Jeff Gaines has been Pastor of Seventh Avenue Presbyterian Church (SAPC) since 1991. From 1991 – 1994, concurrent with his responsibilities at Seventh Avenue Church, Jeff was also spiritual director at the Lloyd Center Pastoral Counseling Service Center on campus of San Francisco Theological Seminary (SFTS), San Anselmo, CA.

He left the seminary in 1995 to become the first Executive Director of Spiritual Directors International [SDI] as well as continuing his ministry to the community of Seventh Avenue Church. In June of 2002, he left SDI focusing his attention on the ministry at SAPC. He has a private spiritual direction practice as well as being a retreat leader and conference speaker at gatherings throughout the United States as well as internationally.

Prior to coming to San Francisco, Jeff was Associate Pastor at the First Presbyterian Church of Monterey (1979-1991), a member of staff with the Iona Community in Scotland (1979) as well as serving as a chaplain at Trenton Psychiatric Hospital, Trenton, NJ (1977-1978). He also worked as an interpreter for world hunger with CROP/Church World Service out of the regional office in Rocky Hill, NJ (1978-1979).

Pastor Gaines received his Master of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, NJ in 1979 and his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, WA in 1975.

Jeff says of himself …

“I am a person who enjoys and approaches life with wonder. I am energized by the unexpected, the untried, the new, and so ministry, for me, is fluid; ever-changing, ever-challenging, ever-molding, ever-transforming. The words that probably best describe my attitude toward life are awe and wonder. Prayer is vital for me — for in prayer the challenging Spirit of our God both comforts and confronts, nurtures and prods, uplifts and refines. And in the end causes me to be better than I could ever envision myself to be.”