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Jim was born in Pasadena, California. Raised in a Christian family, he committed his life to Christ at the age of twelve.
Jim attended the University of Redlands and received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Geology. Shortly thereafter, he enlisted in the United States Army, serving as an officer in the field artillery. While in the military, Jim met his wife Peggy during her senior year in college. Two weeks after their wedding in 1969, Jim received his orders for Viet Nam. Consequently, they spent most of their first year of marriage apart.
Upon his release from active duty, Jim and Peggy moved to Colorado where Jim used his GI Bill to earn a Master of Divinity Degree from Denver Seminary and a Master of Science Degree in Geology from Colorado State University. For the next twelve years, Jim worked with the Colorado Geological Survey as an engineering geologist and then with Amoco Production Company as an exploration geologist. While working full time, Jim served as pastor of a small country church on the eastern plains of Colorado.
During their years living in Colorado, they raised three daughters, Christina, Jamie, and Aimee. At the age of forty-two, Jim and Peggy both felt that God was calling them to move back to California and begin a new church in Rohnert Park, a relatively new and growing community in Sonoma County. After serving this congregation for almost 20 years, Jim and Peggy felt God calling them to begin a new ministry to senior adults at Lakeside Church.
Jim loves to spend time with his family, which includes his three daughters, two son-in-laws, and five grandchildren. He loves to walk on the beach with Peggy and camp with the family near Lake Tahoe. In addition to football and lemon meringue pie, Jim loves to visit and share with others the ruins of the ancient biblical sites in Israel, Turkey, and Greece.
Jim’s passion is to increasingly model the character of Christ, to help other believers become authentic and contagious followers of Christ, and to effectively communicate the good news of God’s redeeming love to those who do not yet know Him. His favorite passage of Scripture comes from Paul’s letter to Titus, “But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and the renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior” (Titus. 3:4-6).