jack@hbcalive.org
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- Nickname: "The Bucket" It's a long story, involving an SUV and a KFC drive-thru -- literally.
- Movie: Movies seen recently: Inception, Dispicable Me, and Toy Story 3. Favorite movie of 2010: The Hurt Locker. Top three movies of all time Chariots of Fire, Saving Private Ryan and Brave Heart.
- Song: Give Me Jesus by Jeremy Camp. An updated version of one of the greatest Christian spirituals ever written.
- Favorite Vacation: Three way tie. 7600 mile road trip from The 'Burg to Seattle and back visiting missional churches during the summer of 2007, twenty-fifth wedding anniversary trip to Scotland in 2001, 2008 Music City Bowl with Vanderbilt's win over Boston College, which secured a winning season for the first time in twenty-five years and the first bowl win in over fifty years.
- Favorite Saturday Activity: Watch Vanderbilt football, play golf, go to a movie with Sandy
- What I'm Currently Reading: Serious stuff: Jesus Manifesto by Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola, To Change the World by James Davison Hunter, Bonhoeffer by Eric Metaxas. Fun stuff: Third and Long by Bob Katz and Operation Mincemeat by Ben Macintyre. My devotional guide this year Mosaic, a unique devotional Bible combining the best of Christian writings from the last 2000 years and the NLT.
- Life Verse: “Since my youth, O God, you have taught me, and to this day I declare your marvelous deeds. Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, O God, till I declare your power to the next generation, your might to all who are to come.” (Psalm 71: 17-18 NIV)
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A Kentucky native, Jack attended Vanderbilt University on a football scholarship where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree as a religious studies major. While in Nashville he and Sandy, his wife, met in the college department of Belmont Heights Baptist Church. Following his undergraduate studies at Vanderbilt, Jack earned a Master of Divinity degree at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. Shortly after completing his seminary work, both Sandy and Jack felt God's call to serve in the northeast. Responding to that call led to a ten year pastorate in New Jersey. While in New Jersey Jack completed a Doctor of Ministry degree from Princeton Theological Seminary. After his time in New Jersey, Jack moved to Chapel Hill, North Carolina in 1992 where he pastored HillSong Church for twelve years leading the church through a period of spiritual renewal and church growth. Jack currently serves as Senior Pastor of Harrisonburg Baptist Church.
Jack has filled various roles, both in the community and in the church-at-large. He has served both as a board member and as moderator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Virginia. Additionally, he has served as a member of the National Coordinating Committee of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. Jack is active in the life of the Baptist General Association of Virginia. In the community, Jack has served in the past as a member and chair of the Harrisonburg Pregnancy Center board as well as being a member of the local Kiwanis. Jack served as the editor for the section of The Complete Library of Christian Worship under the general editorship of the late Dr. Robert Webber. In 2005 Jack was selected by the Lilly Foundation to be a part of Sustaining Pastoral Excellence -- a program that sought to identify and encourage pastors in their ongoing personal development in ministry.
Sandy, also a Kentucky native, received her undergraduate degree in special and elementary education from Peabody College for Teachers of Vanderbilt University and her masters in education from the University of Louisville. She has taught elementary, middle, high school and special education in Kentucky, New Jersey, North Carolina and Virginia. She is currently a special education teacher at Harrisonburg High School in Harrisonburg, VA.
In 2000 she was the first recipient of the Dean Smith Spirit in Teaching Award and Teacher of the Year at Estes Hills Elementary School. In 1988 she was selected as an outstanding teacher through the NJ Governor's Teacher Recognition Program. She is author of Being the Best Me, Social Skills Books, K-5, A Teacher's Guide to the Novels of Robert Kimmel Smith, and A Teacher's Guide to the Novels of Betsy Byars. She has written several educational articles and has been a workshop presenter in the area of teaching writing in NJ and NC.
Her passion in ministry is prayer and mentoring college students and young adults as they become passionately devoted followers of Christ. Over the past three years Sandy has been instrumental in both launching and sustaining Missio Dei, a unique worship gathering ministering to local college students.
Jack and Sandy have two daughters, Tabitha and Rebecca. Tabitha is married and resides in Durham, North Carolina with her husband, Steven, and two-year old son, Edmund. She is a pre-school teacher in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Rebecca lives in New York where she works for a non-profit organization as a communications coordinator.