About Pastor Jim Domen, M.Div.

Mine is a story of redemption.

I never imagined that I would enter the homosexual lifestyle after being raised in a God-fearing home and accepting Christ at age seven. After I graduated from George Fox University, I was so desperate to love and be loved that I didn’t care that my partner was HIV positive. God changed my life forever on June 8, 2002, when I lost all my worldly possessions and distinctly heard God’s voice telling me to come back to Him. I told God, “I’m yours again,” and I began to realize that His strength is made perfect in my weakness – even in someone as broken as me.

God began to restore me and I enrolled in seminary at Azusa Pacific University. I learned how to be obedient to God’s voice and how to interpret the Bible. God continued His work of redemption and gave me opportunities to share my story publicly.

After I graduated from seminary, I became a pastor at Rose Drive Friends Church. I realized that I could no longer ignore the troublesome news stories about public policy and it discouraged me to hear Christians who did not understand how to articulate their worldview. Around this time, Proposition 8 was being fought in the culture and I found myself on the front lines promoting God’s plan for marriage: the union between a man and woman. At press conferences and rallies, I met the founder of Focus on the Family’s California Family Council, who became my boss and mentor after I was asked to join California Family Council. After six years at CFC, God strategically called me to begin Church United in 2016. Church United’s vision is to transform California for Christ by 1) Disrupting Pastors, 2) Uniting the Church, and 3) Transforming our Communities.

Six years after leaving the gay lifestyle and one month before the successful passage of Proposition 8, God continued His work of restoration when I met my wife, Amanda. She is “God’s gift from Heaven.” We were married in 2009 and five years latter God blessed us with our daughter, Aliah, whose name in Hebrew means “ascending to God” – just like our praises to Him for giving us the gift of becoming parents. Two years later, Amanda gave birth to our son, Ryker, whose name means “strong leader,” and in 2018, we had our third child, Asher. Her name means “Happy and blessed.”

My passion is to see our national transformed for Christ.