Jeff Chandler, pastor of the GCI church in Jonesboro, Arkansas, is less of a man than he was just a couple years ago—100 pounds less to be specific. “I am thankful for what God has been doing in my life in regard to health. It has turned into part of the ministry God has for me. I think I am a better tool for Jesus to use as a result of getting my health in check. As a result of Trish and my involvement with Fitness Bootcamp Unlimited where I lost the weight, the owners are now members of our church.”
Jeff’s grandparents were baptized in 1955. “They never attended regularly, primarily because there was no church in the area—my mother started going to WCG in 1968 when I was 2 years old. She drove from Milan to Memphis, Tennessee for several years until a church was started in Jackson. I was shy early in life even though I had four brothers. SEP in Orr, Minnesota (1982) and SEP in Big Sandy, Texas (1985) were a couple of the greatest experiences of my life up to that time. I loved to play sports, especially baseball, basketball and football, and I loved music, especially singing. Thankfully, our family took advantage of all the YOU and WCG activities.”
It was at a YOU activity that Jeff met his wife Trish. “She was 15 and I was 16 when we both knew we would be married one day. We went to Ambassador College in Big Sandy in 1986. We got engaged in Amman, Jordan in 1990 (she visited me during our Jordan Foreign Project). We married during the summer before my senior year. Then we moved to Jonesboro, Arkansas where Trish’s family still lives.”
Jeff and Trish have been married 23 years and have two children. “Our daughter Josie (18) just graduated from high school and will be attending Arkansas State University this fall. My son Legend (14) will enter the 9th grade this fall. Josie loves music and wants to teach art and music. Legend loves animals and thinks he will be working with them when he grows up.”
Trish is a director for SHARP, a health organization at a local hospital. “She’s better than me at most everything,” Jeff shares. “I truly married up.” Along with her job, Trish serves alongside Jeff doing something at church almost every week. “Trish is either leading Church Life or Communion, offering prayer or giving the sermon. She plays a vital role in organizing our special services at Christmas and Easter. Most of the growth in numbers we have had in our church has been a result of her personal relationships. She has the ability to draw people to her. Her unconditional love creates an inclusive spirit that is unmistakable and magnetic. Her prayers are deep and heartfelt—so much so that we have no doubt that we are kneeling right in front of God or sitting in his lap carrying on a conversation. She is a blessing to me, my family and the church.”
Jeff notes that following college, “Tom Blackwell, our pastor in Jonesboro, became my mentor. He guided me and encouraged me in Christian service. Then in 1996, we moved to Nashville, Tennessee and dropped from the church scene for eight years. We visited a few churches when my daughter Josie was invited to church by school friends. This is when we decided to visit WCG and became reacquainted with our church family. In Nashville I was privileged to have two mentors: Pastor Ray Gardner and Deacon Bill Floyd.” In August 2007, Jeff was asked to serve as assistant pastor to Ray after Ray found out he had prostate cancer. “He passed away in 2008 and I moved into the senior pastor position. I was able to meet with him every week for the last couple months of his life—it was a wonderful time of mentoring that I will always cherish. Bill continues to mentor me. I am so thankful for these father/grandfather figures in my life.”
“Yelling the good news” is what Jeff loves most about being a pastor. “I love the opportunity to participate in his love with others and to be given a platform to talk about God. I finally have a desire to yell from the rooftops that God loves us. When our focus was the law, my desire to tell people about what I believed was just not there. Why would I stand on rooftops yelling, ‘You won’t go to the place of safety if you don’t believe what I’m trying to tell you.’ But now I can yell the good news: ‘God loves you—and not only that, you are his—believe it!!!’”
What Jeff appreciates most about GCI is its inclusive theology. “I love that we don’t think we have all the answers and that we continue to seek them. I love that we believe that Jesus died for all and that death applies to all. I love that we bring in people from other denominations to speak about the one God we all believe in. I feel this helps in unifying the body of Christ, the one church.”
Our theology leads to Jeff’s passion. “My passion is viewing people in light of who they are in Jesus. I teach English as a second language at Arkansas State University. The majority of the students I have been teaching are Muslims from Saudi Arabia. God put me in this position a year after he placed me in the position as pastor in Jonesboro. Holy Spirit has been showing me his presence in all my students. I have been able to experience a spiritual relationship with them that I would not have thought possible several years ago. I am able to make a love connection with my students because God is love. He is working on all my students as he works on me—through the Holy Spirit. Knowing how Holy Spirit brought me to understand who Jesus is makes me confident that he is doing the same with my students. Now, I simply connect with the Spirit—and that connection looks like love. I am compelled by his love to no longer look at my students the way I once did.”
Jeff also has a passion for relationships. “I love finding oneness in relationships. This oneness is not something I create, but discovering and then participating in the oneness already created by our Triune God. I describe my teaching at ASU as ‘relational teaching.’ God loves them through me—they love me through the Spirit—then we learn English.”
The most memorable moments Jeff has had as a pastor were baptizing both his children, a brother-in-law, a sister-in-law, two nephews, a niece and blessing one of his infant nephews. “There is nothing like connecting with family in this way.”
Asked when he feels closest to God, Jeff said, “When he loves through me and I recognize him doing so. When that happens, I find myself wrapped in his oneness. I feel closest to God in this chaotic and active lifestyle I find myself. These days I don’t have the privilege to visit with him often in quiet. With being a father, husband, bivocational pastor, full-time instructor at ASU, graduate student (seeking a master’s degree in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages at Azusa Pacific University) and maintaining an exercise program, life doesn’t often allow me to slow down and get quiet. Thankfully, I find God active in my life in all these activities—even in my exercise routine.”
In closing, Jeff commented: “As a result of Trish and my involvement with Fitness Bootcamp Unlimited where I lost the weight, we have started a Worship Workout service on Sunday evenings (see picture above right). For about a year now, we have had 20-30 people attend regularly. Worship Workout is a 30-minute aerobics workout done with Christian music (Toby Mac style) followed by a 5-10 minute message and prayer. Cornelius Lovelace, the owner of Fitness Bootcamp, leads the workout; I give the messages. This is one of the most rewarding hours of the week for me.”
Jeff & Trish!!
Your story is truly inspiring!! Your interaction with others brings God into their lives. That’s what He loves to do, be involved in every areas of our lives. And you are doing so many varied activities, that God is able to reach out to all those people. What a wonderful way of connecting others to the Father!! I loved hearing about what Trish is involved with & how you both work to serve others in what we would call ‘normal, everyday activities’!! And that is another opportunity to reach out & touch others with God’s Love!!
Blessings!!
Ted & Lila Millhuff
Tucson, AZ
My wife, Linda and I first met Jeff and his family when we attended WCG in Memphis, TN. In spite of Jeff being a crazy teenager, we had a good relationship. One day prior to a holy day service, I recall the need to replace a light bulb in a very high light fixture. He volunteered to climb the 12ft. step ladder and stood on the very top of it and screwed in the bulb. Being over 6ft. tall himself, and standing on the very top of this ladder, made for a very unstable situation and I was concerned that he might fall. But in spite of it all, he stepped up to the plate, so to speak, and got the job done and he brought us light.
Years later my wife and I moved from Memphis to Jonesboro and our paths crossed once again. Soon we attended a church convention in Missouri and at one point I told him: “Jeff, one day I’ll call you my pastor” — and he broke down in tears. I didn’t realize what I said was a prophecy soon to be fulfilled. He ultimately became the pastor of the Jonesboro church and continues to bring us light. But now it’s the light of Jesus.
So, I’m very thankful and blessed indeed, to be a member of the Jonesboro church and to call Jeff my friend and my pastor.
It’s always a blessing to read the Up Close And Personal articles and this one on the Chandler family is no exception and I would like to add — rather exceptional (again showing that every life in Christ is a miracle).
It has been a blessing to begin to know Jeff just on a Facebook level and am looking forward to meeting him at a conference soon. There is a Spirit about him that is discernable to those who speak to him, even as impersonal as it can be on a Social Network. But the group we share are GCi and varied denominations we have invited to get down and personal about The love of our Triune God and the Grace he has given us. Jeff’s story brings tears to my eyes as I hear of Him going about the Father’s business of spreading the love of God.