Laphon T. Flood-Francis is a lifelong resident of West Mifflin, PA. He is the beneficiary of strong family ties. Laphon is the son of Tyrribea Flood, the grandson of Bradley and Rev. Alice Flood and the late Alphonso and Martha Francis Sr., and the brother of Jiahna and Paytra. 

 

Upon graduating from West Mifflin Area High School with honors, Laphon graduated cum laude from Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA, with a Bachelor of Arts in religion and philosophy. While at Morehouse, he was a part of the Oprah Winfrey Scholarship Program and served as the vice president of the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel Assistants Program. Laphon has received numerous awards including the Rabbi Harold Silver NEED Leadership Scholarship, William A. Arvin Scholarship, and was named the 2019-2020 Martin Luther King Jr. Scholar. Rev. Laphon was also the 2022 recipient of the George Sweazy Award for Excellence in Homiletics. While at Morehouse, he was also inducted into The National Collegiate Scholars and The National Society of Leadership and Success. Laphon also graduated from Princeton Theological Seminary with his Master of Divinity Degree and a certificate in Black Church Studies. While at Princeton Seminary, Rev. Laphon served with the Association of Black Seminarians as the Chaplin and  as Co-Chair of the Social Justice Committee, where he helped organize one of the most diverse student movements in the seminary’s history for the removal of a slaveholders name from the place of worship. As a result of this work, he served as a student representative on the Princeton Theological Seminary’s Task Force on Names, which established policy for renaming and naming buildings and honors on campus. 

 

Laphon is a son of the Morning Star Baptist Church of Clairton, PA, where he has served in many ministries. At the age of 18, Laphon officially declared his calling to ministry and was licensed to preach the word of God by Dr. Willie J. Thompson and Morning Star Baptist Church of Clairton. On July 4, 2021, he was commissioned an ordained minister of the Gospel. Rev. Laphon has served as a Pastoral Intern at the Zion Hill Baptist Church in Atlanta, GA, a Pastoral Intern to College Students and Young Adults at the Oak Grove Baptist Church in Elgin, SC, a Pastoral Care Intern, Ministry Coordinator, and Associate Pastor of Missions, Evangelism and Social Justice at the First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens in Somerset, NJ. Laphon’s favorite scripture which he lives by is Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean  not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”