ABOUT Pr. Stephanie Jaeger
Favorite Bible Passage: "Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 2: 3-5).
Favorite Sending: “Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are his body. Christ has no body now on earth but yours" (Theresa of Avila)
Theologians who have had the biggest impact on me and my understanding of the Gospel: Juergen Moltmann, James Cone, Walter Brueggemann, Leonardo Boff, Dorothee Soelle, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Luther.
3 Words That Describe Me According to:
Stephen (husband): loving, caring, wonder-working
Zoe (17-year-old daughter): kind, passionate, selfless
Hannah (19-year-old daughter): hard-working, creative, thinks things through
Sabina (30-year-old niece): open-hearted, supportive, compassionate
Max (our dog): generous, dependable, affectionate
Some parishioners: really smart, walks the walk, funny
Some community leaders: change-maker, collaborative, fair
Me: enthusiastic, visionary, just
Some Things I Can Do: listen, think theologically about human experience, write, speak up effectively, love, build community, lead church organizations to renewed vitality and sustainability, organize people and projects, solve problems, balance budgets, cook, found and run non-profits, speak lots of German, some French, and a little bit of Spanish, milk a cow, drive a tractor, build fences, paint, restart water heaters (don't tell the property committee).
What I would do if I had more spare time: hang with my fam (B.F.E.), finish my novel What is Left?
MY BIO
The Rev. Dr. Stephanie Jaeger is pastor of St. Matthew's Lutheran Church (ELCA)--NoHo, a progressive Christian community with core commitments to LGBTQ-inclusion, Deaf-inclusion, artful worship, and community engagement, especially around homelessness, housing, racism and immigration. For her public church leadership Stephanie was recently awarded LSTC's "Confessor of Christ Award" given to “a Christian individual whose commitment to Christ Jesus and the Gospel manifests itself through extraordinary personal sacrifice for the sake of Jesus Christ and the Gospel or exemplary witness to Christ Jesus and the Gospel by selfless service to others.”
Stephanie is an exceptional community leader and the visionary founder and director of NoHo Home Alliance. Under her leadership, NoHo Home Alliance was recognized as a California Non-Profit of the Year for 2019. She has been honored as the 2019 recipient of the 2019 Fran Quigley Award of the Studio City Residents Association, and an LA City Impact Maker to Watch for 2019. A boundless source of energy, she is a catalyst for change in her community, inspiring others to take action to make the world and the lives of ordinary people better. Stephanie serves on the SPA 2 Steering Committee of the San Fernando and Santa Clarita Valleys Homeless Coalition. She is the faith representative and Vice President to the NoHo Neighborhood Council.
Stephanie previously served as senior pastor of Augustana Lutheran Church on the south side of Chicago, and pastor of Mt. Olive Lutheran Church in Santa Monica. She has served previously on numerous non-profit boards including as treasurer of the Goethe International Charter School, and executive board member of the Westside Shelter and Hunger Coalition.
Stephanie has her BA and MA from the University of Pennsylvania, her Ph.D. from Washington University in St. Louis, her M.Div. from the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, and an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University—Los Angeles.