Teaching While Preaching: Math teacher Jared Govin is also a co-pastor with his wife at the Victory Hills Church of the Nazarene

His father begged him to cover his sermon. Math teacher Jared Govin had never delivered a sermon before, but found himself that Sunday standing at the altar of the Church of the Nazarene in Lynn, Ind., preaching a sermon from Revelation 3 on ways for Christians who don’t feel as connected to God to deepen their faith.

Govin recognizes this as the moment that jumpstarted his career. 

Now, he’s a math teacher at East and co-pastor with his wife at the Victory Hills Church of the Nazarene. Despite his father being a pastor and his mother being a teacher, Govin never saw himself in either of these roles — let alone both — growing up. In fact, his biggest fear was public speaking.

“When I was younger, if there was one thing I knew I didn’t want to be, it was a public speaker,” Govin said. “I hated getting up in front of people and presenting and having to speak.”

Before he started preaching, Govin switched his major eight times at Indiana University, steering away from anything requiring public speaking. But when he stumbled across an Algebra worksheet in the computer lab, he was taken back to high school math class and found himself mentally going through and solving the problems, and at that moment he knew it was worth facing his fears to teach a room full of Algebra students.

Marking his last major change, Govin committed to becoming an education major. Soon after getting up in front of a classroom, Govin overcame his fear of public speaking.

“The only thing that’s going to fix public speaking jitters is experience,” Govin said. “So the more you’re standing in front of a group of people and talking, the better you’re going to get at it and the less nervous you’ll be.”

After working through his fears by teaching and giving his first sermon, Govin applied his newfound confidence to preaching, leading him to get his minister’s license.

Although you don’t often see polynomials in the church, the two jobs have similarities.

“I have to be able to teach something,” Govin said. “I have to explain it in a way that people will understand, that they will connect with it…but as a pastor, I am trying to get people to do something in response to the word of God…So, I have to be able to explain it in a way that not only will they understand it, but they internalize [it].” 

Driven by inspiring and connecting with people, Govin became more confident between delivering a sermon and lecturing over systems of equations.

Govin grew up in and around the Church. He’s always felt tied to his faith, but the desire of becoming an ordained pastor didn’t arise until almost a year of preaching after that fateful Sunday five years ago.

It was then that Govin decided he wanted to become a pastor like his father and grandfather, so he, along with his high school sweetheart and wife Jerrica Govin, decided to enroll together in Nazarene Bible College. Between preaching at his father’s church and teaching, Jared and Jerrica have been working on completing their 24 virtual courses, each six weeks long, to become ordained ministers — which they’ll finish in May.

“We’ve always had a love of education,” Jerrica said. “And we started to feel that with our Bible college coming to an end, that we really wanted to seek higher education.”

In April of 2020, Jared and Jerrica decided to take their love of preaching a step further. They moved to Kansas City, Mo. from Indiana with their two kids — now three — to get their masters degree in ministry at the Nazarene Theological Seminary located here. 

Now in Kansas City, they decided to work as pastors while they’re in the process of getting their degrees. Choosing a church wasn’t easy. But after looking around, both of them felt drawn to the Victory Hills Church of the Nazarene, which had a position opening. Jared and Jerrica are now co-senior pastors there.

“We complement each other in that her skills are not my skills,” Jared said. “So, I feel like each of us bring different things to the table, we’re both gifted in different areas, so put that together and you get us.”

After living and preaching in Kansas for a year, Jared joined the East staff as a member of the math department, following his original college degree. Although balancing the two has its difficulties, Jared strives to fulfill his responsibilities as he can impact people’s lives.

“Teaching, allows me to make a difference in young people’s lives in a meaningful way,” Govin said. “My goal is to have a positive influence and develop young people into responsible human beings. And, my goal as a pastor is very similar. It’s not just to teach people things, it’s to be there for them. It’s to build relationships with them, and to lead them along the way in their walk with Christ.”