessons would turn out to be more valuable than he could have ever realized, when several years later, he was called by God to help found and Pastor New Life Church.
It was during his time at MsgWorx that Pastor Omari began to sense his call to ministry. Like many, the call was initially both disorienting and disruptive. After a time of heavy discernment, through mentorship, Pastoral Counseling, personal reflection and prayer, Pastor Omari began to yield to God’s call on his life to pursue full time ministry. He had no idea what that call would entail but in an act of faith, while trusting God, he left MsgWorx to enroll as full-time student at Princeton Theological Seminary where he graduated with his Master’s in Divinity in 2012.
While attending Princeton, God began to publicly affirm his call. He was licensed to preach by his childhood pastor, Dr. James H. Harris of the 2nd Baptist Church in Richmond, VA and later ordained for Pastoral Ministry at the Bright Hope Baptist Church in Philadelphia, PA where he served as the interim Youth Minister during his time as a seminarian. He also met the love of his life, his wife, Natalie Marshall Hughes, who is also a graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary. Today they are the proud parents of their son Khalil Omari.
Pastor Hughes now serves as the Lead Pastor of the New Life Church in Laurel, MD. Under his leadership the church has grown rapidly both spiritually and numerically. Founded in 2020, during the height of the COVID19 pandemic, in just a few short years, the congregational membership has eclipsed well over 500 souls. New Life is an active and contributing member of the Laurel community, feeding hundreds of families each month through outreach, partnering with local schools like Oaklands Elementary and Laurel High, serving seniors within the community through an ongoing partnership with the Laurel-Beltsville Senior Activity Center and so much more. He believes by faith, “that eye has not seen and ear has not heard the great things that God has in store” for both New Life and his personal life and family and is excited to live a life in pursuit of all that God has in store.