On 12 September 2019 APNTS Officer in Charge Rev. Dr. Keith Killen announced that with the approval of the APNTS Board of Trustees that he has appointed Rev. Dr. Randall “Randy” Lee James, 65, recently retired pastor serving the Lord in Springfield, Ohio, United States, as the Vice President of Institutional Advancement effective immediately. Dr. Killen indicates, “After learning of our needs for US-based support, Randy agreed to come on board as a volunteer and received APNTS Board of Trustees approval and blessing on September 2nd. … We look forward to working with Randy and having him as a part of the APNTS team.”
A minister in the Church of the Nazarene since 1977, Dr. James has served the church as an evangelist, missionary, chaplain, professor, and pastor. In addition to a stint as traveling evangelists, Randy and Mary Jane’s path has found them in pastoral ministry positions in Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Florida, and for the last 5 years, he served as the Lead Pastor of the Oak Hill Church of the Nazarene in West Virginia, until their retirement on 30 May 2019. During his 42 years of ministry, Dr. James served for 3 years as the Director of Spiritual Development, Chaplain, and Lecturer at Africa Nazarene University in Nairobi, Kenya, from 2007 until 2009.
Born 15 August 1954 in Middletown, Indiana, Dr. James attended Shenandoah High School. After graduating in 1972, he attended Olivet Nazarene University and Trevecca Nazarene University, graduating from TNU with a Bachelor of Arts in Religion in 1977. In 1974, he married Mary Jane Barrett, a Ball State University Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education grad. They have two adult children, Pastor Toni James, and Pastor Ricky Lee James. They also have a grandson, Alexander.
After his Master of Ministry studies at Huntington University in Indiana, Dr. James graduated from Trevecca Nazarene University with a Master of Arts in Biblical Literature in 1997. He earned a Doctor of Religious Studies in Church Administration from Trinity Theological Seminary in Evansville, Indiana in 2006. Dr. James will soon complete a Master of Divinity program in Pastoral Ministries with Union University in California that he began in 2014. Mary Jane has a Master of Arts degree in Education, and has lectured at Africa Nazarene University, and taught elementary school in four states and is a certified counselor.
Dr. James is also the author of Unraveling the Revelation: Devotional Readings from the Apocalypse, Written from an Amillennial Perspective (2010) and The Fifteen Flavors of Love: A New Look at an Old Word (2013). Since retirement, Dr. James has also begun a church consultant project called S.T.A.M.P. (Second Time Around Ministry Professional), “which offers services free of charge to local churches in the areas of pulpit supply/interim pastor, revival preaching, pastoral counseling, conflict management, teacher training, church administration, team building, and financial planning.”
Dr. Killen indicated that Dr. James will serve alongside Yoon Moon Ji, who serves in a similar role in the Republic of Korea.
