Ministry Focus

John has served in pastoral ministry since 1985. He is presently the Pastor of Seniors Ministry & Missions at Sierra Community Church in South Lake Tahoe. In addition to his pastoral responsibilities, he has been leading short-term mission trips for the youth ministries of CB Northern California. Their main emphasis is creating discipleship opportunities for church groups and helping Navajo churches and communities in northern Arizona. They call the ministry Points of Impact because the short-term mission projects impact EVERYONE involved. -Youth and adult participants are challenged to grow and allow God to do something with their life that doesn't happen everyday, receive spiritual training and experience worship with other participants and gain an appreciation of cultures and people different from them. -The sending pastoral staff receives help with logistics, training, programming, and organizing a high-quality, high-impact, and affordable experience for their people. -The receiving church obtains needed help with facilities and equipment, is provided a bridge to the community, enhancing their efforts to reach people for Christ and is encouraged when Points of Impact comes alongside and partners with pastors, church planters, and congregations. -The local residents receive much-needed help with home repairs and other needs in a way that preserves their dignity and shows them the respect they deserve, have the opportunity to share their culture with project participants and experience firsthand God's love for them.

Faith Story

John grew up in Chico, California, and as a child attended Notre Dame Catholic Elementary School. After that John moved on to public schools and began drifting away from his moral underpinnings. John struggled through Jr. High and High School, finally dropping out in his senior year. It was the mid-sixties and the Viet Nam War had increased the nation’s need for men in the armed forces. John received his draft notice, and joined the Marine Corps just before his report date. He served two tours in Vietnam in the 60s, where even there, he could not still the gnawing in his soul for the God he ached to know and from whom he desperately needed forgiveness. The second weekend he was home, John visited his best friend in Sacramento who had become a Christian while he was gone. He committed his life to Christ that same weekend, and finally met the God he had only vaguely known in grade school, and best of all, found the forgiveness he so desperately needed. John lived in Sacramento long enough to finish his high school requirements and enrolled at Western Baptist College, now Corban University, in Salem, Oregon. It was there that his life again took a radical turn in a wonderful direction . . . John met Beth, his now wife! They married in the summer of 1971 and began a family a few years later. John and Beth have three children and eight grandchildren. The couple followed jobs to different states and different church homes. When in Stockton California, they served at their church for seven years before John was asked to be the Associate Pastor of Youth and Christian Education, and began organizing and leading short-term mission trips for a group of our northern California Conservative Baptist youth groups. In 1995 they moved to South Lake Tahoe and joined the staff of Sierra Community Church where John still serves as Pastor of Seniors Ministry & Missions. John was appointed to Missions Door in 2002 and works between Sierra and Missions Door in order to provide mission trips for adult teams. Beth accepted Christ during a vacation Bible school in her home church, Wilton Bible Church, Wilton, California, when she was about 8 years old. Both Beth and John serve the Lord faithfully as a team.

Family

John married Beth in 1971 and they have three children: Josh, Jenee and Heather, and eight grandchildren: Jordan, Kaitlyn, Mya, Hailey, Jack, Eli, Abbie, Alexandra.