After 21 years as the chaplain of Union Commonwealth University (UCU), the Rev. David Miller is retiring this month. Since his first ministerial appointment in 1984, he has served as the pastor of several Kentucky congregations, has taken on leadership roles in multiple Kentucky organizations, and has led countless campus programs and groups dedicated to student development. He says supporting students to find their personal calling, however, has been the highlight of his career.

“I was so privileged to walk with them in formative times of their lives, as they were discovering who they were and who they could become,” Miller says of his ministry with Union students. “Boy, that's so important to me. Whatever program or structure we produced was always with that in mind — to walk with students through this particularly transitional time in their lives.”

“He really proved to me that leaders can come in all shapes and sizes and pushed me to become a leader myself. I am extremely thankful to Rev for his contribution to my life at Union. He really changed my perspective on so many things.” 

Miller first felt the call to ministry as a teenager searching for meaning. He was a first-generation college student from a low-income family in Appalachia who had gotten a scholarship to an elite university in a big city. After one semester of studying engineering, culture shock and the realization that something was missing led him to drop out and go back home. He began a discernment process with the United Methodist Church (UMC), which led him to begin serving as a part-time student pastor, and eventually, to come to Union as a student in the pre-ministerial program.

“My time at Union was incredibly formative,” Miller says, recalling the existential questions discussed in humanities classes, the new perspectives he gained from arts performances, and the way he learned to think critically about history and so much else. “It was just a wonderful, wonderful time.”

After graduating from Union in 1987, Miller attended Lexington Theological Seminary while serving as the student pastor at Cynthiana Ebenezer UMC. During this period, he learned from the predominantly Black congregation “how to advocate for parishioners in the broader community.” It was there, he says, that he found his voice as a “justice-rooted minister.” He also realized that LGBTQIA+ justice would be the civil rights issue of the church in his time.

Miller served as pastor of multiple additional congregations, including Falmouth UMC and First United Methodist of Barbourville, before eventually beginning as Union’s Campus Minister in June of 2004. Throughout his career, Miller says, he has learned important life lessons and been shaped by the communities he has served.

A selection of photos from Miller's ministry at Union:

At Union, in addition to creating nurturing spaces for students to explore their faith, a key focus of Miller’s ministry has included innovative programming designed to help students discover their purpose and path in life. Similar to his own discernment process with the UMC, these programs have often included a structured reflective process and the guidance of mentors. Circles of Purpose, is one such current program designed to help students develop their unique gifts and vocational potential. It is funded by a grant Miller secured from the Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education (NetVUE).

Since his time in seminary, Miller has been involved with the Kentucky Council of Churches, where he served as Chair of the Commission on Ecumenical Formation Initiatives for two years and is now part of the Advocacy Team. He is an ordained elder with the Kentucky Annual Conference of the UMC and has served as tri-chair of the Kentucky chapter of the Poor People’s Campaign, the faith-based organization founded on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s work. Additionally, after first volunteering with Kentuckians for the Commonwealth (KFTC) in response to student interest in opposing mountaintop removal, Miller has stayed involved since. He has served in many leadership roles with KFTC and is currently a co-chair of the executive committee.

In final reflection on his time with UCU, Miller says, “Union has given me the opportunity to more fully understand what my calling in life has been and has given me the opportunity to express that fully. I have nothing but joy and gratitude.”

He also expresses his gratitude to his wife Grace, who supported him through his studies at Union and seminary school; his son Keith, who was born during Miller’s final semester as a Union student; his daughter-in-law Auburn and granddaughters Cadence and Prudence, who remind him what matters; and the Kentucky Annual Conference, which he says nurtured him early in his journey.