Jay Moses
Pastor of Congregational Ministries

Dr. Jay Moses, a native of California, comes from an ecumenical past and has been a Presbyterian since first being invited to a Presbyterian youth group in high school.  A sixth generation minister in his family (the first being a Missouri Baptist chaplain in the Civil War), he has been active in full-time ministry for the last 16 years, his early moorings being in youth ministry.  Jay served at Bethany Church of West Covina and at Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church in Los Alamitos before being ordained to the PCUSA as a Minister of Word and Sacrament at the First Presbyterian Church of Redlands in 2001.

Jay has been a Pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Wheaton since May of 2004, with his main ministry emphases being in the areas of education, mission (“mission is a lived vision with others not a weekend trip of charity”), and Christian hospitality.  He strives to remind others of their roots in discipleship, while pushing them more and more to see outside their perspective of privilege as North American Christians: “We live in a time of the dispossession of many of our old views of the church and the world; luckily, this world looks a lot more like the world of Jesus, one in which the Kingdom’s in-breaking regains its initial mystery and anticipation.” 

Jay has been very active in the areas of reconciliation and peacemaking with a focus on international missions (Israel, Latin America), interfaith activities (Jewish/Muslim and Mormon), and Ecumenics (working with the ELCA and the UCC denominations).  He has served on the Ecumenical and Interfaith Work Group of the Chicago Presbytery since 2004, and more recently serves as the Muslim Coordinator for Chicagoland Presbyterians. 

After pursuing a double major in Clinical Psychology and Biblical studies from Azusa Pacific University, Azusa, California, he earned a Masters of Divinity degree in Christian Origins from Fuller Theological Seminary.  In 2009, Jay obtained  his Doctorate in Ministry (DMin) from Northern Seminary. Specializing in Ancient Liturgy and Modern Worship, his thesis involved children’s liturgical worship: “Enacting the Story of God with our Children/”  While completing the requirements for authorization in ministry within the United Church of Christ in 2009, Jay considers himself a Catholic Reformed Evangelical, but mainly another pilgrim on “the way of the Crucified One.”

Jay is married to Sharri Moses (the better half), an Elementary Teacher who is “currently” a stay-home mother to the other “Mosai” - Halie (8) and Connor (5).  They live in the city of Wheaton; “I tried to move as close to the church as I could, just in case I couldn’t handle the winter, and I had to toboggan to work.”  He considers himself a Californian in recovery in the strong arms of the Midwest.

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