Jim was blessed to be born the last of eight children to Christian parents who were genuine followers of Jesus and faithful members of their local United Methodist church. Jim recalls, “We were in Sunday school and worship 52 Sundays a year – center section, right side, third row from the front. But Mom and Dad’s faith went well beyond that. They lived their faith before me through the way they served faithfully, gave generously, and grew progressively in their walks with the Lord.”

Jim sensed God’s call on his life at an early age. He professed his faith in Jesus Christ at the age of 11-12. Within a year he felt God calling him to be a minister. “I had an inescapable conviction that God wanted me to be a minister in the United Methodist Church,” Jim says. “I knew that is what I had to do. But as I began to share that God was calling me to be a minister, some people told me I was just going through a phase in my new Christian life. After a while I listened to them and decided I needed to go to college to become a chemical engineer.”

It’s funny how small the world is sometimes. During his freshman year at the University of Arkansas (Go Hogs!) God used a 27 year-old graduate student in mathematics, who was from Tulsa, to redirect Jim from chemical engineering back toward full-time ministry. After graduation from the U of A, Jim married his wife, Beth, in 1986. (Jim & Beth are the proud parents of two sons, Hayden and Jordan.) He then spent time as a manager and later division manager for TCBY before entering Asbury Theological Seminary.

In 1991 Jim graduated from Asbury and returned to Arkansas to begin pastoral ministry. He has served as an associate pastor at First UMC Hot Springs, as pastor of Parkers Chapel/Pleasant Grove UMCs and then First UMC Prescott, and as senior pastor of Grace UMC in Conway. In August 2008, Jim joined the pastoral staff here at Asbury as the Pastor of Wesleyan Leadership.

One of Jim’s main roles at Asbury is to establish and oversee our new Kingdom People ministry. Kingdom People study groups are designed to help people develop a biblical worldview coupled with deep spiritual transformation that will last a lifetime. “Discipleship and spiritual transformation are my passions. I believe so much in the eternal impact Kingdom People can have in people’s lives that my family and I left our extended families and friends behind, as well as 16 years of ministry in Arkansas to start over in a land we didn’t know and with people we didn’t know. But it’s worth it because of the spiritual impact God can make in the lives of Asbury’s members and guests, as well as the potential impact Asbury can have on the national United Methodist Church as Kingdom People is reproduced in churches all over the country. That’s why I’m here. I am very grateful to Tom Harrison for giving me the opportunity to be a part of the pastoral staff at Asbury.”

One downside to moving to Oklahoma is that the Lendermans are experiencing serious Razorback withdrawals. “I realize OU and OSU also have athletic programs of sorts. But it’s Sooners and Cowboys everywhere, all the time. I miss my Hogs. Thank God for the Tulsa Razorback Club. It’s my Razorback oasis in a desert of red and orange. But God will give me strength…”