JOHN A. HUFFMAN, JR.

Pastor
St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church
Newport Beach, California

ACADEMIC: Born in Boston, Massachusetts, May 24, 1940, Dr. Huffman earned his: B.A. in history, Wheaton College (1962); special graduate studies at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University; Master of Divinity, Princeton Theological Seminary (1965); M.A. in American history, Uni¬versity of Tulsa (1969); and Doctorate of Ministry from Princeton Theo¬logical Seminary (1983). His post-doctoral studies have included a 1987 sabbatical semester in residence at Harvard University, and in 2000 he spent a sabbatical semester as a visiting scholar in residence at Princeton Theological Seminary and Princeton University. He is a recipient of several honorary doctorates.

PAST PROFESSIONAL: As a Princeton student he served as an assis¬tant to Dr. Norman Vincent Peale at New York’s Marble Collegiate Church and to Dr. Bryant M. Kirkland at New York’s Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, where he was ordained. From 1965-1968, he was the associate pastor at the First Presbyterian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma. From 1968-1973, he was pastor of the Key Biscayne Presbyterian Church in Florida. From 1973-1978, he served as pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he spoke weekly to 500-1000 businessmen at the Tuesday Noon Men’s Club and was chosen “Man of the Year in Religion” by the Pittsburgh Jaycees.

PRESENT PROFESSIONAL: Since 1978 John Huffman has been the pastor of the 3100-member St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Newport Beach, California. During his tenure, St. Andrew’s has completed and burned the mortgage on a $16 million building program, including a 1400-seat sanctuary, and has seen its annual giving exceed $7 million, with over $2 million of that to missions. He is now leading his congregation in a new $26 million “Building the Future Now” capital campaign to build a Family/Youth Center and to remodel and refurbish the church campus.

PUBLICATIONS/MEDIA: Approximately 2100 of his printed sermons are mailed each week to all fifty states and over thirty foreign countries. He has written nine books, the latest of which are The Family You Want and Forgive Us Our Prayers by Christian Focus Publications and the “Joshua” volume of The Communicator's Commentary published by Thomas Nelson Publishers. His media work includes extensive experience in radio and television with talk-show work on secular stations in Miami, Pittsburgh and Los Angeles, as well as resourcing various networks, newspapers and magazines on contemporary matters of faith and life. His M.A. thesis is titled “The Fundamentalist-Liberal Controversy of the 1920's in the Presbyterian Church of the United States of America.” His doctoral thesis is titled “Designing, Delivering, and Evaluating Preaching which Mediates Biblical Truth through Personal Experience—An Analysis of the Effectiveness of Preaching with the Help of Laypersons.”

DENOMINATIONAL/ECUMENICAL: Among his many Presbyterian Church (USA) ministries, he has twice been moderator of his presbytery (1971 - Everglades Presbytery, Synod of Florida, Presbyterian Church U.S., and 1988 - Los Ranchos Presbytery, Synod of Southern California and Hawaii), was the Presbyterian preacher on “The Protestant Radio Hour” (April-July 1990), and now serves on the Hearts and Hands Mission Initiative Task Force of the General Assembly. He served ten years on the Board of Administration of the National Association of Evangeli¬cals, attended, as an Elected Accredited Visitor, the World Council of Churches Seventh Assembly in Canberra, Australia (February 7-20, 1991), and served on the General Board of the National Board of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., chairing the Presbyterian delegation for two terms. He also serves on the board of directors of Gor¬don-Conwell Theological Seminary and is Chairman of the Christianity Today International board. He chaired the board of World Vision U.S.(1996-2001) and, at the same time, filled the Founders Chair on the World Vision International Board. He has been involved in professional sports chaplaincies, doing chapel speaking, beginning with the Miami Dolphins (1969-l973), the visiting NFL teams while pastoring in Pittsburgh (1973-1978) and, from 1992-2002, was the backup chaplain, speaking several times each year on the PGA Senior Golf Tour.

FAMILY: He is married to Anne Ridgeway Mortenson, a graduate of UCLA, Fuller Seminary and the Newport Psychoanalytic Institute. She is a practicing psychoanalyst, a frequent speaker at conferences, and serves on the board of Fuller Theological Seminary. The Huffmans have three daughters. Carla, a graduate of Stanford University and MIT, works in finance and licensing for Microsoft at its Seattle headquarters. Janet, a graduate of the University of the Pacific, is a media coordinator for an advertising firm in Southern California. Suzanne, a Princeton University graduate, died in 1991, at the age of 23, after a 20-month battle with Hodgkin's Disease.

GLOBAL: Huffman has traveled internationally on over seventy trips, visiting one hundred-plus foreign countries on six continents, meeting with international leaders in business, journalism, education, religion, politics, and world relief. In l975 he spent two weeks at the Vatican in consultation with Roman Cathol¬ic leaders; in 1977 traveled three weeks studying missions and international relations in South Africa, Kenya, and Ethiopia; in 1983 ministered in Australia and the Solomon Islands with the Wycliffe Bible Translators; worked with Dr. Billy Graham in the Amsterdam International Conferences for Itinerant Evangelists (1983, 1986 and 2000); in 1989 did a 10-day preaching mission through¬out Cuba; in 1993 traveled extensively through Vietnam; in 1993 traveled with Douglas Coe in a leadership team, speaking in Korea and attending an Asian Leadership Conference in Japan; and in 1995 traveled extensively through China, teaching for two weeks of that time in Nanchang and Beijing Seminaries as guest of the China Christian Council. Recently he has been actively involved in world/relief/justice efforts in Africa, Southeast Asia and the Middle East.