Education
Soaries received a Bachelor of Arts from Fordham University. A Master of Divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary. And a Doctor of Ministry degree from United Theological Seminary.
Soaries received a Bachelor of Arts from Fordham University. A Master of Divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary. And a Doctor of Ministry degree from United Theological Seminary.
He is the former Secretary of State of New Jersey and former chairman of the federal Election Assistance Commission. Additionally, he is the senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens in Somerset, New Jersey, a position he has held since November 1990. He has also received five honorary Doctorate degrees from other institutions.
The couple has twin sons, Malcolm and Martin.
Soaries served as Secretary of State of New Jersey from January 1999 through January 2002 under then-Governor Christine Todd Whitman. In that position he endorsed further funding for the arts, and served as an unofficial general advisor to the governor.
He also created V-FREE, a statewide youth violence prevention program In 2002, Soaries was an unsuccessful Republican candidate for the United States. House of Representatives from the 12th Communicative Disorders of New Jersey, losing to incumbent Democrat Rush Doctorate. Holt, Junior.
A proponent of faith-based community development, and of President Bush"s faith-based initiative, Soaries, through church donations, formed several non-profit community development agencies, including the Renaissance Community Development Cr Union, Renaissance Education & Technology Academy and the Harvest of Hope Family Services Network.
Soaries was chosen by Coretta Scott King as the keynote speaker at the 2000 Martin Luther King, Junior. celebration in Atlanta. He has also worked for the Urban League and Operation People United to Save Humanity. In 2005, Soaries began a pilot program entitled dfree at the First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens. After four years of using the dfree strategy to motivate families to pay off debt and use resources that facilitate financial freedom.
In 2010, Soaries was the subject of a Cable News Network documentary investigation into the creative and proactive ways an African-American faith community is addressing the challenges of the national economic crisis.
Soaries preaches a gospel of personal financial responsibility, and cultivating a value system of "faith in action" – expressed as optimism rooted in reality.
