Dr. Jesse C. Middendorf is a general superintendent
in the Church of the Nazarene with an office at the International Center
of the denomination in Kansas City, Missouri.
He was chosen for the highest elected office in the
church at the 25th General Assembly at Indianapolis, Indiana, in June
2001, after serving for ten years as senior pastor of First Church of the
Nazarene of Kansas City, Missouri.
Dr. Jesse Middendorf was born in Nashville,
Tennessee. He has been preaching since age 16, was first district licensed
while a student at Trevecca Nazarene College (now University) on the
Tennessee District, and ordained an elder in the Church of the Nazarene in
1969 on that district. He received his bachelor of arts degree from
Trevecca Nazarene University in 1965 and his master of divinity degree
from Nazarene Theological Seminary in 1968. In 1989 Southern Nazarene
University conferred upon him the doctor of divinity degree. He earned a
doctor of ministry degree from Nazarene Theological Seminary in 1999.
He has pastored Nazarene churches in Clarksville,
Tennessee; Ashland, Kentucky; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Richardson, Texas;
and Kansas City, Missouri. During the years 1985-1991 he was
superintendent of the Northwest Oklahoma District Church of the Nazarene.
He has written numerous articles for various
religious periodicals, has authored chapters in several books, and is
author/editor of The Handbook of Christian Ritual published in 1997.
Dr. Middendorf’s hobbies include playing golf and
flying single-engine aircraft. He and his wife, Susan (nee Marlowe), have
three children: Jon, Marlo, and Jim; and four grandchildren.
