- Hometown: Little Rock, Arkansas
- Email: jeff@northstarfamily.org
- Hobbies: Basketball, reading, fantasy football, coffee
Jeff became Northstar’s second pastor in 2009 after the retirement of founding pastor Bob Jackson. He and his family are from the pine woods of southeast Arkansas where he served as a campus minister at the University of Arkansas at Monticello for 8 years before planting Journey Church and serving as its founding pastor for 6 years.
I love life – mainly because of my relationship with Jesus Christ. I’m ecstatic about the change He’s made in me, and I’ve pledged my life to help others discover the joy of following Him.
Family-wise, Jeff’s wife Carolyn is a photographer and a homemaker. Sam is 14 and into all things sports and outdoors. Adelyn, 11, is their dancer/comedian/softball player/musician. Jeff and his family love life and are eager to help lead Northstar Church to become a people that encourage others and build spiritual leaders. He blogs regularly at journeyguy.com.
Viktor is the coordinator for our GAP (Graduates And Professionals) ministry. Viktor was born in Russia, then at the age of five his family moved to Morristown, TN where he grew up. He is currently a graduate student at VT in Mechanical Engineering where he gets to play with robots for “research”. Viktor’s first small group experience was what originally drew him to Northstar and has been a ministry focus for him ever since. He enjoys fiddling with photography, hiking (especially in the fall), and occasionally reading the queue of books he seems to be collecting.
Vanessa is Virginia born and raised. 4-H and FFA activities drew her to VT, from which she graduated in 2000 and met her husband, Andrew. Married in 2001, they added a dog, Cody, in 2003 and a son, Elijah, in 2005. Vanessa joined the staff team in 2011.
Abby grew up in Richmond, Virginia and started attending Virginia Tech in 2007. She recently graduated Virginia Tech with a degree in International Business, Spanish and History. She plans on continuing her education next year and will be starting Radford’s Elementary Education program in the fall. Abby first started attending North Star two years and loved that it didn’t make her want to fall asleep. Abby has been a WyldLife leader at Blacksburg Middle School for the last four years. She also enjoys playing sports, crafting, reading and eating.
Phil grew up in Spotsylvania Virginia and has just graduated from Virginia Tech in May with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. He has been actively involved in the Baptist Collegiate Ministries in his five years in Blacksburg (cramming four years of school into five is hard work). He has also been attending Northstar for the last year and a half. He has felt God’s call into ministry and is looking forward to beginning a life of service by learning and growing with the community at Northstar!
Katie grew up in Harrisonburg, Virginia. She is an undergraduate at Virginia Tech focusing on Human Development, Psychology, and Religious Studies. She plans to hopefully graduate spring of 2013. Katie’s plans for the future are simply just to love Christ and to love others. Katie attended Northstar two years ago and loved how relational the Northstar family was. Katie has been a Younglife leader at Eastern Montgomery High School for the past two years. She also coaches Junior Varsity volleyball at EMHS. Katie enjoys helping others, pumpkin spice lattes, reading and sharing her life with others.
