Joe Ward

 

Joe serves as Executive Pastor of Walnut Ridge Baptist Church. He is responsible for all business affairs, day-to-day operations, and supervises the ministerial and support staff of the church. He also works closely with the pastor in strategizing for the future of the church. His passion is to empower people to do the ministries God has called them to do as well as having the church operate as smoothly and professionally as possible.

Joe and Jayme came to Walnut Ridge in a round about way. In 1998, their family moved to Mansfield from Dar es Salaam Tanzania, East Africa where Joe and Jayme served as missionaries with the International Mission Board, SBC. Joe was the Business Manager for the Baptist Mission of Tanzania (1995-1998), and also served as a Community Development Specialist (1991-1995) working in agricultural and refugee projects as well as church development and evangelism. The Ward family joined the church shortly after moving to Mansfield.

Prior to joining the church staff, Joe worked as General Manger of Leonard’s Training Programs of Arlington (1998-1999). He was responsible for day-to-day operations of the company with 8 offices in Texas as well as coordinating all out-of-state projects that the company was involved in.

In September of 1999, he accepted the position as Associate Pastor/Administrator of the church. In April of 2003, Joe was named Executive Pastor of the church.

Joe and Jayme were high school sweethearts, graduating from De Kalb High School in northeast Texas, and were married in 1979. They have a daughter, Jennifer, and a son, Jordan. Joe graduated from Texas A&M University in 1979 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Agricultural Economics. He worked in the livestock industry prior to becoming a missionary. He and Jayme attended Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Joe’s hobbies are golf, hunting, exercising, traveling, and yard work.