Rev. Jeremiah Booker to lead Cox Chapel

May 14, 2021

Highland Park United Methodist Church is excited to announce that Rev. Jeremiah Booker will be the new lead pastor of the Cox Chapel service.

Rev. Booker began his pastoral career in the Houston area, serving several churches there, including his first cross-cultural appointment as the Senior Minister of Mission Bend UMC. To be closer to family, he eventually moved to the Dallas area.

He’s been at Highland Park United Methodist Church for almost four years, but he jokes that he’s actually been at HPUMC for over 12 years since he was at Hamilton Park United Methodist Church (also HPUMC) in Dallas as their Senior Minister prior to coming to Highland Park.

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During his time here, he’s enjoyed serving in a variety of roles on HPUMC’s Pastoral Care team—officiating weddings and funerals, going on hospital visits, overseeing the Prayer Tower Ministry, and helping with Journey Ministry Memory Care. His “partner in ministry” is his wife, Petrella, who works in the Plano school district at McCall Elementary School and has taught women’s classes at HPUMC.

Rev. Booker is incredibly excited about leading Cox Chapel and looks forward to becoming a part of the service, growing with this community, and sharing in its vision. “I’ll see what the needs of the service are, talk with the congregants, and ask them what their expectations are,” he said. He then envisions, through dialogue and time, making the Cox Chapel service as authentic as it can be.

There’s an even larger significance to his appointment—Rev. Booker will be the first African American in our history to lead a worship service at HPUMC’s Mockingbird campus.

“I really don’t think they looked at the color of my skin,” he said. Instead, he feels like he’s simply seen as an experienced elder and leader.

“Yes, Jeremiah is the first African American pastor to be appointed to a worship community at HPUMC, but also, he is one of the kindest men I’ve known,” said Karla Nivens, HPUMC’s Impact/Justice Ministry Director. “I look forward to the warmth and spiritual leadership he will bring to the Cox Chapel service. We are all thrilled and prayerfully stand with him in this appointment.”

June 27 will be Rev. Booker’s first Sunday as the lead pastor in Cox Chapel. Until then, he’ll be serving and participating in the service and getting to know the congregants.