Jonathan was born and raised in the UK, and came to the US in 1993 with his wife Sarah (who passed away in1999 from cancer) and his sons Robert and John, at the invitation of Jews for Jesus. He served on their staff for nine years before accepting a call to pastor Grace Bible Fellowship in Pacifica in September 2002.
In 2006 Jonathan graduated from Golden Gate seminary with a Masters in Divinity and was invited to add the interim pastorate of Vista del mar Baptist church to his responsibilities. He the oversaw the process which brought the two churches together to become New Life Christian Fellowship.
In addition to his pastoral responsibilities he is an active participant in:
The Pacifica Prevention Partnership, a community group committed to changing patterns of drug and alcohol abuse amongst teenagers. He hosted “Awakenings”, a show on Pacifica Community Television in addition to being a “reader in residence” at one of our local schools.
In 2006, Jonathan married Maggie, a teacher from San Diego, now working in Foster City. Much to her surprise, she is a born pastors wife! Their family now includes Maggie’s daughters, Katie and her partner Courtney, and their little boy Atticus along with Maggie’s younger daughter Emily and her husband Jonathan, and their daughter Gracie.
Passions:– Seeing people changed by a real relationship with Jesus. – Being the best husband, father and grandfather I can be.
And why “The Zebra Bag”…
When I first became the interim pastor at Vista del Mar Baptist church one of the features of their Sunday morning serveice was a Children’s talk. I was not used to preparing such things and thought that I would phase them out as soon as possible! However I was not able to do this immediately so I fulfilled the requirement by call the children forward gathering them in a circle around me while a shared an object lesson. In order to keep the object from view I would put it in a bag with a picture of a zebra on it that became known as ” the zebra bag” (which I pronounced in the correct English Ze-bra rather than Zeeeeeebra!) Well the bag, my pronunciation and the object lessons took on a life of their own! Through them I formed some of my most precious relationships with children in our church family, who are now of course teenagers and you adults! Some when I began the blog ” from the Zebra Bag”was a natural title. As the church grew and children grew older the children’s conversation was gradually phased out but the stories that came form those conversations will remain part of New Life tradition for ever!
From the Zebra Bag 
Leave a Reply