WS Chronicle

Serving the Lord has long been a passion for Renae Miller. On Sunday, April 29, she was ordained at Greater Hope of Glory Missionary Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, gaining the title of Reverend.

She began her walk in the ministry in 1998 with her father, Bishop Waddell Cockerham, senior pastor of Greater Hope, as a faithful and dedicated member with a thirst and hunger for the righteousness of God.

According to Miller, in 1999 she heard the voice of God commissioning her to teach and preach His word. Answering his call, she was licensed in the ministry at Greater Hope of Glory Missionary Baptist Church under the leadership of her father and was appointed as youth minister.

Over the years, she has continued to progress in the ministry, which included leaving Greater Hope to grow as a minister. In 2017, she returned to Greater Hope to become an associate minister. Upon her return she founded Power of God Women’s Ministry at the church, which has been a vision of hers since 1999.

The ordination service was one Miller says she will always remember. She says her passion for women young and old along with the trials she has endured throughout her life continued to push her toward the ministry.

“My father is the bishop of this church, so just being with him as he first started out in the ministry encouraged me and gave me that love and passion for winning souls for Christ,” said the Rev. Miller. “Growing up in public housing and seeing some of the struggles of the people in the community and being a single mom raising three kids, it was my faith that brought me through.”

Rev. Miller stated this is just another step in her walk to bring more souls to Christ. She will become an assistant pastor at Greater Hope. She delivered her first sermon on May 6 on the topic of not giving up. She says her message was inspired by certain issues that her church had to deal with in the past.

“I just wanted to encourage the people and tell them that regardless of what your opinion of man is, you never take your focus off of God because God is the source and man in the resource,” she said. “A lot of times in this walk we tend to turn away from God when man has done something wrong or disappointed us.”

Going forward, Rev. Miller stated she would like to further her knowledge in Christ by enrolling in divinity school to obtain her master’s of theology degree and eventually her doctorate.

Although she has many plans for the future, her immediate focus is on the women’s ministry of the church. She says it has been one of her main goals for the past 20 years.

“Right now my greatest passion is my women’s ministry because it was one that God gave me back in 1999,” she continued. “I have been going as the spirit leads me and I just launched it about a year ago after all those years of God telling me how to construct it.”

Rev. Miller says she does not feel any different now that she has been ordained because previously she had to fill in for her father when he took a sabbatical. She feels she is a born leader and will one day become senior pastor of Greater Hope once her father steps down.