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 is on YoungLife staff in Salisbury, NC and married to Sidney. Their daughter Adelyn is a senior at Christopher Newport University and helps lead youth at a local church as well as serving as a worship leader with 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
This article was originally published in the Winter 2016 edition of the Northstar Magazine. Flipping back through the pages of great memories with Northstar, there are many incredible people that jump off of the pages of my mind but Paul and Allie Miller are deeply special to me. Paul and Allie came to Virginia Tech in 2009 and became involved in Northstar as …
On Sunday, March 24, 2019, Ellen Cianelli shared her faith story with our church family in both services. Ellen is a co-leader in two significant ministries in our church: Stephen Ministry and Grand Connect. She and her husband Dave, have been members since 2017, and they were both baptized that August. Here’s the Cianelli’s faith story/baptism video from 2017:
You know how it is. Ideas are like fragile, beautiful butterflies. They come fluttering into view and capture your vision. You don’t want to dump cold water on someone else’s idea. It destroys its innocence and appeal. You want the occasional, random idea to spark life and perhaps even generate new ideas. Such was a staff meeting in early February. …
The following story was published in the Northstar Magazine in the Spring 2014 issue. The Shockley family wears many hats. John is an engineer, Sharon works for Lewis-Gale Hospital and their daughter, Ashley, is an early childhood teacher. Yet the picture of this family wouldn’t be complete without their service to Northstar. Sharon helps to coordinate the café each Sunday, while John …
Last weekend, the Hokie Men’s Track & Field team won the ACC championship under the leadership of Coach Dave Cianelli. We thankful for Dave as he models servant leadership and humility in his role as coach.! From HokieSports.com: The United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) announced Friday afternoon that Virginia Tech director of track and …
I wasn’t “discipled” I have been incredibly blessed to have had several men our into my life as spiritual shepherds. First was my dad who led our family to church without fail, week after week. Though my sister and I often hoped my parents would miraculously forget about church on Sunday nights (so we could stay home and watch The …
Last Sunday, February 3, we celebrated the obedience and faith of Callaway Cass and Taylor Braford. Both were baptized during our 9:00 a.m. service and are the first baptisms of 2019! You can also ready Callaway’s entry about his faith journey here.
On Tuesday, January 15, the beloved Green House on the Northstar land was demolished to make way for construction vehicles and site development for Northstar’s ministry center. Grading permits are on their way, and the long-awaited activity will commence! Watch the time-lapse video of the demo: Before the demolition, some of our members spent a few weekends cleaning up …
We were grateful to hear Sarah Price’s testimony and share in her baptism on a chilly December evening! Watch it here:
