Dr. Jerry Pattengale

Dr. Jerry Pattengale serves as the University Professor,  and the co-director and co-founder of the Lumen Research Institute (partnering with Excelsia College, Australia). He founded J. C. Body Shop (youth program) in Marion, Indiana and co-founded The Night of Champions (Azusa Pacific).  He serves on various boards including Yale’s Jonathan Edwards Center, Christianity Today, Christian Scholar’s Review (assoc. pub.), Africa New Life (Rwanda), Changing Destiny (Asia), and the National Press Club’s Membership Committee (DC). He was also one of the two founding scholars and among the three founding leaders of the Museum of the Bible (DC), and has served in executive leadership during most of its existence.

Other distinguished appointments include Honorary Senior Associate, Tyndale House--Cambridge; Research Scholar, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary; Senior Advisor to the President, Museum of the Bible (DC); Senior Fellow, Moody Center, Northfield, MA; and Senior Fellow, Sagamore Institute. He has spoken at many dozens of colleges, universities, and conferences, along with TV shows, social media events, and radio broadcasts. In February 2020, he spoke at the United Nations on protecting religious spaces, and will speak at the U.S. Naval Academy’s homecoming (October 2021).

Dr. Pattengale has been honored/awarded as Outstanding Faculty Member of the Year (twice) and Honors Professor of the Year (Azusa Pacific University). He has also received a National Endowment of Humanities award to live and study in Corinth, Greece, and the National Student Advocate Award from USC’s National Resource Center. The Associated Press and the Hoosier State Press Association have given him awards for his news column. Indiana Wesleyan University’s faculty honored him with its World Changing Faculty Award and 2021 World-Changing Alumnus Award.

He has attended meetings at the White House on faith-based initiatives, co-hosted events with the British Library in Hereford, England, hosted panels and speaker series at the Vatican, and at St. Mark’s Cathedral in Cuba. He spoke at an educational event in Ramat Gan, Israel (see: 1.29.54 time mark).  The event highlighted a multi-volume Bible curriculum he developed for the Museum of the Bible.  The curriculum has been used by over 100,000 Israeli students (in Hebrew).  In 2021, Dr. Pattengale was invited to join the new See-Suite group, a convening of 15 key financial and movement leaders for regular strategic planning and major philanthropic/missional action.

Dr. Pattengale has authored or edited over 40 books. His recent and current projects include Public Intellectuals and the Common Good (IVP, a Lilly Award finalist), The World’s Greatest Book (Worthy, with Lawrence Schiffman); Is the Bible at Fault? How the Bible Has Been Misused to Justify Evil, Suffering, and Bizarre Behavior (Worthy/Hachette); Inexplicable: The Spread of Christianity to the Ends of the Earth (TBN); Color and Pray and Color and Praise (Harper-Collins, 2020/21), Mentoring Matters (IVP, 2022 release), and The New Book of Christian Martyrs (Tyndale House, 2022, with Johnnie Moore).  He co-authored the 2021 award-winning TV series, Inexplicable: The Spread of Christianity to the Ends of the Earth. He has filmed (and emceed) over 100 top scholars and hosted many prominent public lectures.  Along with nearly 300 local columns (often featuring stories from his Buck Creek, Indiana youth), he has numerous publications in leading venues, and some gained considerable international interest. His Wall Street Journal piece on the forged “Jesus Wife” Coptic fragment broke the story and his Christianity Today piece provides a first-hand look into one of the largest thefts in the biblical antiquities market.

Dr. Pattengale earned his Ph.D (1993) and MA (1987) at Miami University; MA (1981) Wheaton Graduate School; BS (1979) Marion College, now Indiana Wesleyan University.   He was 16 years old and homeless when he graduated from Harrison High School near Lafayette, Indiana.