Young pastor begins his own ministry
The Rev. Joseph Cobbs is only 23 years old and has created his own church to lead. New Revelation Ministries is a newly formed church at the old Union Baptist Church on Northwest Boulevard.
Cobbs, a Ringgold, Virginia, native, says he was attracted to the ministry at age 7. He says that at that age, he would practice preaching by himself outside to the trees. His family relocated to Winston-Salem in 2005. He attended Ashley Elementary, Mineral Springs Middle and Winston-Salem Preparatory Academy. Cobbs was ordained as a minister age 17.
At the age of 17, while attending Winston-Salem Prep, Cobbs had the opportunity to become senior pastor of New Gospel Tabernacle Holiness Church. He moved from New Gospel to Gethsemane Hope Baptist Church, which led to him starting New Revelation Ministries.
“In November of 2017, the Lord started doing something different in me,” said Cobbs. “The Lord led me to Gethsemane for a reason and the people there got attached to my voice.
“One thing I know about God is He will assign certain people to your voice and he assigned a group of individuals at Gethsemane Hope. The last Wednesday in November, we made a decision with 50 people to start New Revelation Ministries.”
The church started out holding service at Roberts Funeral Service on Old Greensboro Road for about four months. One day as he was driving by, he noticed the old Union Baptist space and reached out to Bishop Sir Walter Mack Jr., senior pastor of Union Baptist, and the rest is history. They have been in the space since April of this year.
Cobbs stated the reason for him starting his own church was that he had limitations on the types of ministry he could perform at his old church.
“There were some challenges we were facing,” he said. “Me being the pastor that I am, there were things I could not do as a pastor of the church. There were some things I desired to do, but couldn’t do and that kept my hands tied. I respect the people of the church, but I knew I was only going to be there for a season.”
While there, Cobbs said the Lord began to show him that the church is not “brick and mortar,” but it’s the people instead.
“If we as the people can get back to the true meaning of what church is, I think the church would be better,” he continued. “I see that we are just in a building, but we really are the church.”
New Revelation is a non-denominational church, Cobbs said. “Some may agree and some may disagree, but I don’t believe in denominations only because denominations separate us,” he said. “Sometimes we can tie ourselves around denominations and miss what God is really saying through the Scriptures.”
Cobbs says the church started out with 50 members but now has a membership of 83 people in the short time it has been at the new location. He says he looks forward to gaining more members, but says the spiritual growth of the congregation is more important.
Attracting the youth is another goal of the church. Cobbs says he and his wife like to integrate the youth into the service by letting them say the morning prayer or even deliver a sermon from time to time.
Going forward, Cobbs says he would love to have the church thrive through the women’s, men’s and youth ministries. He feels those groups incorporate every demographic of the church to get a perspective from all parties of the church.
