The Rev. Dr. Jim Birchfield recently retired as Senior Pastor of First Presbyterian Church, Houston, after 27 years of leading churches and non-profits, including churches in Los Angeles and Newport Beach, California. He has a passion for equipping pastors and church leaders to discover and then live into their unique vision as part of God’s Kingdom.

Over the course of his ministry service, Jim worked with Kevin Ford’s Transforming Church process to develop and implement ministries plans as both a senior pastor in Houston and as an executive pastor with St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Newport Beach.

In addition to his role with LFM, Jim current serves on the Board of Directors for Strategic Resource Group, a non-profit that supports indigenous Christian leadership in the Greater Middle East and North Africa and on the board of the MENA Trauma Healing Resource Center. Over the course of his career, Jim has also served on the boards of The Union Rescue Mission in Los Angeles, Houston Christian High School, Presbyterian School, The Outreach Foundation, The Nehemiah Center, Main Street Ministries, and TrueWorks, a non-profit seeking to help people better integrate faith and work.

He has also led short term ministry trips to Egypt, Israel/Palestine, Jordan, Romania, Poland, Kenya, South Africa, and Uganda. Prior to receiving a call into pastoral ministry, Jim spent 13 years in advertising, marketing, and magazine publishing in Detroit and Los Angeles.   Jim earned a BS in advertising and marketing from Michigan State University, and an MDiv and DMin from Fuller Theological Seminary in California. He loves to travel, is an exceedingly average golfer and loves watching college football.

He has been married to his high school sweetheart, Marta, for 44 years. They recently moved from Houston to Westport, Connecticut, to be closer to their two married daughters and five grandchildren.