By Edita McQuary
Jonas Ellison, the new pastor at Christ Lutheran Church in Aptos, came to the pastorate a little late in life at age 44.
Born and raised in Modesto by a Roman Catholic mother and a Southern Baptist father, he attended occasional Catholic services with his mom. Jonas was an only child, and both of his parents passed away at a young age.
Pastor Jonas Ellison with wife Alexandra and their daughter.
While attending college in Carson City, Nevada, Jonas, always interested in golf, left college to be a full-time golf pro. In Nevada, he met the love of his life, Alexandra, originally from Chicago, and after a long-distance relationship, they were married in 2008. They lived in the Chicago area but traveled back to the West Coast frequently.
Alex is a college and career guidance counselor. Jonas and Alex have a 10-year-old daughter named Rory.
After the death of his mother, Jonas drifted away from the church in his teens but always considered himself spiritual.
“I was one of the ‘Nones’ who didn’t affiliate with any one religion for a couple of decades before returning to the church,” Jonas said.
Upon the birth of their daughter, Jonah and Alex joined the Center for Spiritual Living in Nevada. This sparked his interest in becoming a spiritual leader. Later, he started reading various Christian authors such as Nadia Bolz-Weber, Thomas Merton, and Richard Rohr.
He and his family returned to Chicago when Rory was about 3 or 4. This is where they found the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America). Jonas was struck by the beauty of the music and the bustling energy of the congregation from the start. But what really drew him in was the combination of traditional liturgy with an open and affirming theology.
Ultimately, he decided to enroll in the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago and eventually transferred to Wartburg Theological Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa. During the pandemic, his family moved from Chicago, to Loyalton, California, to be closer to family and the wild spaces of the eastern Sierra Nevada mountains.
Jonas continued his seminary studies remotely and served his internship year at Lord of Mercy Lutheran Church in Sparks, Nevada. He graduated seminary with his Master of Divinity degree in the spring of 2023, and he received his first call as the full-time pastor at Christ Lutheran Church right here in Aptos.
He and his family are very happy to be here. Jonas’ passion in life is to create sacred space where people can find respite from the pressures and busy-ness of life in our modern digital world. He has a way of fusing ancient church traditions with a warm and hospitable heart and is a teacher of mystical Christian spirituality.
“Our modern world is based on performance and achievement,” he said. “It’s a never-ending race. We’re all feeling the pressures of this, both young and old. Church should be the place to be vulnerable, let our guard down, share in each other’s stories, give our worries to the living God, and support one another.”
While living in Chicago, Jonas and his young family were feeling the pressure of this modern busy-ness when he found the Lutheran church. The otherworldliness of the church was just what Jonas and his family needed. Sunday worship was their opportunity to unplug, sing old hymns, pray ancient prayers, sit in contemplative silence, and meet others who were just as burned out as they were and who had found such grace in that church.
Jonas said, “I grew up Catholic and had images of a tyrannical God in my mind. The Lutheran church taught me that the message of Jesus is not, ‘Do more,’ it is, ‘Come all ye who are weary, and I will give you rest.’ The Gospel is countercultural in this way.”
His goal for Christ Lutheran is to, as he says, “be the heartbeat of Christ in this community.”
The church hosts the Aptos Community Garden on their property as well as the Secret Garden Preschool. They do various outreach programs locally (such as the Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Cruz County), feeding the homeless, and globally (like the Santa Cruz El Salvador project). Their Stewardship of the Earth committee finds ways of helping people become good stewards of God’s fragile, created world.
Learn more about Pastor Jonas on his personal blog at jonasellison.substack.com.
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Christ Lutheran Church, 10707 Soquel Ave., Aptos, (above the California Highway Patrol Office), holds regular worship services every Sunday at 10 a.m. Connect at their website: aptoschurch.org or [email protected].