Jason Shepherd grew up in Houston, Texas, the son of US Attorney Jack Shepherd and his wife Joyce. The youngest of five children, he graduated high school in 1987 and went to Kansas University on a football scholarship. A year later he transferred to Texas A&M where he played another season before "retiring" from football. He stayed at A&M and earned his undergraduate degree in ancient history and classical studies. He then went to Dallas Theological Seminary where he earned a master of theology degree (ThM) and won the J. Elwood Evans Award in Pastoral Ministries his senior year. After graduating, Jason moved to California and wrote Bible studies at Insight for Living and then returned to Texas and taught biblical studies to middle- and high-school students for thirteen years. He served as the pastor of First Christian Church of Buffalo, Oklahoma 2015 - 2023. He currently serves as the Senior Minister at the Christian Church of Midland.
As a traveler, Jason has been to the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Greece, Spain, Morocco, and Ireland. He has visited the Ann Frank house, the Normandy beaches, the Eiffel Tower, Checkpoint Charlie, The Brandenburg Gate, the Parthenon, Mars Hill, the Pantheon, the Al-Hambra, the Grand Bazaar, and the Cliffs of Moher.
Pastor Shepherd is passionate about helping people walk as disciples of Jesus Christ. He is a craftsman who works in words, plants, wood, leather, and fabric.He preaches, writes, gardens, and makes furniture and other durable goods.
As a premillennial dispensationalist, Pastor Shepherd believes that the church will one day be raptured and that God will pour out His wrath on the earth during a seven-year period known as the Tribulation. After the Tribulation, Christ and the raptured will return to earth and defeat those who oppose God at the battle of Armageddon. Christ will reign victorious on the earth for 1,000 years during a time known as the Millennial Kingdom. At the end of the Millennial Kingdom, Satan will gather an army and fight one last war against God. Defeated, he will be judged, along with the fallen angels and unregenerate humans, and be cast into the everlasting lake of fire. God's people will live in His presence for all eternity.
Pastor Shepherd does not agree with Calvinism or the Free Grace theologies. He believes that every person has a will and that he or she must choose to believe in God or reject Him. He believes that all disciples of Jesus Christ are responsible for remaining faithful to their Savior. He believes that God remains faithful to us, but that we can walk away from Him, losing our salvation.
As a pastor in a Restoration Movement church, Pastor Shepherd believes that every believer must learn the Bible and decide what it says for themselves. No council, synod, leader, or other authority may tell a believer what the Bible teaches. Furthermore, Pastor Shepherd believes that no disagreement should cause disunity between disciples of Jesus Christ. Theological differences are no grounds for a break in fellowship. The only non-negotiables are: the inspiration and the authority of Scripture, the full diety and humanity of Jesus Christ, the way of salvation in Christ alone, and the bodily return of Christ to the earth.
The photo shows Pastor Shepherd preaching on the Areopagus (commonly called Mars Hill) in Athens where Paul preached to the Greek philosophers. Pastor Shepherd's bible is open to Acts 17, where Paul's sermon is recorded.
