Pastor Rich Jones

I accepted the Lord when I was eleven years old in a Southern Baptist Church. If I recall correctly it was during the 47th verse of “Just as I Am.” And it changed me. I started reading my Bible on the bus and talking to people about the Lord. Soon after I began feeling that I should become a pastor, but I dismissed it, thinking that surely everyone felt the same way. There were certainly many challenges growing up and I was far from perfect, but those were also days when I was growing in faith. During this time I played guitar and led worship in my small country church, and realized that this opportunity to lead and be useful to the Lord made a great impact on me.

After high school, I went to Oregon State University and majored in Business Management.  After college I held various management positions in the restaurant business over the next several years. I was single and living alone at the time and the Lord began to move in my life in a wonderful way. I started reading through my Bible like I had never done before, chapter by chapter, book by book. I also spent many hours worshipping alone on the piano. I began to have a sincere desire to be in ministry, first, by starting a Christian band and then feeling a strong call to become a pastor and to teach God’s Word.

I met my wife Jordi in the first Christian band I started and soon discovered that she had a desire to be married to a pastor. We have now been married 22 years. We have three daughters born naturally and two sons adopted from Russia.

I studied at Multnomah Bible College and received a Bachelor’s of Arts in Theology in 1990. I also studied at Western Seminary in Portland, Oregon, and was youth pastor at Hillsboro Presbyterian Church for four years during the late 80’s.

In 1990 we began a Bible study in our home, which was the beginning of Calvary Chapel Worship Center. The church has been such an incredible blessing to our lives as the Lord has brought pastors, leaders, elders, and servant-leaders who have served in so many ministries. It has been such a joy to lead a church where there is unity in the Spirit, as well as a hunger and thirst for God’s Word.