Raised in Maplewood, NJ, Pastor Jim grew up in a Catholic working-class home and has had a remarkable life story. He graduated magna cum laude from Seton Hall University, with a degree in history, and then studied history, jurisprudence, and philosophy as a Fulbright Scholar in Germany. After earning a law degree at Rutgers, Jim enjoyed a highly successful 20-year career as an attorney and businessperson in New York City. During this period, he also became involved in community activities, including serving part-time in local government as an elected Councilmember and Mayor of the Township of Verona for 12 years and as a county legislator for three years. He left law and business after he was twice elected to be the full-time County Executive of Essex County (population 800,000), serving for 8 years, during which time he twice ran for the U.S. Senate.

Though he had an impressive career in the world, Jim now confesses that success and reputation had become his idols. In 2002, as the frontrunner for his party’s Senate nomination, Jim's office became the target of a federal investigation. He pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice for an intentional failure to disclose an election law violation committed by one of his staffers, which brought him a year in federal prison. Jim describes this period as a time “when his worldly life caught on fire,” and he made what he calls a “radical decision for Christ” and committed his life to following Jesus. In prison, Pastor Jim was sustained by the Holy Spirit, his family, and a new community of Christians from Brookdale who had come alongside him. He helped lead seven of his fellow inmates to Christ. Following his release, Jim answered God’s call to ministry and earned his Master of Divinity degree at Princeton Theological Seminary. Today, he is one of the two lead pastors and the administrator at Brookdale and still resides in Verona with his wife Janet, a nurse, in the same neighborhood as his two grown daughters, Sarah and Katie, their husbands, and his three grandsons. He is a passionate preacher who also loves to write and teach about the Bible.