Pastor Joel
After growing up in Warren and graduating from WAHS in 1975, Joel’s journey has been varied and broad before returning to Warren to pastor at Calvary Baptist Church where his spiritual formation began. Joel’s first stop was to earn an engineering degree (LeTourneau University, 1979) and working for a large petroleum company for several years. Having a passion for the Gospel to go to the ends of the earth and not seeing a pathway for such through secular employment, Joel, and his new wife Linda, went to seminary (Columbia International University, 1986) to re-tool for full-time cross-cultural work. This led them to their first assignment working with a ministry in India where Joel facilitated the growth and development of their US support base. Christ for India included orphanages, Bible school training, church planting and other outreach works. In 1991 Joel and Linda transitioned to a church planting mission focused on unreached peoples of the world. They have been with this mission until coming to Calvary in April 2019. Beginning with their mission, Joel and Linda served their Canadian support arm and did church planting among Filipinos in the metropolitan Toronto area. In 1995 they began a five-year term with a team of leaders assisting in a merger with a like-minded organization. Subsequently Joel and Linda served in the development of structures that allowed for the deployment of missionaries into countries hostile to Christianity until they moved to the Philippines in 2011. The time in the Philippines was filled with leading the work in closed countries, pastoral care of missionaries, training, mentoring, as well as leader development among the missionary force and with Filipinos. During this time Joel did further studies (Fuller Seminary, 2017) to enhance skills in developing leaders for global ministry. Joel has a passion for the light of the Gospel to shine more brightly by ministering alongside members of Calvary in Warren and beyond. Yes, this has been quite a journey, but Joel believes in many ways the real journey is just beginning now back here in Warren after 44 years of “travel.”