Jeff became Northstar's second pastor in 2009 after the retirement of founding pastor Bob Jackson. He and his family are from southeast Arkansas where he served as a campus minister at the University of Arkansas at Monticello for eight years before planting Journey Church there and serving as its founding pastor for six years.
Jeff's wife, Carolyn, works at Blacksburg High School in the guidance office as the administrative assistant. Their son Sam, 21, is into all things sports and outdoors. He is a student at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and actively involved in Young Life. Their daughter Adelyn, 18, is a student at Christopher Newport University and helps lead worship at a local church as well as Cru at CNU.
Jeff desires that Northstar Church continue to encourage others and build spiritual leaders. He blogs regularly at journeyguy.com, and his first book called Super Center Savior is available at the church office or through online retailers like Amazon.
Jeff is the Lead Pastor on the staff at Northstar. Visit our leadership page to get to know the rest of the team.
Connect with Jeff
On Saturday, October 13, our college ministry journeyed back to McAfee Knob for a hike and restored their calories with a feast at the Homeplace. Here are a few of the pictures we took. If you have more pictures or video, we’d love to add it to our Google photo album. Send your photos to Erin.
Where do you find Veronica “Ronnie” Bluey and Ellen Cianelli on a Friday morning? Typically, outside. That’s when the two of them get together to walk and talk and pray about ideas and dreams for a new ministry that they are spearheading at Northstar Church. “I was asking God what would be a good way to get refocused on what …
In a September 30, 2018 article in Outside Magazine, Northstar member Megan Bland was featured for her Virginia Tech research team’s work on bicycle helmets. “Manufacturers are pretty limited by liability in what they can say about a helmet’s safety. They can tell you that their helmet meets the standards,” says Megan Bland, a Ph.D. candidate who led the Virginia …
On February 11 of this year, we observed our annual State of the Church Sunday. If you’ll recall, we had two failed attempts due to inclement weather before we were able to meet. SotC Sunday is one of my favorite moments at Northstar. It gives me an opportunity to geek out a bit with a Keynote presentation (this year’s presentation …
In a moment of unsettling clarity, I wrote in my journal last week that I must press beyond selfish prayers. I found myself asking God to broaden my prayers. And it was in that very moment that a couple from Northstar was dropped into my thoughts. I immediately began praying for them. I still don’t know why. But I wrote …
Every church has a unique personality and style. It’s what differentiates one church from the next. Some of what distinguishes a church is the intentional choices a church makes in its worship or preaching style. Other factors are more intangible. Over the years, our leadership has consistently identified core values that we want to preserve and uplift as a church. …
On Sunday, May 13, Jeff preached on Genesis 2 which revisits the creation of man and woman in intimate detail. We learned about the gift of marriage, gender, and mission as man’s aloneness is solved through God’s gracious provision. You can listen to the message here. Here are the slides that were shared and can be viewed in conjunction with …
The women sadly walked to the tomb. In everyone’s haste to beat sundown on Friday, Jesus’ body had not been properly prepared for burial. They were going to finish the task. They hoped that perhaps the Roman soldiers guarding the tomb would help by rolling the stone seal away so they could enter. When they arrived, surprise, shock and confusion …
Our Good Friday service was alive with the presence of the Lord. We were all deeply humbled and touched by a new realization that it was our sin that killed Jesus, not the beatings, nails or cross that Jesus endured. One of the things God used to powerful speak to us was a video produced by Passion City Church for …
