[Religion\Faith\Pastor Jennifer L. Carner]
Pastor Jennifer L. Carner: “Hard things happen to everyone. Preachers and faith leaders are people just like everyone else. Faith and spirituality do not exempt us from pain and heartbreak.”
Photo: Pastor Jennifer Carner
Executive Pastor Jennifer L. Carner with the House of Hope in Atlanta explores the relationship between remaining strong to one’s faith and finding strength during challenging times in her new book, “31 Days of Winning – A Women’s Devotional and Journal.”
This guide is a compilation of Pastor Carner’s own words as she struggled with life’s daily pressures.
“The Winning Women’s Devotional serves as proof that we are never alone,” said Carner. “Hard things happen to everyone. Preachers and faith leaders are people just like everyone else. Faith and spirituality do not exempt us from pain and heartbreak. About three years ago I was engaged. I thought my time of being single, dating, and getting to know new people was over. In the process of preparing for marriage, we discovered our lives were moving in different directions and we called off our engagement. I was heartbroken. I made it through thanks to prayer and my devotion. I now pray this book will help others coping with their own struggles.”
One reader wrote, “This journal is really helping me be more disciplined. Thanks, Pastor Jen, for giving us a guide for rough and difficult moments in our lives.”
Pastor Carner developed a significant following through her ministry at The House of Hope, one of the largest congregations in Atlanta. Under the direction of Senior Pastor/Teacher Dr. E. Dewey Smith, Jr., the church is located on a 60-acre, seven building campus that features a 7,000-seat neo-Gothic cathedral. This is where Pastor Carner managed daily ministry operations and Membership Care.
“Our goal as a department is to show our church family that we care about them,” Pastor Carner told Heart and Soul magazine. “We support and stand with our members at some of the most pivotal moments of their life’s journey. We stand with them and sometimes we cry with them in sickness, pain, death, and crisis. We also witness moments of healing, hope, joy, peace, promotion, and recovery. This is rewarding work!”
“31 Days of Winning” is available through Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
For more information, please visit www.jennifercarnerministries.com
About Pastor Jennifer Carner
Jennifer Carner was born in 1983 to Pastor and Mrs. J.W. Carner and she served in ministry with him for several years. Under his leadership, she was licensed in August of 2000 at the Holly Grove Baptist Church. God continued to order her footsteps and chart out her path as she grew in her love for ministry, Theology, and authentic transformation in the church and in our communities.
Pastor Carner ministered for several years at the Greater Travelers Rest Baptist Church in Decatur, GA where Dr. E. Dewey Smith, Jr. is Pastor. She was ordained under Dr. Smith’s leadership in 2008. Pastor Carner went on to share her gifts in ministry to build the global church and advance the Kingdom of God. She has served at the Bible-Based Fellowship Church in Tampa, FL where Rev. Anthony C. White is the Senior Pastor and at The Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church in Memphis, TN, where Rev. J. Lawrence Turner is the Senior Pastor. Pastor Carner has returned to her home church in Atlanta, GA, to share her gifts of leadership, preaching, and teaching. She has served as the first female Executive/Lead Pastor of the Greater Travelers Rest Baptist Church in Decatur, GA, where Dr. E. Dewey Smith, Jr. is the Senior Pastor. She currently gives leadership to their Membership Care Department and daily ministry operations. In addition, she provides preaching and teaching support to the Senior Pastor.
Pastor Carner has a passion for Theology and higher learning. She has earned a Master of Divinity degree from the Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta, GA, and currently, she is completing the requirements for her PhD. in Black Preaching and Sacred Rhetoric at Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis, IN. Pastor Carner has worked as an adjunct theology professor for Barry University’s ACE program in Tampa, FL for several years teaching Theology, World Religions, and Epistemology. One of the most striking characteristics about Pastor Carner is her desire to bring out the best in others. She seeks to be an encouragement to all those around her. Pastor Carner continues to live out the words of the first song she learned to sing, “I’m just a nobody trying to tell everybody about somebody who can save anybody.”
