THE REV. HUNTER VAN WAGENEN

Father Hunter

Priest for Discipleship & Mission

I was born and raised in Jacksonville, Fla., and came to know Christ from an early age from my family and the liturgical worship of the church we attended. When I was old enough, I served as an acolyte and continue to love taking part in worship in the historic tradition. I received a B.A. in English from Samford University in 2012 and an M.Div. from Beeson Divinity School in 2015.

Though I harbored a one-way crush on my wife, Stephie, throughout high school, God graciously turned her heart toward me while she spent a three-year period in Ethiopia with a water organization. We courted mainly via email and were married shortly after her return to the United States in 2016. We now have two young sons, Asher and Jed, and two daughters, Susannah and Priscilla.

God first began to call me to a life of ministry in 2007, when I walked the Camino de Santiago (Way of St. James) in Spain with my parents. There I met dozens upon dozens of men and women from all over the world who were walking this ancient 500-mile trek searching for God, though many of them did not know him. Since that time the Lord has given me a passion for making Jesus known to people both inside and outside the Church.