Jerry Moen

Pastors and Ministry Directors and Leaders
BIO Questions Format

Educational Background that helped prepare you for the role you play at the church?

After high school I attended a junior college for two years working on a degree in wildlife management. Then on December 23, 1975 God made it clear I was to study to be a pastor. So I enrolled in Point Loma Nazarene University and earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in 1980.

Professional Background that helped prepare you for the role you play at the church?

While at Point Loma, I worked as a youth pastor at a Presbyterian church in San Diego. I saw the struggles a mission minded pastor experiences when leading a mission-less congregation. After I graduated, Lon Eckdahl hired me as his youth pastor in February of 1981. Two years later he headed to Hawaii and I served as interim pastor until the new senior pastor was hired. I learned to love people from Lon, saw what passion could do for a youth ministry, and had my first lessons at top level leadership. Soon after, I was picked up by the Oroville Church of the Nazarene as their youth pastor. I served there 5 ½ years and then went to the Porterville Church of the Nazarene to lead their youth department. There John Denney (Sr. Pastor) taught me about organization, management and structure. After three years there I left full time ministry, moved my family to Oregon and worked as a project manager for a large landscape company. We began attending the Church on the Hill in June of 1992 and was hired as an associate pastor in December of 1994. I served under Wes Smith in various roles until May of 2000 when I became the senior pastor.

Personal Background that helped prepare you for the role you play at the church?

Looking back, it seems leadership and hard work has always been a way of life for me. In sports I served as team captain. With my friends, I was the decision maker. When I became a Christian at age 16, I was soon the youth group leader. I led bibles studies while in the junior college, as well as when I went to PLNU. From the time I was in junior high, I went to work concrete every day after school, every weekend, and all summer long. By the 12th grade, I was foreman of my concrete crew and supervised men twice my age. The two things I seem to do well is work hard and lead people and that is what my role requires of me today.

What is the passion that drives your particular role in the church?

I still remember what it was like to be lost and going to hell. Not until a Wednesday night in the spring of 1972 did I know what it was like to be on your way to heaven. That journey to heaven also brought me into a loving church family where I learned about life in God’s Spirit. While that church loved me, they did not seek me. They just stood by and waited, hoping God would bring someone new into their midst. I NEVER want to be a part of a church that idly stands by and waits for the lost to find them. I will forever pour my life out for a church that cooperates with God’s leading to seek after those who are far from God. Leading this staff and congregation seems to be exactly what God has been designing me for all my life. I am living out God’s perfect purpose for my life and that gives me passion.

Do you see yourself in this role in 5 years, if not where would you see you in the church?

I see myself in this role for many years - until I can no longer be effective as the senior pastor. Then I hope to step aside and let some younger pastor take my place and I hope the church finds some other role for me to serve at that time. I want to actively and aggressively work to help this church achieve it’s mission until the day I die. Then I will continue to pray for it’s success for the rest of eternity.