Pastor Phil Jones
Parish Associate
Philip Jones (Pastor Phil) is from the Delaware Valley growing up the oldest of five children in the small town of Pitman, in South Jersey. He commuted to college two miles away at Glassboro State College (now Rowan University), graduating with a degree in Speech Communications, and then went 50 miles north to attend Princeton Theological Seminary where he majored in Preaching.
His first parish was at Silver Spring Presbyterian Church in Mechanicsburg, PA (founded in 1734). He was called to be its first Assistant Pastor, but within a few weeks became the Interim Pastor. After two years and the calling of a new Senior Pastor, he stayed on another five years as Associate Pastor. He then was called as a solo pastor to a town and country church in Southern Wisconsin, then spent 15 years as a Senior Pastor in Maumee, Ohio (Toledo), then on to North Jersey where he retired. Along the way he earned his Doctor of Ministry degree from McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago.
In his retirement he became certified as a volunteer EMT, and then a substitute teacher until he earned his New Jersey teacher’s certificate for high school Social Studies. He taught high school history for four years before moving to Delaware. He is married to his wife of 40+ years, Susan, a School Psychologist in the Appoquinimick School District, and they have a son, Joshua, a NICU Nurse living in California, and Benjamin, a computer tech living in Brooklyn. They have three grandchildren, and are kept busy at home with two Labrador Retrievers.
Pastor Phil is always looking for a band where he can play bass guitar, reads historical fiction, and must complete the New York Times crossword puzzle every morning before he can do anything else.