News and Views

The Rev. Dr. Ianther Mills, pastor of the historic Asbury UMC in Washington, D.C., has been named by Bishop LaTrelle Easterling to serve as a superintendent in the Baltimore-Washington Conference. Mills will rejoin the Cabinet, after serving as a superintendent from 2005 to 2013.

In her new appointment, Mills will continue embracing the call she experienced when she entered ministry in 1990. This call is inspired by Ephesians 3: “To search the unsearchable riches of Christ and share the fullness of God.”

Mills served as superintendent of the Washington East District and then for four years as the Dean of the Cabinet. Before 2005, she served at Good Hope Union, Catonsville and Mt. Carmel UMCs.

Upon appointing Mills, Bishop LaTrelle Easterling noted, “Whether it is the preaching and spiritual leadership that she offers at Asbury UMC every Sunday morning, or the powerful sermon she offered during a recent annual conference, it is undeniable that Rev. Dr. Ianther Mills is a deep disciple of Jesus Christ and is committed to the ministry of the Gospel. Those are the most important traits in a spiritual leader.”

“I’m looking forward to the charge and the new path before me,” Mills said. “While I’m going back, I’m bringing a different perspective than what I had the first go-around. I have a broader perspective and will be able to relate better to churches of all sizes and locales, as well as pastors at different stages in their ministries.”

Mills has come to understand that superintendents, and all church leaders, have a responsibility to be prophetic and biblical. “Our underlying ethic should be Jesus and love,” she said. She sees herself as someone who leads with people and works to ensure people come along, prayerfully, to where God is leading.

Recent changes in the political, cultural and church landscapes present the church with opportunities to look at “what is our witness as a whole,” she said. “How are we living as the body of Christ and what is our witness, as a whole, to the world?”

Reaching beyond the walls of the sanctuary and into communities surrounding local churches has been a key component of creating vital churches. Bishop Easterling said she is excited about the gifts and experience Mills brings to inspire and strategically equip local churches.

“At this pivotal time in the life of the denomination, but more importantly the conference, we will benefit from rooted, discerning and experienced leadership. Rev. Mills embodies those attributes while simultaneously being a collaborative, adaptive leader. That combination will be an excellent asset to the Cabinet,” the bishop said. “As several Cabinet members have either concluded their term or been invited into new leadership positions, her superintending experience will allow her to hit the ground running.”

As she begins, Mills said she will work to empower churches to more fully take advantage of the strengths of the connectional system, coming together to make a stronger impact in their communities and sharing best practices.

Part of the opportunity within the challenge is learning to navigate diversity, addressing what it means to become a hybrid community that can effectively conduct virtual church, create reconciliation, and preach and lead, as the saying goes, “with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other.”

Mills sees her role as a superintendent to equip and inspire local churches “to help people discover their gifts and help them to more fully realize their discipleship and to really walk in that discipleship. We all have callings,” she said.

 As Mills continues her calling to share the fullness of God, both she and the bishop say they are excited about this next season in the life of the Baltimore-Washington and Peninsula-Delaware Area. “Rev. Mills has demonstrated her gifts and graces at the conference, jurisdictional and connectional level. Her work in ministry has earned her the respect of her peers,” Easterling said. “She will be a welcome voice at the Cabinet table.”

One of the key parts of being a faithful leader, Mills said, is participating regularly in spiritual disciplines. She finds strength and renewal in silent retreats at places like the Bon Secours Retreat Center in Marriottsville.

“I love having that quiet, alone time, getting away from distractions and listening to God. In the silent setting is how I reconnect and hear God,” she said.

Mills also enjoys going on vacation with her husband, Hilton, who is the founder and president of OnAir Applications and works with Asbury UMC’s media ministry.

Since the fifth grade, math has always been one of the things Mills has loved. “I loved math so much that when we were given homework, I went ahead and solved all of the problems in the chapter,” she said. This love led her to become a software engineer, working for 15 years for GTE Government Systems, TRW Inc., and Booz, Allen and Hamilton.

Today, in addition to reading books about ministry, she enjoys doing puzzles, playing computer games and figuring out logic problems. Her spiritual and logical mindsets often combine to create a love of exegesis. It’s the paradox of “searching the unsearchable” from her call.” I love searching the Scripture,” she said. “I’m always winnowing to find if there’s some nugget, some passage, that God wants me to see and share.”