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She greeted everyone. Hovering around her was the smell of coffee and doughnuts. She offered them to quite a few. Never fal­tering, even when set up took a wrong turn, Pastor Adrienne Miller of Locale Church was dancing around the churchgoers like she’d been doing it for several lifetimes.

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She hugged those who were returning for service and eagerly bounded up to people she hadn’t seen before. “We’re so happy to have you here. Thank you so much for being here,” she said. It echoed around the halls.

Soon, she was heading into the Auditori­um. The church service would start in only 11 minutes, according to the timer she had set up on a projector behind her. “I might be wearing all black right now but I’m so excited and ready to go,” she joked.

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Miller has attended church her whole life. Her parents worked in ministry and she was always on their heels. But it wasn’t until later that she understood her passion for it. “I didn’t know until I was an adult,” she said. “I got to have my own experience with faith and God and then after that I just knew.”

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After her revelation, she decided that she would pursue it as a career, and she has been for 13 years. She began as a child minister in Clearwater at Countryside Christian Church. There, she met her best friend of over a decade, RJ Denton, and her husband, Ryan Miller.

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Her passion for religion started long before her adult epiphany. In high school, she began to struggle with generalized anxiety. So, she began looking for solace. She found it at her childhood church with the guidance from her pastor, Joey.

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“We are completely a product of the people who did what we’re doing now for us,” she said. “I had a pastor when I was younger named Joey who wasn’t just a pastor, but a friend who never gave up on me when I was doing the wrong stuff or being stupid. He never wavered in his belief in me, that I could do anything or that I was worth something. So now, at the end of the day I still believe that I’m worth something.”

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His encouragement helped her start to get a hold on her life. “We’re all so stupid when we’re younger,” she joked. “But I think that we’re the product of a lot of people, so that’s what we want to do now. We want to be that person for other people who tell you that you’re worth something and tell you that even though you might be at a stagnant point in your life, there’s more and there’s hope. That’s what I want to be because I had someone who was there for me.”

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Two years ago, she and her husband decided to plant a church under the Association of Related Churches (ARC), a foundation that helps new churches get on their feet. But after only a few weeks, their plans were put on hold when she found out that she was pregnant. “We just had to take a break from it,” Denton said. “It was too much to do at once. It’s a lot of stress and a lot going on, especially with a newborn. It’s just a big lift every Sunday.”

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A few months after her son was born, Miller was ready to get back on her feet. They moved from Clearwater to Tampa and soon fell in love with Hillsborough, and the stained-glass windows in the Auditorium that reminded them of a church. “We all just thought that it was the most beautiful place,” Denton said.

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Miller fell in love with Tampa and the Seminole Heights community, and she was determined to share what her childhood pastor had taught her. Now, Locale Church hosts service for over 100 people every Sunday, paying rent for the use of the Auditorium and several classrooms, but Miller still plans on expanding their reach.

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“For me, I dealt with generalized anxiety my whole life and through worship and music and the community, I learned that I didn’t always have to be that way,” she said. “It gave me power over myself. Yeah, I still get anxious, but it doesn’t run my life because I have something greater,” she said. “When we’re freed from something so heavy, you want to tell people about it.”

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View this story on page 18 here.

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