Jeff Good – Our Pastor
Jeff Good takes seriously his calling as “pastor” – which literally means “a shepherd” who is overseeing God’s flock.
But Jeff also recognizes a deeper truth about the pastor’s place pointed out by author and translator Eugene Peterson: “The biblical fact is that there are no successful churches. There are, instead, communities of sinners, gathered before God week after week in towns and villages all over the world…. In these communities of sinners, one of the sinners is called pastor and given a designated responsibility… to keep the community attentive to God.”
In Jeff’s view, “That responsibility involves taking the lead in setting the course for the church, developing leaders, helping others get plugged into places of service, and providing truth-driven and life-affirming and-guid ing Biblical teaching. But most important, to provide the heart of that community and keep it a warm, welcoming and accepting place for ‘you and me’ … everyone in the Ashburn community … to come together with Christ and one another.”
Jeff has provided the leadership and heart of Christ Community Church since its founding in 1995 with just eight families. Under his leadership, CCC has focused on building a loving and caring community around widespread involvement in home groups, on a dynamic and participatory Sunday worship experience and on inviting, character-building programs for youth and children.
Prior to CCC’s establishment, Jeff enjoyed 13 years of student ministry as a staff member at Cherrydale. He graduated from Huntington college in Indiana, the state of his birth, with a degree in Christian Education in 1979, and completed his Master of Divinity degree from Capitol Bible Seminary in 1989.
Jeff grew up in Northern Virginia and has lived here most of his life. Along with his parents, Amos and Jo Good, and his older brother and younger sister, he lived Arlington from the age of two until his fourth grade year and resided in Falls Church through his graduation from high school.
Jeff says, “During this time in my life, I realized I had broken God’s standards and that I needed a savior. I asked Jesus Christ to be my savior when I was nine years old.”
Jeff calls his 25 years of marriage to Cindy “a great blessing from God.” The couple was further blessed in 1993 with their “wonderful daughter” Charis and in 2002, God walked them through “an amazing adoption process” with the ir second daughter, Anna.
Jeff’s hobbies include sports and music, with golf having moved into a close second behind his first sports love, baseball. Running has become a regular pastime, with his completion of the Marine Corp Marathon in 1989 standing as a particular personal triumph.
Concludes Jeff, “I love my God, I love my family, and I love being a pastor who walks with a community of imperfect but deeply caring people as God shows up in our lives. I can’t think of anything else that I would rather be doing.”
