HAMPTON, Va. — Richmond pastor Betty Mills has been called as senior pastor of the 222-year-old Hampton (Va.) Baptist Church, making it likely the largest Baptist congregation in Virginia led by a woman pastor.
Betty Mills
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For 23 years, Mills has been on the ministerial staff of Grace Baptist Church in Richmond, serving as minister of church family life, associate pastor and, most recently, senior pastor. She assumes her new role in Hampton on May 15.
A Staunton, Va., native, Mills is a graduate of the University of Richmond, Andover Newton Theological
School in Newton Center, Mass., and the Samuel E. Proctor School of Theology at Virginia Union University in Richmond.
Hampton Baptist, organized in 1791, has about 1,100 total members, around 500 of them actively involved. The church is affiliated with the Baptist General Association of Virginia and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. It has long placed women in leadership positions, electing its first woman deacon in 1972 and ordaining its first woman to the ministry in 1993.
“We are thankful that God has led us to Betty and honored that she has accepted our call,” deacon chair Matt Harlan said in a press release. “We look forward to her leadership as we worship and humbly strive to be the hands and feet of Jesus Christ.”
Robert Dilday ([email protected]) is managing editor of the Religious Herald.