A Legacy Student – Jill Jones
A family moved from Virginia to Colorado Springs in August, 1980 for the father to attend Nazarene Bible College for ministry training. Mom and Dad had both attended Mt. Vernon, but Dad needed to finish his four-year degree. One of their children, Jill, attended 2nd through 4th grades while they were there.
Jill and her siblings didn’t get to see their dad as often as they would have liked during this time. He worked full time, was on staff at the church, and went to college in the evenings. Still, Jill remembers these as happy years. There were other student families in their neighborhood and plenty of “NBC brats” to befriend. She remembers the big annual craft fair, the Christmas amusement park, and getting to go to children’s church for the first time.
These days, Jill is a full-time children’s pastor. She was called later in life, having already mostly raised three children, so when she wanted to pursue formal ministry training, Jill knew she wouldn’t be able to do what her parents had done. She and her husband wouldn’t leave their jobs and ministry or take their middle-schooler to another state.
There wasn’t another good fit for ministry training in her situation. Face-to-face district training was great except that it took so much time away from her family. Other local and online options weren’t sufficient either. Jill instead found NBC’s online platform a way to be with her family while still making sure she would be well prepared.
A typical week in her ministry role starts out with Jill serving as a helper in the Sunday school class with a new teacher, then leading children’s church. On Wednesday night she leads “Power Up,” which now sometimes runs a higher attendance than Sunday mornings. Throughout the week, she visits the church’s daycare classes every day and conducts chapel for the daycare on Thursday.
“It was a no-brainer to come back to NBC,” she says. “It feels natural and normal” especially when she works on her classwork while sharing a couch with her son.
Published: 06/21/2022
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