HUSBAND - DAD - GRANDFATHER - PASTOR - PODCASTER - COACH
Hello Pastor,
My name is Jeff, my eight grandchildren call me "Papa". That's my favorite name. (I could stop right here and it would be fine.)
I've been a husband to Debbie since 1986. She is my beautiful best friend, a fantastic wife, and the best Gramma a kid could ever want! Oh, and I have been a pastor since Easter, 1987.
(Here's the really good and fun part!) We have four kids - a daughter first, then three sons. They're all married (to wonderful spouses) and the first three have given my wife and me our first eight grandkids (4 boys/4 girls). When we get together there's 18 of us now. My family is my joy and passion and life.
I like to play pocket billiards. I got some tutoring in the game from a 9-time World Champion player. Yes, that's random. But it's part of who I am. I almost never get to play anymore, but I love pool!
In 2010 while in a Master's program at Bethel Seminary in St. Paul MN, I met Jonny Craig, and two years later recruited him to join my church staff. In January of 2013 he and I started the 200churches Podcast: Ministry Encouragement for Pastors of Small Churches. That podcast has taken us places and created relationships that we never could have imagined. In 2017 we both enjoyed great transitions to new ministries - separate churches but closer than ever in a continually growing friendship!
We release weekly podcasts you can find on any podcast app, as we talk to amazing and encouraging people every week. The 200churches Podcast. Find us also at 200churches.com. So that's the beginning of it all.
My name is Jeff, my eight grandchildren call me "Papa". That's my favorite name. (I could stop right here and it would be fine.)
I've been a husband to Debbie since 1986. She is my beautiful best friend, a fantastic wife, and the best Gramma a kid could ever want! Oh, and I have been a pastor since Easter, 1987.
(Here's the really good and fun part!) We have four kids - a daughter first, then three sons. They're all married (to wonderful spouses) and the first three have given my wife and me our first eight grandkids (4 boys/4 girls). When we get together there's 18 of us now. My family is my joy and passion and life.
I like to play pocket billiards. I got some tutoring in the game from a 9-time World Champion player. Yes, that's random. But it's part of who I am. I almost never get to play anymore, but I love pool!
In 2010 while in a Master's program at Bethel Seminary in St. Paul MN, I met Jonny Craig, and two years later recruited him to join my church staff. In January of 2013 he and I started the 200churches Podcast: Ministry Encouragement for Pastors of Small Churches. That podcast has taken us places and created relationships that we never could have imagined. In 2017 we both enjoyed great transitions to new ministries - separate churches but closer than ever in a continually growing friendship!
We release weekly podcasts you can find on any podcast app, as we talk to amazing and encouraging people every week. The 200churches Podcast. Find us also at 200churches.com. So that's the beginning of it all.
Coaching For Pastors - the origin and the dream...
I have always enjoyed relationships with other pastors. Jonny and I started our other podcast just before I turned 50, and all through my fifties I have become more convinced than ever of the vital role pastors of small and "normal" sized churches play in our nation and world. They are the heroes, the men and women who pastor churches of under 500. (The pastors of churches over 500 aren't so bad either though!)
I have known for years I would more specifically develop my ministry with pastors, and this site and podcast, CoachingForPastors.org and the Coaching For Pastors Podcast, is the next step towards that ministry. After 35 years of marriage and ministry, being on staff in churches of 30 to 700, raising four kids and now enjoying grandkids, walking with my parents to the end of their lives, fighting for a healthy lifestyle for many years, leading an exciting, challenging, and growing church in the midwest, and doing life and leadership with hundreds of people - I know stuff.
Stuff is what I didn't know as a 24-year-old pastor. People would come to me, and I could give them Bible verses, but I had no life experience. That's all changed as I stare down the barrel of the big 6-0! So I know stuff, and I love encouraging and coaching pastors.
There are so many lonely, isolated, hidden, scared, sinking pastors who don't have a clue where to turn for help. They are without significant relationships, they're stressed, frustrated, and unhealthy, The worst part is, they have no one thinking about THEIR well-being, THEIR development, THEIR personal and spiritual lives, or THEIR day to day challenges. I AM THINKING ABOUT THOSE THINGS. And, I want there to be fewer and fewer of those pastors in those kinds of situations in the future!
That's why I created "Coaching For Pastors". This ministry will develop in the next year or two, and little by little we will help pastor after pastor find hope, joy, health, healing, friendship, camaraderie, partnership, purpose, and LIFE. As they say, "keep watching this space", and while you're watching, be listening daily, Monday - Friday, to the Coaching For Pastors Podcast. On Saturdays we release the Weekend Edition, a longer episode with guests who will be both helpful and encouraging, just like our daily shorter episodes.
In the meantime, if you need a friend, my name is Jeff. I'm here for you pastor. My number is 515-612-8519. Call or text. Or, email me at jeff@coachingforpastors.org.
I have known for years I would more specifically develop my ministry with pastors, and this site and podcast, CoachingForPastors.org and the Coaching For Pastors Podcast, is the next step towards that ministry. After 35 years of marriage and ministry, being on staff in churches of 30 to 700, raising four kids and now enjoying grandkids, walking with my parents to the end of their lives, fighting for a healthy lifestyle for many years, leading an exciting, challenging, and growing church in the midwest, and doing life and leadership with hundreds of people - I know stuff.
Stuff is what I didn't know as a 24-year-old pastor. People would come to me, and I could give them Bible verses, but I had no life experience. That's all changed as I stare down the barrel of the big 6-0! So I know stuff, and I love encouraging and coaching pastors.
There are so many lonely, isolated, hidden, scared, sinking pastors who don't have a clue where to turn for help. They are without significant relationships, they're stressed, frustrated, and unhealthy, The worst part is, they have no one thinking about THEIR well-being, THEIR development, THEIR personal and spiritual lives, or THEIR day to day challenges. I AM THINKING ABOUT THOSE THINGS. And, I want there to be fewer and fewer of those pastors in those kinds of situations in the future!
That's why I created "Coaching For Pastors". This ministry will develop in the next year or two, and little by little we will help pastor after pastor find hope, joy, health, healing, friendship, camaraderie, partnership, purpose, and LIFE. As they say, "keep watching this space", and while you're watching, be listening daily, Monday - Friday, to the Coaching For Pastors Podcast. On Saturdays we release the Weekend Edition, a longer episode with guests who will be both helpful and encouraging, just like our daily shorter episodes.
In the meantime, if you need a friend, my name is Jeff. I'm here for you pastor. My number is 515-612-8519. Call or text. Or, email me at jeff@coachingforpastors.org.