Gospel artist taking over as pastor of Wadley church
Pastor LaVoria Denise Reese, a licensed minister, gospel recording artists and soon to be author, will be installed as Jesus Christ Miracle Deliverance Center’s new pastor on Saturday, Nov. 19.
The service begins at noon at the church located at 6811 US Hwy. 1, in Wadley.
Reese will replace the church’s founder, Roberta Young McKennie, who served there for 20 years.
Reese said she looks forward to moving to the area from Statesboro, where she now resides, getting to know the congregation and the community, and serving both.
A third generational Pentecostal Apostolic preacher, Reese said she comes from a long line of pastors.
“My maternal grandfather pastored many, many years,” she said. “My father was a pastor from 1969 to 2011, and then turned the church over to my brother who is now the pastor of the Cathedral of the Apostolic Faith in Decatur.”
She felt the call to preach when she was 26 or 27, but did not accept it until 1989.
In 1991 she and her family toured Europe singing gospel music. Through that tour and one other, she has ministered
Reese has ministered internationally for over 40 years to audiences in Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Luxembourg, Czech Republic, and Slovakia. She has served with the Gospel Music Workshop of America Atlanta Chapter for many years, spreading the gospel through song domestically and was a founding board member of the United Gospel Consortium in Atlanta.
She looks forward to continuing to evangelize the gospel through song and encouraging people of different races, cultures and denominations.
Reese became a licensed minister with the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, Inc. In the late 1990s and was ordained in 2014 with the National Baptist Convention USA at Greater Destiny in Atlanta. In 2016 she founded Living Victorious Family Center, Inc., home of Joel's Coffee BAR (Born Again Revolutionary), in Conyers and then moved to Statesboro in March of this year.
Reese received a bachelors of art in psychology form Ashford University and later pursued a master of arts in youth and family ministry from Grand Canyon Theological Seminary.
She is currently awaiting the release of her first book, a 40-day prayer journal and memoir entitled My Worth.
Reese said that she looks forward to getting more involved in Wadley, where she plans to move in the coming months.
This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Gospel artist taking over as pastor of Wadley church
