Leadership - Cornerstone Community Church

R. Jeff Collene

is the Senior Pastor of Cornerstone Community Church and President of Paraclete Ministries. He also serves on other ministry executive boards.

His path to full time ministry and service at Cornerstone is a personal story that is unique to him. It seems that most who serve in a full time ministry capacity in our culture have a clear testimony about the process.

Pastor Jeff testifies of a simple calling as a child. The blessing of being raised in a Christian family opened the door to a journey of discovery with the God of all creation that would define his life and mold his ministry. The scripture verse that most describes his ministry is taken from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians in chapter 4 verse 1, “Let a man so consider us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.” Serving is the highest calling in the Kingdom of God and God continues to open the mysteries of His person, His purpose and His creation as we pursue Him.

While attending St. Agnes Catholic Church and grade school in the late 1950’s and early 60’s, Pastor Jeff became aware of the magnitude of the God he was honoring in the Catholic culture. This awareness led to a decision to pursue the only known path of service, priesthood. After a few brief adolescent visits to seminaries and monasteries he began his preparation for the ministry. This Roman Catholic education included two and one half years in Savior of the World Seminary. Other education and life experiences include Johnson County Community College, service in the United States Army with military training in leadership, basic electronics and ground surveillance radar, Army military chaplaincy and army military police. This led to continued education after his military service in electronics engineering. While working for a leading technology company and continuing his education he attended Full Faith Church of Love Bible College and received a degree in Pastoral Ministries.

Ten years of spiritual wandering followed his departure from Catholic seminary until God faithfully awakened him and drew him back to church and the Charismatic renewal that had so powerfully impacted many Christian denominations in the 1970's. After reconfirming his faith in God and the message of the Gospel he was introduced to and filled with the Holy Spirit in 1978 and began lay ministry involvement. This new found relationship with God and the power of the Holy Spirit lead to many open doors of ministry.

His formal pastoral training began in 1980 where he pursued a Pastoral Ministries degree at Full Faith Church of Love Bible College in Shawnee Kansas. He immediately began lay pastoral ministry, teaching, counseling and various areas of evangelism and service. After graduation in 1985, Pastor Jeff taught at the same College for the next two years. He was ordained into full-time Christian ministry in 1986 as he began serving on staff as an Associate Pastor at Full Faith Church of Love. There he served as the Evangelism Pastor developing the expanding Missions program and then became the Missions Pastor. This Missions ministry grew to serve 50 families in 26 nations. During this time Pastor Jeff was privileged to minister the Gospel in many nations and establish a non-profit mission organization called Paraclete Ministries.

Paraclete serves as a local ‘missions’ catalyst organization and has served many independent missionaries around the world. This ministry also established an outreach to Kazan, Tatarstan located in central Russia. Then for the next five years Pastor Jeff took on an executive role at Full Faith Church of Love, by serving as the Administrative Pastor and as an Elder. In January 1999 he was sent out by the elders of Full Faith Church of Love to plant Cornerstone Community Church in central Wyandotte County, where he currently serves as the Senior Pastor fulfilling a vision given him by God in March of 1989.

Pastor Jeff and his wife Barbara have three adult children; Jason and his wife Anna and their children Elise, Evan and Eva; Matthew and his wife Misty and their children Victoria, Jack and Olivia; Bess and her husband Carl Bonewits and their children Sophia and Aidan.