Joel Solliday

joel and noah out on a hike
Joel and his mentor, Noah, out on a hike.

My parents moved with two sons from the Midwest to California just before I was born in 1954. I grew up going to churches in the Restoration tradition and was baptized after a “mountain top” summer camp experience. It held. As a sports-loving teenager, I began to struggle under the impending expectation that I might have to go to Vietnam. This drove me to a serious study of the Bible in search of guidance over ethical issues related to that struggle. God used this to forge in me a faith that was my own.

I began college as an art major. A summer camp-counseling job helped me cultivate some gifts for outreach to young people and for a future in ministry. In 1976, I graduated from Pepperdine University with a B.A., completing two majors: Art and Religion. In 1979, I earned the Master of Divinity degree from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. During my years of graduate study, I also served as a Boy Scout chaplain, a Christian athletic league commissioner and a youth minister.

After my schooling, I spent seven years in youth ministry and worked on two college campuses (in Texas and California). I also worked as a free-lance artist and an adjunct professor, teaching “Art Appreciation” at Hope International University in Fullerton California.

In 1990, at age 36, God opened a door for me to serve as a pulpit minister. Since then, I have worked on the west coast (five years), the east coast (five years), in the middle (Minnesota, for ten years) and now in Idaho where I have served the Lewiston Church of Christ as their pulpit minister since 2011. What a unique joy and privilege it has been to touch so many geographical and cultural sides of our country, especially with such a vital role to play in God’s eternal kingdom.

On July 18, 2015, Mary Ellen Needham saw fit to give me her hand in marriage and become Mrs. Solliday. Now I have more brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews and cousins than I can count. I am thankful. I am also grateful for whatever interest brought you to this site and your interest is most welcome.