2025 Retreat
Speaker : Pastor Tim Stearman
Musician : Jerry Nelson
Born and raised in Wichita, Kansas, Tim responded to the call to the ministry at the age of 12. Due in part, no doubt, to the fact that he was raised in a Christian home where the virtues of ministry were always held in high esteem. He became the third-generation pastor/preacher in the family.
Tim married Jane following his junior year of college. Graduating from Friends University in Wichita with a
B.A. degree Tim then chose to continue his education at Nazarene Theological Seminary and was awarded the Doctor of Divinity Degree from Nazarene Bible College in 2002.
Beginning in 1971 Tim served as Minister to Children and Youth at churches in Topeka, Kansas and Westminster, Colorado. He accepted his first assignment as pastor in 1974 in the Oklahoma City suburb of Del City where he and Jane served for six years. Other assignments included Independence, Kansas, General Headquarters of the Church of the Nazarene, Tulsa, Oklahoma and then for 16 years at First Church of the Nazarene in Denver, Colorado.
Tim and Jane have two wonderful daughters, both married to terrific guys. They have presented the Stearmans with four active grandsons while a fifth grandchild of “unknown gender” is due December 31st.
Jerry Nelson is an internationally-known concert pianist, composer, arranger, conductor and studio producer, gifted with a wide spectrum of musical styles. After ten years recording with London and Tel-Aviv Orchestras, he founded Eagles Nest Studio in the Rockies while directing a 40-piece church orchestra and giving birth to the 400-voice Rocky Mountain Praise Choir. While producing over 500 recordings and 6000+ arrangements, one of his most noteworthy contributions to the music world is the originating of Accompaniment Tracks now used worldwide.
Fifty-one years ago, in God’s providence, he found himself accompanying a Gospel Group that totally re-directed his life. That story, too long to be shared here, can be read in Chapter 9 of his book, “Is Heaven Really for Real?”
While attending NNC, Jerry married his 7th grade sweetheart, Diane who succumbed to cancer after 41 years of marriage. God gives and takes away, but He keeps on giving. Two years later, Jerry was blessed with an awesome wife, Rachel, who has since been his Producer and Tech Director through 1,200 concerts in the last 15 years.
Jerry and Rachel have a heart for the Congo and Rwanda where Jerry conducts concerts and crusades. Rachel works with the most impoverished single mothers thru a micro-loan small business financing program. Over 300, many being victims of the genocide, have turned their lives around because of this program.