Strong enough to lead, Humble enough to serve, and Blessed enough to be a Blessing!
Reverend Twana Renee Cruell, a native of Greenville, South Carolina, is the daughter of the late O’dell Rogers and the late Robbie Rogers. She is married to Sammy Cruell, and they have a blended family of six children and fifteen grandchildren. For 21 years, she was employed by General Electric “GE” and retired in December of 2014. She owned and operated Rogers and Cruell Bail Bonds, LLC from 2009-2022. In the last year, she has become a licensed real-estate agent, and works with her daughter, Ebony Paul, at The Excellence Property Group.
God led Twana and Sammy to join Saint Mark United Methodist Church in February of 2006 during the pastoral tenure of Rev. Dr. Thomas J. Bowman, Sr. As a lay person, Twana served in a variety of leadership capacities. Her service as a Certified Lay Servant and Church Lay Leader positioned her to become the Church’s first Congregational Care Coordinator in January, 2015 during the pastoral tenure of Reverend Telley Lynnette Gadson. As she discerned her call to ministry, she officially began the Candidacy Process in July, 2016, and completed Pastoral Licensing School in May, 2017. She was licensed to preach by Bishop L. Jonathan Holston and the South Carolina Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church at the 2017 Annual Conference. In a very unique testament of God’s favor, her first appointment was to serve as the Associate Pastor of her beloved home-church from July 2017 to June 2022.
Reverend Twana Cruell has a deep compassion for the young and the old, the broken and the hurting, and the least and the lost. She worked diligently in the launch of both a Nursery Ministry and a pioneer in the Harvest Hope Community Food Ministry; and the re-launch of the Women’s Fellowship called “Sister-2-SISTAH” at Saint Mark UMC. Reverend Cruell is currently enrolled in the Course of Study Program at Candler School of Theology at Emory University (Atlanta, Georgia). It is her prayer that God will continue to bless her hands and heart to do God’s work and remain in God’s will. Her witness is guided by the words of Revelation 12:11 NRSV, “But they have overcome him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they did not cling to life even in the face of death.”
