If you ask her, Denise will readily admit that she is a versatile communicator. In addition to writing and speaking, she has found that photography, sculpting, painting, illustration and graphic design are wonderful avenues for self-expression. It was these artistic abilities that kept her afloat on the white capped waves of a wind tossed childhood. And they, like constant friends, were always there, standing at the ready, to usher her though good times and bad.
At the age of seven, Denise experienced her first prophetic event. The way she describes it, an unexpected revelation fell from above and landed on her. That began years of spiritual exploration. In her early years, God was anything but subtle. She carried on conversations with Him long before she invited Him into her life. The calling to serve God came later. Much later.
It was a thirst for study that led her to pursue a Master of Divinity at McCormick Theological Seminary. It was there that she solidified her theology and learned how to defend her apologetics. She will tell you that “if you want to know the truth, you have to dig for it. You have to ask questions of the text. And you have to keep asking.” One of her professors told her, “You ask questions nobody else asks.” Of course then she wanted to know why other people don’t ask. But at the same time, there are things people want to know about God, that Denise has never had to question. She asserts that, “when you talk to God, and spend time in the realm where He resides, there is a lot of knowing that goes on. You don’t know everything. But you do know (and feel) His anger, anguish, joy and passion. We serve an intensely emotional God.”
In 2013, Denise became the interim pastor of a church in upstate New York. After completing her work there, she accepted the call to pastor a church in Wayne County, where she served for seven years. While there, she went on to pursue a Doctor of Ministry at Northeastern Seminary. She was one of only a few students to complete the requirements for the degree in three years.
Denise has always been a worker of puzzles, a builder of models; one who climbs into the intricacies and inner workings of a complex piece. She brings that kind of inquisitiveness to the Bible and the lives of the people we read about in its pages. Their journeys are not so far removed from our own. And God requires the same from us that He required of them.
