Jelani serves as the campus pastor for our Gateway Plano Campus. He desires to see people grow in an intimate relationship with the Lord and experience the hope that can only be found in Jesus. Jelani is passionate about the Church “looking like heaven” where God’s presence and will are expressed in an environment filled with people of every color, culture, and class.
Jelani surrendered his life to Jesus as a teenager after the quarterback on his high school football team was radically saved. The change in the quarterback’s life was evidence of God’s love and power and made the gospel attractive and applicable to Jelani. God has been using Jelani to impact the lives of others ever since.
Before entering full-time ministry, Jelani worked as a community and youth relations director for a nonprofit, a youth prison ministry director, and a high school football coach. Jelani joined Gateway’s staff in 2006 and previously led our Frisco Campus. He has a bachelor of arts degree in speech communication from Central Arkansas and a master’s degree in organizational leadership from The King’s University.
Pastor Jelani and his wife, Erin, married on December 30, 2011, and have four children, daughters Judah and Jordyn and sons Jadon and Justus.