Meet The Pastor
Pastor Jim Wiltbank
Introductions put us in an amazing place, bringing up both the joy and the anxiety of something new. Well, I just want you to relax because, other than being born at the top of Mount Olympus, I’m just like the rest of you.
Actually I was born in the corner of Nebraska at Fort Robinson and I lived in New Jersey, Colorado and Texas growing up. I also lived in Argentina for two years while on a mission for the Mormon Church, after which I graduated from Brigham Young University with a degree in Elementary Education. It was then that I came back to my family’s home, Arizona, where I have lived since. I taught first, second and third graders for 14 years before God put a call into my heart to go into ordained ministry. I’m not sure if it was the call so much as the fact that I had to tell my wife about the call that made it so scary. She had graduated from Arizona State University two years earlier and found a job at my school! God’s new plans changed all our well-laid-out ones. Joannie and I met playing volleyball at church and got married March 19,1994. She is an amazing partner to have as we minister together.
We have two sons - Jim who lives in Mesa and Eric who is in Minnesota. I currently want them to start providing me with grandchildren, so if anyone has suggestions about how to help with that, it would be appreciated.
I traveled back and forth to California for three years to Claremont School of Theology and received a Master’s degree in Theology in June of 2007. I have worked at Lakeview UMC in Sun City, First UMC of Phoenix in central Phoenix, back in the neighborhood where I taught school at Epworth UMC and most recently, at First Yuma UMC. In ministry I like to focus on people who have been pushed aside and overlooked, rejected or ignored. If that describes you, please come knock on my door.
Pastor Jim Wiltbank
St. Francis is the Foothills