Our Team

Pastor John Gantt

Senior Pastor

John Gantt, part-time Transitional Pastor at St. John Cumberland, was ordained in 1960 as the United Church of Christ was being formed, and in the midst of national civil rights protests.  He participated in the March on Washington, and other demonstrations in those years, and served on various human rights committees.

In his 65 years of active ministry, he was senior pastor of three “tall steeple churches,” meaning congregations with 1,000 or more members. His pastoral experiences, however, included numerous full and part-time service in rural and smaller congregations.

He has worked at other types of ministries in the denomination as well.  For eighteen years he was executive director of Crossroad, formerly known as Ft. Wayne Children’s Home, a residential treatment center for emotionally troubled and abused children and youth.  He worked at Back Bay Mission in Biloxi, Mississippi, and has directed disaster repair work camps in Kentucky and West Virginia.  Members of St. John Cumberland have been volunteers with John on some of those experiences.

Pastor John has been on three occasions an interim Conference Minister; three years in the Central Pacific Conference (Oregon and S. Idaho); ten months in the Indiana-Kentucky Conference; and, two years in the Heartland (formerly Ohio) Conference.

A pivotal experience for him was to spend a clinical training year away from Eden Seminary, as student associate pastor at the Chicago inner-city Kenwood Ellis Community Center and Church. The congregation was led by a Nisei senior pastor, and John and his wife were two of the only three members of that multi-racial church who were not persons of color.   

He has assisted congregations to develop Open and Affirming covenants such as the one recently completed by St. John Cumberland, as well as Just Peace covenants.

He reports that his companion, HMG (Her Majesty Garfield, the cat) has paraded across the keyboard several times to edit this autobiography!

Terri Jordan

Church Secretary

Terri has been church secretary at St. John for the past 7 years. She attended the University of Indianapolis way back when it was called Indiana Central College and has a Bachelors Degree in Secondary Education, majoring in Business and minoring in Physical Education and a Masters Degree from IU in Secondary Education. She taught middle school in Washington Township for 11 years before her children were born and then spent several years as a stay-at-home mom. She later taught preschool for 5 years and tutored for the Indiana Statewide Testing for Educational Progress test for 14 years in the New Palestine School system before taking the position as St. John Secretary.

Terri has been a member of St. John for most of her life and enjoys serving as secretary saying, “I’ve been very blessed to work with some very amazing pastors and lay people through the years.”

Jim Kiser

Choir and Chimes Director

Jim graduated from The Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University with a Bachelor of Music Education. Jim has soloed with and sung with numerous choirs throughout his career. He was the music director at the Medina United Church of Christ – Congregational for 15 years where he directed the adult choir and the adult bell choir. He was also involved in starting a youth bell choir and assisting with the children’s Christmas Concert. Jim values the adult choir and chime choir at St. John and feels that the choirs enhance the overall church service.

Judy Wieneke

Bookkeeper

Judy graduated from New Palestine High School. She was secretary and bookkeeper for an electrician for 13 years. Currently, Judy works for the Indiana Family and Social Services Agency as Deputy Director of Accounting Operations General Ledger. Judy has been married for 36 years and has been blessed with two sons and two grandchildren. Judy is a lifetime member of St. John and enjoys her work as bookkeeper. She appreciates that it gives her an opportunity to learn about and provide support to the business side of St. John.

Suellen Kipp

Pianist/Organist

Suellen Kipp has been a choral music teacher for more than twenty-five years, teaching in public schools in Indiana and Florida. Suellen has received many honors and awards with her performing groups winning Grand Champion, Best Vocals, Best Choreography, Best Show Design, Best Costuming. Suellen has produced, directed, staged, and choreographed hundreds of public performances, concerts, and musical productions since graduating from Ball State University in 1990 with a Bachelor’s degree in Vocal Music Education and General Music Education. Suellen holds a master’s degree in Liberal Studies from Indiana University along with a master’s degree in Educational Leadership from Indiana University. Suellen notes that, she loves that St. John is an open and affirming congregation; that who ever you are or wherever you are on life’s journey, St John’s is a place for you.