John and Barbara Fenn were born in Kokomo, Indiana and grew up just a few miles from each other. They attended the same kindergarten, went to many of the same neighborhood birthday parties growing up, and had mutual friends. Barb even attended John’s confirmation in the Episcopal church when they were 12 years old.
They began dating as teenagers and were born again together and baptized with the Holy Spirit at age 16. Each attended Indiana University after graduating high school and were then married in 1978.
Their first year of marriage they worked for the PTL Club in Charlotte, North Carolina, learning alot about how to do and not to do ministry! They moved to the Tulsa, Oklahoma area in 1979, and John graduated from Rhema Bible Training Center in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma in 1980.
They moved to the Boulder, Colorado area in the spring of 1980, and over the next 12 years John served in various capacities including Campus Minister at the University of Colorado in Boulder, pastor, associate pastor, and traveling minister.
In late 1992 they (and their 3 sons) moved to Tulsa to become involved with Victory Christian Center, a church of about 13,000 members, Billy Joe and Sharon Daugherty, pastors.
John served as Associate Director of Victory Bible Institute, the Bible school of Victory Christian Center, and then became Executive Director where he served for three years. Resigning in the summer of 2000, he began traveling and teaching in churches and Bible schools all over the country.
In the fall of 2000 Peter Wagner asked John to become the Educational Advisor to the Apostolic Council of Educational Accountability (ACEA), the group of Bible schools around the world affiliated with Peter and Global Harvest Ministries. He also became a faculty member of the Wagner Leadership Institute (WLI), based out of the World Prayer Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado. In December of 2000 John was asked to become the Canadian National Director for WLI.
After starting The Church Without Walls International, John severed ties with Peter Wagner and Global Harvest, as they were moving in different directions.
It seems that over 37+ years of walking with the Lord and in ministry, the Lord has allowed John and Barb to be associated with various ministries before they started getting off balance, then moving them on, taking the best part of things learned with them.
John is the author of “Pursuing the Seasons of God” and ‘Return of the First Church’. Pursuing the Seasons of God is a book about the ways God leads and guides, highlighted by several visitations from Jesus in which he has taught John many keys of walking with the Father and in the timing of the Spirit.
‘Return of the First Church’ is John’s journey out of the institutional church and into house church, highlighting what a balanced and scriptural house church looks like.
Known for teaching with anointing and by revelation and flowing with the gifts of the Spirit, his heart’s desire is to make known the ways of the Father God.