MORE ABOUT JESSICA

Elder Jessica Ganzie hails from Detroit, Michigan. She is a graduate of Ferris State University (2011, BA) and Vanderbilt Divinity School (2018) where she earned a Master of Divinity with a certificate in Black Church Studies. Her thesis, entitled Pastoral Authority in Crisis, examines the messianic leadership of Moses, a rescued Hebrew turned Egyptian royal, called to deliver the Hebrew people out of the hand of Pharaoh and the land of Egypt. By exploring his upbringing and the likely influence of his grandfather Pharaoh’s toxic control over his own people, she correlates current understandings of the pastoral role to this “savior” complex by problematizing the centralization of Moses to the deliverance process, the conflation of human and divine authority, and the lack of checks and balances by means of spiritual superiority.

Elder Jessica is a dynamic teacher and regular contributor for Trumpet Magazine, a bi-annual publication of Mt. Zion Baptist Church. Currently, she serves as Overseer of Christian Education at Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Nashville, TN where she was ordained to ministry under the leadership of Presiding Bishop of the Full Gospel International Fellowship Joseph W. Walker III. She is called to re-examine and re-educate Christian believers generally, and the Black Church specifically through the de-colonization and reclaiming of the liberating, transformative power of the Christian faith.  

She is married to her amazing college sweetheart, Darius Ganzie Sr., and mother of the most brilliant, adventurous 4 year old in the world, Darius Ganzie Jr., affectionately known as DJ.