Meet The Pastor
Reverend Erik P. Vagen
My name is Erik P. Vagen and I am the founding pastor of Journey Church.
Having grown up in NJ suburbs, I felt God's call to ministry as an Education and English major at The College of New Jersey. While growing as a follower of Jesus and leader in college ministry, I met my future wife, Lauren Watson.
I was a pastor at Fellowship Alliance Chapel in Medford, NJ from 2003-2013, where I served predominantly with youth and young adults (in a ministry that I started with my wife called "Fuel"). I became the Director of Young Adults Ministry for the Metro District of the Christian Missionary Alliance.
One of my favorite endeavors in my time was working with other local fellowships in a ministry called "The Jeremiah Project." Named after God's call to Jeremiah and the people to live as ambassadors to the lost in their neighborhoods (see Jeremiah 29), we focused on serving the felt needs in the communities around us. These service efforts spanned from feeding the homeless in Philadephia to disaster-relief caused by Super-storm Sandy in the Long Beach Island area. (And everything in between.)
I felt God's call to be a local missionary, and in 2013 with a handful of other Jesus-followers, we stared Journey Church in Cherry Hill. We are a Family of Disciples on a Mission to introduce folks in the community to the person of Jesus without the trappings of typical church-culture that often unnecessarily turn people off to the living Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
I have a young daughter and son.
I would love to meet you sometime! Please feel free to send me an e-mail!
erik@journeynj.org