St Luke Lutheran Church

Wanda Childs

A native North Carolinian and third generation pastor, Rev. Wanda Childs 51 years old, brought her Southern Baptist roots to the ministry of St. Luke Evangelical Lutheran Church on September 5, 1999. Pastor Childs attended college at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina receiving a Bachelors degree in Sociology. She attended Southeastern Theological Baptist Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina and Southern Lutheran Seminary in Columbia, South Carolina. She and her husband David Ellis, formerly of the Roman Catholic tradition, joined the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in 1995. They were seeking a common church home together and were drawn to the many strengths of the ELCA: 1) the emphasis in the Bible as the foundation of belief, teachings and practices 2) the lifting up of the scriptural teaching that salvation is a gift of God’s grace and not of our good works, 3) a commitment to ecumenicity and to social justice, 4) a strong sense of fellowship and community. Her husband, David Ellis, Psy.D., is a Clinical Psychologist with Laurel Ridge Psychological Associates in Princeton, WV. He last served as the Chief of Psychology Services at the Federal Corrections Institution in Beckley. They have three boys: Nathaniel – age 16, Zachary – age 15, and Benjamin – age 14.