Dr. Randy Jessen
Dean of the Beeson International Center for Biblical Preaching and Church Leadership
Expertise:
- Preaching for transformation
- Leadership
- Practical ministries
- Church renewal
Education:
- B.S., Metropolitan State College, 1981; M.Div., Asbury Theological Seminary, 1984; D.Min., Asbury Theological Seminary, 1997.
Dr. Randy Jessen was born and raised in Colorado. Randy and his wife, Sue, met and were married while working together in the mental health field with emotionally disturbed children. In 1976 they left the Denver area and moved to a small town on the eastern plains of Colorado. They opened a small town general store in a community of 350 people. It was in this place that they reconnected with the church and made transformational commitments to Jesus Christ through the ministry of Genoa United Methodist Church. With their new found faith and the encouragement of the church, they began praying to seek God’s will. Randy enrolled at Asbury Theological Seminary and graduated with a Master of Divinity degree in 1984. He later earned his Doctor of Ministry degree in church growth and evangelism from Asbury Seminary in 1997.
Most recently Randy served as the Senior Pastor of First United Methodist Church in Colorado Springs. He currently serves as a member of the Rocky Mountain Annual Conference Board of Ordained Ministry and served as a delegate to the 2004 Western Jurisdictional Conference. Randy also served on the advancement committee as a part of Asbury Seminary Board of Trustees. He stepped away from his position as an Asbury Trustee to serve as the Dean of the Beeson International Center for Biblical Preaching and Church Leadership beginning on February 1, 2006.
Randy and his wife, Sue, are deeply involved in the local church and are committed to mission ministry. In 1996 they founded an organization called Global Hope, which provides Christian group homes for abandoned children in western Romania. For more information, check out the website www.globalhope.org. Their newest mission organization is called StarStone International. www.starstone.org StarStone is in the process of establishing a diagnostic and treatment clinic for HIV+ children in Bucharest and eastern Romania. The name “StarStone” represents the “star” of Bethlehem and the “stone” of the empty tomb…everything in between is Jesus.
Randy and Sue have four grown children and an adopted teenage daughter who came to them from the Romanian orphanage system. His book, Ana’s Voice: When God Speaks Through a Silent Child is the inspirational story of how God worked through their family as their daughter Ana was rescued from an orphanage in Arad, Romania.