Pastor Jaime Nieves is was appointed to Ojai UMC July 1, 2020, coming from Northeastern Colorado and The Mountain Sky Conference of The United Methodist Church. She received her Master of Divinity degree from The Iliff School of Theology in Denver – the same seminary from which her minister father graduated!
Jaime describes herself as a grateful, joy-filled Child of God and enthusiastic, Spirit-led Disciple of Jesus Christ. Her adventurous, modern-day Walk to Emmaus has been a creative journey of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world, and encouraging others to develop a stronger, more deeply-rooted relationship with our Triune God. She hopes to continue to engage in this amazing mission here in our Cal-Pac Conference by further exploring her passion of Creation Care: care for our beautiful Mother Earth, all her precious resources, and all her creatures: two-legged, four-legged, and more-legged!
Throughout Jaime’s 13 years of ministry experience, she has delighted in creatively bringing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to life in ways that are relevant, fun, and deeply personal. In her 10 years of parish ministry, she has learned that we are all navigating a sea of questions about faith, salvation, grace, and our ability to witness to a fast-changing world. Therefore, Jaime believes church leaders everywhere should inspire and lead the people in being the church, and not just doing church.
Our Music Director, Chris Gillmon, has been an outstanding addition to our staff for ten years. His responsibilities include coordinating all of the chancel choir and instrumental music for our church services and special events. In addition, he directs the choir and the community handbell group in their rehearsals and performances and accompanies their musical selections on either the piano or organ. He also sings and plays solo selections as required. [Read More…]