My Story
My Light
I discovered by third grade that I wanted to bear light and bring joy to people. That was the year I was in and out of hospital rooms and cancer treatment centers visiting Kimberly, my critically ill cousin. One summer I spent my whole vacation with her at a Ronald McDonald House.
Back then I never articulated my mission, but I understood it clearly: Bring joy to Kimberly’s life, and keep her in that light.
I took that foundational mission to individuals and churches for more than two decades, with regular inspiration from my young daughter and my husband Brent. I served in multiple roles as a Christian minister, the latest being fourteen years as a senior pastor in Raleigh, North Carolina.
One day in my twelfth year as senior pastor, though, a strange thing happened. Everybody went home and stayed there. The day they came back, nobody was the same.
My Discovery
I was not the same, either. The global pandemic of Covid-19 was a game changer. Many of the nation’s pastors, including myself, were facing the hardest test of our vocational calling in a highly politicized health crisis.
I led multiple ministry cohorts during the pandemic, helping other pastors pivot and negotiate years of daily conflict. In every video call I tried to splash sunlight on their creeping darkness. They splashed it on mine, too, because that darkness came for everybody.
But all those calls reaffirmed a golden thread of joy that has long been critical for my daily work: I love helping people overcome challenges and be their best selves!
My Mission
I had always loved the support I was able to give other people, but the pandemic revealed how much that golden thread was also holding ME together! The help I offered was not just a source of joy, it was crucial to my own vocational survival.
So I just dove in. I decided to work directly with many different individuals and groups, coaching and teaching how to live lives that matter for other people. Nobody should wait another day before they at least imagine, perhaps even scheme, for the day they become the best version of themselves.
My Folks
Today I still coach people who want to live with purpose and make an impact in the world. These are people who are serious about integrity and committed to being kind but disciplined achievers in multiple arenas of life.
Life needs simplicity sometimes, but nobody is called to one-dimensional personhood. Some people genuinely want to make progress toward mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual maturity, even as they try to strike a sustainable work/life balance.
Good leaders also want to have fun! God help us if we can’t have fun.
Does this sound like you on your best day? If so, you’re a person I can coach well toward a meaningful life that is fulfilling and positively impactful.
Drop me a line! Let’s do this together. Let’s make it fun!
“Andrea Dellinger Jones embodies all the qualities of an excellent clergy coach. She is knowledgeable. She is experienced. She is compassionate.
Andrea led our pastors peer group through the second year of the pandemic, amidst the various joys and conflicts each pastor faced. Throughout, Andrea’s encouraging, joyful spirit bolstered us. I know she will help clergy clients sort through the complexities of any crisis prayerfully and with fresh perspective.”
— Becky in Ardmore, OK
