Rev. Dr. Jeffrey W. Frymire

​Dr. Jeffrey W. Frymire grew up in New Jersey. He accepted Jesus Christ as his savior during his senior year of high school under the preaching of Horace Shepherd Sr. and began attending the Highland Park Church of God in Gloucester, N.J. A year later he felt his call to ministry and transferred to Anderson University to major in Religious Studies. After marrying his wife, Joanie, in the spring of 1975, he began a more than thirty-year ministry pastoring Churches of God in Hickory, N.C., Boyertown, PA., Leesburg FL, New Albany, IN., Fresno CA. and Pasadena CA.

In 2006, inspired by his mentor Dr. James Earl Massey, Dr. Frymire felt called to further his education. Having completed two Master’s degrees while pastoring, he was accepted into the PhD program at Fuller Theological Seminary. Graduating in 2010 with a PhD in Practical Theology with an emphasis in Homiletics, Dr. Frymire was offered a position at Princeton Theological Seminary as a Post-Doctoral Preaching Professor teaching preaching and speech communication. At the end of the appointment, the graduating students at Princeton elected him to be the first non-tenured faculty member in the history of Princeton Seminary to preach the Baccalaureate service for the graduating class. For eleven years Dr. Frymire served as Associate Professor of Preaching at Asbury Theological Seminary in Orlando where was appointed the Dean of the Chapel. He is the author of two books, “Preaching the Story” (Warner Press, 2006) and “Preaching from Inside the Story: A Fresh Journey into Narrative” (Cascade Publishing, 2022).

Dr. Frymire was appointed as the inaugural director of the James Earl Massey Center for Compelling Preaching at Anderson University School of Theology and Christian Ministry. The Center was created with funds from a $1.25 million dollar grant from the Lilly Foundation to encourage compelling preaching. Dr. Frymire is now working with Church of God state organizations, national conferences, and like-minded fellowships who are interested in the training arm of the Massey Center.

Among his honors are Mentor of the Year Faculty Award by Asbury Seminary; preaching at the North American Convention of the Church of God; preaching at the 100th Anniversary of the West Middlesex Camp Meeting of the National Association of the Church of God (NACOG) as well as serving on the NACOG Board of Directors as a Member-at-Large. He has served at a member of the National Leadership Board for the Church of God (Ministries Council) as secretary; and was a featured speaker for Bill Gaither’s Family Song Fest in the Smokies in 2016. He and his wife Joanie (an ordained Church of God minister and an Asbury student) have been married for 49 years and have three sons (Doug, Jonathan, and Joel) all of whom are ordained ministers in the Church of God and pastoring in local Church of God congregations. Dr. and Rev. Frymire now reside in Anderson, IN and are the proud grandparents of 7 grandchildren.