Meet President and First Lady, Jon and Jen Jenks

Jonathan Daniel was born August 19, 1969, to Peter and Mary Lou Jenks in Lockport, New York. At five years old Jon put his trust in Jesus Christ as his Savior because of the fulfilled prophecy of Christ’s life, death, burial and resurrection. As a fifth grader, Jon was baptized at Faith Baptist in Winter Haven, Florida, which was a church plant in those days. Peter Jenks was a deacon there while he was attending Spurgeon Baptist Bible College. That same year Jon gave his life to Christ to serve however Christ saw fit. The hardships of a revitalization that his dad was pastoring during Jon’s teen years almost caused him to be unwilling to serve as a pastor. But God continued to guide Jon over those hurtles while he was studying at Cedarville University so that as a junior, he switched his major from history to pre-seminary. God used John Little as a camp director of Lamoka Lake Baptist Camp to help him confirm this decision. Jon was engaged to Jeniffer Shade, a fellow Cedarville student, and they both graduated in 1991. Jon began seminary that year at Baptist Bible Seminary in Clarks Summit, PA. Jen and he were married the next year after she finished her post-college training as a medical technologist.

Jeniffer, as an only child, came to believe in Christ as a five-year-old through the witness of her parents. They had come to Christ ten years before that through the faithful believers at Limerick Chapel in Limerick, Pennsylvania. Jen was baptized as a junior higher. Her faith became actively her own as she set her standards and beliefs while at Cedarville. She always says that parenting children and helping her parents have really grown her faith.

Jon and Jen have been blessed with three children. Rob is married to Alyssa, and they just gave Jon and Jen their first grandchild, Alayna. Joshua graduated from Cedarville this spring and will be starting a new job in his degree area in Ohio. Abigail just completed her sophomore year studying early childhood education with a TESL emphasis. She hopes to be overseas this summer as part of her degree studies. Jon and Jen are passionate about family and spent much time helping the boys run a business that helped them pay for college. Jon and Jen were a part of the baseball, soccer, and theatre programs locally in support of their children.

After interning and then serving as assistant pastor over discipleship at Calvary Baptist Church in Wisconsin Rapids, WI, Jon became lead pastor (2000-2017). During his ministry, the believers grew to be true disciplers, with 75% of the active adults serving or being trained regularly. Many unsaved and new believers were attending, and twenty-four people were sent into full-time ministry. The church planted one church and placed two pastors in two community churches in the area, causing them to become Baptist in doctrine. Jon loves missions and guided the church to be a sending church that takes responsibility for its missionaries. Jon and Jen themselves pursued local relationships to disciple through church and their hobbies. Jon loves to influence men through hunting, and Jen uses her piano and voice to minister in the local church. Jon loves Christian camping, speaking almost every summer at a camp as well as participating in wilderness camping.

Jon began to facilitate four other churches in their own intentional discipleship during the last few years of pastoring. He was a BCP Council member during this time, and in January 2017 he began the transition to be the Wisconsin state representative, a part-time position. Early in 2017 Jon also joined BCP as the first Director of Intentional Discipleship ministry and was soon promoted to Vice President of Training at BCP. Since then, over 30 churches, some revitalizations and church plants, have or are taking the Leadership Journey training which has now been published. Even now Jon continues training Leadership Journey churches, guiding revitalizations, meeting with his leadership trainers, and laying the groundwork for the next wave of churches and kickoff retreats.

In March 2020 the Lord confirmed to the Council and the Jenks that God’s plan is for Jon to serve as BCP’s fourth president. Please pray for Jon and Jen, as well as her parents, as they settle into Ohio and this new ministry.