Growing up at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Greensboro, N.C., Lucille “CeCee” Mills, ELCA secretary, saw lay leadership as an opportunity for everyone to have their voice heard in the church.

Prince of Peace began in 1970 as a neighborhood service center in the city’s historically Black Warnersville community, and Mills said that foundation guided the church’s approach to ministry.

“We started out as a children’s center, and because of that, children were never a future part of the church—they were the church,” she said. “So anything you wanted to experience leadership-wise in the church, you were allowed to do. I preached my first sermon at age 9. I served on council for the first time at age 12. There was always a holy invitation to come in.”

That faith upbringing stayed with Mills, and as she entered adulthood, she continued to serve in lay roles in the church, assisting fundraising efforts, serving on boards and giving her time to different outreach programs. “Doing those things was really critical to my understanding of who we were as the ELCA and what that meant for my call as a child of God, even before I felt called to public ministry,” she said.

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