Dr. Jean-Paul Chenette - Pastor - Teacher - Counselor

Growing up in the San Fernando Valley, I was a typical guy like any other guy. After I graduated from high school in 1986, one of my three older sisters became a Christian and started sharing her faith with me all the time (boy was that annoying), challenging me to examine my own faith. I had always believed that I had faith in Jesus ( I grew up Catholic), and that I really loved Him. I decided to read the Bible to see if my faith was indeed a Biblical faith. In time, I realized that my faith was not what the Bible defines as genuine faith - not a surrendered, willing-to-be-obedient faith, but instead it was dead as James 2 describes. I said I believed in Jesus but in truth I did whatever pleased me, and that was the bottom line. Then after reading the Bible more, I came to believe that God really would hold me accountable for my sins. I could not live my life however I wanted to and then say, “I believe in Jesus!” and expect that to be my “get out of jail free” card. No. God knew my heart. When I realized this, by the grace of God, I surrendered my life one night to Christ and agreed to follow Him wherever He wanted me to go, no matter the cost.

Since then God has called me to be a pastor, I never would have guessed this. My education is from The Master’s Seminary which awarded me a Master of Divinity and a Doctor of Ministry degrees. My wife, Kristi, and I have six precious children - three biological and three adopted children from Haiti who are biological siblings. My love for my family is everything to me, and for them I try to joyfully and lovingly sacrifice myself daily.