East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania has selected Sherrise C. Cohen-Hooks, pastor and founder of Reclaimed for Christ Ministries and The Apostle of The Church of A.C.T.S: From Word to Life and Believers to Kingdom Association in Stroudsburg, to be the keynote speaker for the 2024 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Breakfast. The 27th annual celebration honoring Dr. King is scheduled for Monday, January 15, 2024, at 8 a.m. The theme of this year’s breakfast is Darkness Cannot Drive Out Darkness, Only Light Can Do That. Hate Cannot Drive Out Hate, Only Love Can Do That.” The breakfast will be held at Terraview at Stroudsmoor Country Inn.
Pastor Hooks has been called to reclaim the lost, the broken, the unlearned, the misfits, the misunderstood, and the forgotten. She truly has a passion for the underdogs, never willing to leave anyone behind that is willing to move forward. Hooks has been anointed to activate the purpose, the gift, and the calling inside of those that have been assigned to her and position them to be sent out to do God’s will. She is a woman who endeavors to win lost souls for Christ by the Word not for self-gain or by manipulation but by love.
After being ordained in 1998, she took heed to step out to start fulfilling her call, to minister by preparing for what God had gifted her to do. Her past ministerial experiences included servicing the community in various ways, and serving in whatever capacity was needed in the house of God regardless of her title. While leading RFCM she has helped to establish 12 businesses including her very own consulting company. She hosts her own online radio show titled Elevated Thinking where she promoted a platform for artists that aren’t mainstream but fully anointed. She is also an advisor for many leaders in ministry across several states, as a productivity and transformational strategist. She endeavors to establish a reformation house to aid those that are gifted to pursue their God breathe destiny. Hooks loves preaching, teaching, and expounding on the word of God. She knows praise and worship is a part of her gift that’s essential, and a prerequisite to prepare the heart and mind for what God has in store. Because of her heart for God and his people, she feels it is important to connect them to His presence unhindered for deliverance, healing, and strength.
She attended Liberty University by way of distance learning, where she majored in psychology with a minor in theology. She also attended Beth Rapha Bible College as a divinity major during her formal education. Out of all her formal learning there is nothing that can replace the spiritual impartation she has received from the Lord. Hooks declares that it is a wonderful thing to be taught of the Lord and lead by His Holy Spirit with the wisdom of God (1Corinthians 1:18-31). Formal training is wonderful, but it didn’t or doesn’t confirm that God has actually called her to this position.
She desires to see families restored and healed, and to empower the people of God to exercise their God given gifts. She desires to see God glorified in all things, because she just delivers the message, but God is the one with the power to save. She carries the vision; but the focus is on the visionary, which is Christ. To function as an efficient leader, you have to know the spirit by the spirit, by knowing those who labor among you. Her greatest task outside of soul winning is not to be counted as a public success and then be a private failure.
God has blessed her with a husband of 27 years with three sons from that union, two who are musicians and one that is a professional celebrity chef and intercessor in the ministry. She also has a host of extended children by way of nieces, heart children, and Godchildren who are actively serving in the ministry. Her care of her family is what she feels qualifies her to be a productive leader. She is a firm believer that if she can’t maintain her first congregation, which is her family, how is she going to maintain her next congregation the church. Pastor Hooks continues to stay teachable, humble, anointed, obedient, and giving God all the glory for her accomplishments is her hearts prayer.
Reserve a Space Today
Reservations are now being taken for the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Breakfast at a cost of $45 per person, $20 per student and $340 for a table of eight. Proceeds will benefit the Mary Gertrude Smith Boddie Scholarship Fund at ESU, which provides financial assistance to undergraduate students of color. In 1904, Ms. Boddie was the first African American student to graduate from what was then known as East Stroudsburg State Normal School and ultimately became East Stroudsburg University in 1983. Reserve your seat today.
As a result of the breakfast, four Boddie Scholarship awardees will each receive a $3,880 scholarship award for the Spring 2024 semester. Scholarship winners are selected based on their ability to demonstrate, through community service work or university involvement, a commitment to Dr. King’s philosophy of non-violence, equality, justice, cultural diversity, and a respect for humanity.
Breakfast organizers are asking regional business organizations to consider becoming a sponsor of this community event. For more information on sponsorship opportunities, call the ESU Foundation at (570) 422-7000.
For more information about the Celebration Breakfast or for special accommodations, contact Lyesha Fleming director for the Center for Multicultural Affairs and Inclusive Excellence at (570) 422-3896 or email lfleming@esu.edu.