The Rev. Jeff Holmes will lead his first worship service as the
new Pastor of the Gilroy Presbyterian Church on Sunday, Feb.
18.
 He will preach at the church, located at 6000 Miller Avenue,
at 9am and 10:30am.
The Rev. Jeff Holmes will lead his first worship service as the new Pastor of the Gilroy Presbyterian Church on Sunday, Feb. 18. He will preach at the church, located at 6000 Miller Avenue, at 9am and 10:30am.
Pastor Holmes is a native of Southern California who received a bachelor’s degree in psychology and economics from the University of Texas at Austin in 1990. He also holds a master’s degree in divinity from Pasadena’s Fuller Theological Seminary, awarded in 1996, as well as a doctorate degree in ministry from the same institution in 2003. His area of specialty was youth and family ministry.
While in college he became involved in “Young Life,” a well-known ministry for youth and young adults. This led to an internship at Laguna Presbyterian Church in Laguna Beach. “Working with small groups and watching kids have their lives changed through Christ” convinced him to become an ordained minister, he said.
It was there that Jeff met his future wife, Marci, and he accepted a call to Trabuco Presbyterian Church, also in Southern California. He was able to create, develop and implement a youth program on a part-time basis while attending seminary from 1992-96.
For the past 11 years Holmes has served as associate pastor at La Jolla Presbyterian Church in the San Diego area. His areas of responsibility have been missions, children and student ministries. He has led both traditional and contemporary worship services on a regular basis for a congregation numbering 1,800.
Holmes says that he was happy and contented with his ministry in San Diego. “My work in Africa and on college campuses was going far better than I could have imagined,” he said. “My weekly worship service was about to have another adult baptism, and our new pastor and his wife were becoming great friends with Marci and me.”
However, over the past three years he had been praying for God to use him wherever He wanted. (The “footnote” to the prayer was “that if He wanted me out of La Jolla, He would have to pry me out.”)
When Pastor Jeff received an inquiry from the church in Gilroy, “the gentle prying began.” As he learned more about the local church and met many of its members during a recent visit to Gilroy, he began “to fall in love with the people vision, and God’s movement within the Gilroy Presbyterian Church.”
Despite having to leave her career as an interior designer and her involvement in the leadership of Bible Study Fellowship, Marci, too, recognized “a pull from God, a clear call that was as plain as could be.”Â
Even their son Caleb, who will be seven years old next month, spontaneously declared that he would like to live in Gilroy, an event his parents interpreted as “the innocent confirmation of God’s movement.”
Jeff Holmes sees the members of Gilroy Presbyterian as being “passionate about people, wanting to grow and develop what is good for God and His Kingdom.” He looks forward to “stepping out with them to change the world for God as we invite others to His Kingdom party.” The official installation ceremony for his new ministry is scheduled for Feb. 25.Â
