October 26, 2026
By Madison Maxwell BA 18
Jeff Bogue’s time as an undergraduate student at Grace played a major role in what followed.
First: he met his wife, Heidi.
Second: As a junior, he experienced a powerful calling from God to live a life of surrender in Beta Hall.
Soon after, he changed his major to pursue full-time ministry, and the couple has followed that call ever since.
Bogue got his start in ministry as a youth pastor in 1993. Two years later, before the internet existed, he enrolled in Grace Theological Seminary and took classes through a live satellite feed hosted at a local church. He worked on his degree little by little over the next eight years as he and Heidi raised six children and helped plant what would become Grace Church of Greater Akron.
Now, more than 30 years later, the church has grown into a movement of 10 locations and approximately 20,000 people who call Grace Church home. In that time, more than 7,000 people have accepted Christ through the ministry, and more than 4,000 have been baptized.
For Bogue, however, the numbers are never the point. People are. He is passionate about raising up leaders who can carry the Gospel to places he’ll never go and people he will never meet. While Bogue preaches five times each weekend, much of his time and energy is spent coaching leaders and shaping the movement for generations to come. His vision is not simply to build a larger church, but to help create a 300- to 500-year movement of the Gospel.
That same vision has shaped his partnership with Grace College and Grace Theological Seminary. Bogue has championed the school’s role in training future pastors, missionaries, and ministry directors through Grace’s on-site ministry training center hosted at his church. He has also played a pivotal role in helping cast vision for Grace’s newest ministry training location in Columbus.
Beyond the walls of the church, Bogue serves as president of Momentum Ministry Partners. He has founded a church-planting organization, written seven books, and launched several podcasts designed as discipleship tools. Through it all, Jeff remains focused on the same verse that moved him to surrender his life on the Beta basement floor: “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30).
To hear the full story of Bogue’s transformational experience in Beta Hall, tune in to this episode of the Grace Story Podcast.
Listen to Bogue’s latest chapel sermon.
Learn more about our School of Ministry Studies.
