Senior Pastor: The Rev. Mark Jumper
Assistant Pastor: The Rev. Richard Gardiner, Ph.D.
Youth Director: Jinny
Chieu
Clerk of Session: Marian Bradshaw
Ruling Elders: John Bergeron, Anna Marie Brummett, Gene Seymour, Don Carter, Rick Hall, Kathy
Honeywell
SENIOR PASTOR: The Rev. Mark Jumper
Pastor
Mark is a transplanted Texan glad to be called here to Illinois! He grew up in Dallas and Lubbock, Texas, and graduated from high school
in St. Louis, Missouri. The oldest of five children, his father and his
mother’s father were Presbyterian ministers. His early activities included
violin, Boy Scouts, Sea Cadets, and wargaming.
Pastor
Mark received the B.A. in History from Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the M.Div.
from Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia. He did post-graduate work at
the University of Oklahoma, the Naval Chaplains’ School,
and the Naval War College. He is now a Ph.D. candidate at
Salve Regina University in Newport, Rhode Island.
Pastor
Mark served as first pastor of Diamondhead Community Church, a Presbyterian congregation on
the Mississippi Gulf Coast, while also serving as a Navy Reserve chaplain,
from 1982. He went on active duty in 1985 and served around the world with the
Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard until his retirement in 2006. He is a
veteran of Operations Desert Storn and Iraqi Freedom.
He was the first Coast Guard Chaplain of the Year in 1999; served as National
Secretary of the Military Chaplains Association; developed a Warrior Transition
program for the Marine Corps, about which he testified to Congress; and served
as a consultant to Marine Corps and Coast Guard headquarters, and NASA. His
final assignments were the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, and the Naval Chaplains’
School. In the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, he was chairman of the
Chaplains Sub-committee, and moderator of the Presbytery of Florida. He became
senior pastor of Hope EPC in September 2006.
Pastor
Mark’s interests and activities have included music, chorale, history, running,
and racquetball. He is an automobile enthusiast, and holds sport licenses as a
master scuba diver and a master skydiver.
Pastor
Mark married the former Ginger Lou Jones of Orlando, Florida in 1991. They have seven
children: Christina, Andrew, Caroline, Jonathan, David, Bonnie, and Elizabeth.
They make their home in Waukegan.
ASSISTANT PASTOR: The Rev. Richard Gardiner, Ph.D.
Dr.
Gardiner was born in Takoma Park, Maryland and raised in the Washington D.C. suburbs.
He has
a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from the University of Maryland at College Park, where he graduated Magna Cum
Laude. He also has a degree in Secondary Education, and he received his state
teacher certification in Social Studies at Princeton University. He continued at Princeton
Theological Seminary where he became Master of Divinity in 1995. Having
completed graduate work at Penn State and St. Mary's University, he
earned a Ph.D. in history at Marquette University in 2005. Dr. Gardiner served as
Chairman of the Social Studies Department at University Lake School in Wisconsin during his service there from
1995-2000.
In
2001, Rick was ordained and called to pastor the Huntingdon Presbyterian Church
in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. In 2005 he returned to Wisconsin in order to complete his Ph.D.
at Marquette.
Today,
Dr. Gardiner is the Chair of the Social Studies Department at Catholic Central High School in Burlington, Wisconsin, and teaches part time at Cardinal Stritch University and University of Phoenix. In 2007 he was called to serve
as Assistant Pastor of Hope Evangelical Presbyterian Church.
In
1995, Rick married Lesley Boaz from Magnolia, Arkansas. Lesley holds a Master of
Science degree in Nursing from the University of Wisconsin and is finishing a Ph.D. in
Nursing at Marquette. She is presently a teacher at Marquette University and is employed by Aurora as a Family Nurse Practitioner.
Rick’s daughter MaryBeth is a student at Illinois State University and is a candidate for ordained
Presbyterian ministry.
For
more about Rick's teaching style see the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article
written about him: http://www2.jsonline.com/news/laurel/0218laurel.asp
Theologically
Rick is a progressive Calvinist, deeply passionate about the Reformed emphasis
on "sola gratia" (God's grace alone). He is confident that Hope
Evangelical Presbyterian church has a bright future as it becomes one of the
premier churches in the Midwest.
