I’m a son of God, husband, father, pastor, spiritual director, chaplain, speaker, friend, reader, gamer, and more. Growing up in a Quaker church, I discerned a call to ministry at a young age and pursued that course in college and seminary, eventually graduating with my MDIV from Wesley Seminary in 2014. I met Heather and Kaity, my wife and step-daughter, shortly after high school, and we began attending and working in a Disciples of Christ church shortly thereafter. Our son, Jakob, was born in 2006 while I was in college at Indiana Wesleyan University. In 2010 a Wesleyan Church invited me to join their ministry staff, and we found a theological home with that denomination, eventually getting ordained in the Wesleyan Church in 2016. We began ministering with a UMC congregation in 2017 but found our way back into TWC in 2020 and planted Commoners House Church. I also completed a graduate certificate from Portland Seminary in 2022 and am now a certified Spiritual Director offering individual, group, and marital direction services. I completed a Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) residency at Lutheran Hospital in 2023, although Commoners sadly had to close during this time. I am now a full-time hospital chaplain at Ascension St Vincent Hospital in Kokomo. It is a privilege attempting to bring hope and light to the struggling patients and families in my care. Kaity and her husband Trenton have also had a son and daughter, and being grandparents is one of Heather’s greatest sources of joy! We also have two cats at home, Tom (Brady) and Stella, and Jakob is a proud pug-dad to Zoey as well as pursuing his engineering degree.
Life is always more nuanced than a couple of paragraphs, and we’ve had to look to God again and again, refining our faith in grace many times. I’m a child of divorce and occasionally experienced more difficult things growing up; early in our marriage a break-in and subsequent brain injury saw us walking through retrograde amnesia and a whole new road of discovery; after a moral failure my wife and I went through a lengthy restoration and recovery process; and in 2023 I nearly died from septic shock after complications in a procedure. Trouble and challenges don’t have to be roadblocks, however. We can look back and realize that despite the problems and troubles God continues to offer us fresh opportunities to seek Him, repent, find forgiveness, and find transformation through the renewing of our minds and hearts, even while learning lessons from the midst of those circumstances. Blessedly, there’s more than enough grace in the infinite love of Christ.
In short, there is no end of opportunity so long as we pursue God in obedience and faithfulness. I hope to share this same hope with all whom I come into contact with.
**If you are looking for a Spiritual Director, a retreat leader, a teacher on topics ranging from holiness & integrity to marriage to Scriptural interpretation or theology with practical application on each point, please go to the “Contact” page to book Chaplain Jeff now.**
Professional credentials for your perusal:
