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Joy J. Linn
Joy is a graduate of Phillips University with a degree in Christian Education. Raised in a parsonage
family, her father was an ordained Disciples minister, and her mother has been a church musician all her adult life.
She has been a licensed lay minister in the Christian Church for many years, serving in congregations in Kansas City, Kentucky
and now in Lakeville.
Joy has also been active in ministry on the regional level, serving in the Christian Church of Greater
Kansas City as Chair of the Ministry Division, Chair of the Administrative Division and Regional Assembly Planning Committee,
member of the Committee on Ordination and Standing, Vice-Moderator and Moderator-Elect.
Jan G. Linn
For more than 30 years, Jan has been involved in building bridges between faith and action. A native of
Virginia, early in his ministry he saw the disconnect between faith and racial and economic justice, faith and peace making,
faith and respect for diversity in all its many forms. As both a college and seminary teacher, as well as a congregational
pastor and activist, he has taught and preached a commitment to Christian discipleship that stands over against judgmentalism,
exclusivism, and moral superiority.
It was this work that eventually led him to write his latest book, What’s Wrong With The Christian
Right, a well researched and carefully documented assessment of the work and influence of this group that is the dominant
religious voice in America today.
Prior to founding Spirit of Joy, Jan was a tenured member of the faculty at Lexington Theological
Seminary in Kentucky where he served for eight and a half years as Professor of The Practice of Ministry. His primary teaching
responsibilities were in spiritual formation of clergy and congregational leadership. Before joining the seminary faculty
he was pastor of Independence Boulevard Christian Church, Kansas City, Missouri with major emphasis on urban issues such as
housing and homelessness.
A native of Lynchburg, Virginia, Jan spent ten years as Chaplain and a teaching member of the faculty member
at Lynchburg College in Virginia. It was during this time that he observed the initial rise of the Christian Right to national
prominence with the founding of Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority.
Jan is the author of numerous articles and eleven books. His newest book, Big Christianity: What’s Right With The Religious Left, has just been released by
Westminster/John Knox, and is available at all bookstores and on-line.
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