, Senior Pastor
Joan and her husband Dan are both natives of Ohio. Joan majored in Religious Studies at the College of Wooster [Ohio] and completed her Master of Divinity degree at Yale Divinity School in 1988.  While Joan was in seminary, she and Dan married but had to part shortly thereafter, when Dan began pilot training with the Navy in Pensacola, Florida. After seminary, Joan was reunited with Dan, who was by then an A-6 pilot with a carrier-based squadron in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Joan was ordained in the Presbyterian Church (USA), joined the Navy, trained as a chaplain, and joined the crew of the USS L. Y. SPEAR, a submarine tender home ported in Norfolk. Although they finally shared the same address, Joan and Dan saw little of each other, as they were at sea on what seemed to be opposing rotations.
In 1991 Joan was transferred to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where she served as a staff chaplain on the base. About seven months later Dan was transferred to the A-4 squadron there and they enjoyed living in an old home on top of a hill overlooking both the Caribbean Sea and the bay. In the summer of 1993, Joan left the service when she accepted a pastoral call to Faith Presbyterian Church in Sun City. Their son, Jeremiah, was born in Glendale that December, and Dan left active duty and came to Arizona the following summer.
After serving at Faith for three years, Joan left to spend more time at home with Jeremiah while Dan re-entered the work force as an accountant. They began attending a newly constructed church in their neighborhood: Dove of the Desert UMC. Shortly thereafter, she accepted an appointment to join the pastoral staff, and began her association with the Desert Southwest Conference. In the years since, Joan has served as interim pastor at Cross in the Desert UMC, taught special education and middle school social studies in public schools, studied and taught history at ASU, served as a chaplain for Hospice of the Valley, and continued to serve as a chaplain in the Navy Reserve until her retirement in 2011. In 2013 she was appointed to Velda Rose UMC, and in July 2015, she came to St. Matthew.
Should the Board of Ordained Ministry recommend it, and if it pleases Bishop Hoshibata, Joan anticipates formally transferring her ecclesiastical credentials to the Desert Southwest Conference next June.
Dan is now a CPA specializing in corporate tax work and IRS consultation with Tull, Forsberg & Olson, an accounting firm in central Phoenix. Their son, Jeremiah, is a senior at Lewis and Clark College in Portland [Oregon], majoring in International Affairs and minoring in Chinese and Economics.
We are excited to welcome Joan and Dan to St. Matthew and look forward to many Spirit-filled years in ministry with them!
Click here to see Joan’s greeting to the congregation and a more complete biography.
, Associate Pastor, Retired
Rev. Jim Ek was appointed as a 1/4-time associate pastor a little over a year ago. Jim and his wife, Patty, had already been attending worship and serving in various capacities for two years prior to his appointment. Jim is serving in the areas of visitation, evangelism, and pastoral care. “We love the people here at St. Matthew,” Jim and Patty said of their decision to make our church their home, “and there is a movement of the Holy Spirit in the air that you can feel!”
Jim is a Board-Certified Chaplain who served for thirteen years at Banner Hospice and as an on-call chaplain at Scottsdale Healthcare. Jim is an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church and served at churches in the Phoenix area prior to entering chaplaincy.
Ordained ministry was a change in calling for Jim. Previously he was an instructional development specialist and technical writer. Jim obtained a BA in German and Linguistics (’71); an MA in Media and Instructional Development (’75) from Western Michigan University and an MDiv (’96) from Claremont School of Theology. He has worked at Western Michigan University, American Express, McDonnell Douglas, and Honeywell, developing learning material for the classroom and online in the areas of higher education, finance, aerospace/military, and industrial applications.
Jim and Patty love ministry, time together, food, making music, learning new things, and volunteering with incarcerated youth. Jim and Patty have one son, Ryan, who is a hospice nurse. Jim renews himself by praising God, reading, playing guitar, remodeling/woodworking, enjoying family. Jim’s theology: God is love. Jim’s philosophy: Happiness is a choice. Favorite quote: From Auntie Mame (1958), Rosalind Russell said, “Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death.”