J. Stephen Conn

J. Stephen Conn comes from a long line of Scots-Irish storytellers. He grew up in a Holiness/Pentecostal preacher’s home, the third of twelve children, in Cleveland, Tennessee. Stephen received Jesus Christ as his Savior at the age of seven and answered the call to preach at the age of 16 – delivering his first sermon that same afternoon in Beckley, West Virginia. He traveled throughout North America as a teenage evangelist. In more than sixty years of full-time Christian service, his ministry has taken him to all 50 states in the United States which helped him reach a life goal of visiting all 3,142 counties and county-equivalents that comprise those states. He has also travelled to more than 90 countries of the world.

Stephen is best known as a church planter and pastor, who established and built twelve congregations through the United States. The majority of those are still doing well today. His unique journey has included serving as an ordained minister and pastor in three different Evangelical church bodies: Church of God, Assemblies of God, and Southern Baptist. When asked if he ever had trouble remembering where he was preaching his answer was, “I only preach the Bible, not denominational doctrines.”

He is the author of seven books and more than 300 articles which have appeared in a wide variety of both secular and Christian periodicals. He also created a syndicated column which, at its peak, appeared weekly on the editorial pages of more than 80 newspapers nationwide.

After his semi-retirement in 2018, Conn served as a cruise ship chaplain preaching the gospel while traveling the world.