JOHN ALEXANDER WOOD JR. was born on June 29, 1954, to John and Pat Wood, in Rahway, New Jersey, joining his two older sisters, Diane and Suzie. When John was five, his father contracted to train Saudis to use and repair equipment along the pipeline, and for five years the family lived in the Tapline compound in Turaif, Saudi Arabia. Given their extensive sightseeing in Lebanon and Jordan, he took it for granted that the Bible was true—he had been to those places! A few years after returning to New Jersey, his parents divorced, and Pat, Suzie, and John moved to San Diego. John’s culture shock upon returning to the States and then going to Southern California in the 60s instilled a special sensitivity to “outsiders” of any kind.
He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Bible from Fletcher Hills Bible College and an MDiv from Talbot Theological Seminary.
John met Susan Carlson at Rolling Hills Covenant Church, where he began as youth intern and stayed as junior high pastor. John and Susan had just begun to seriously date when she was diagnosed with leukemia—a type expected to be terminal. He creatively dated her through months of hospitalizations. Between her second remission and bone marrow transplant from her father, they were married on February 18, 1985.
The impact of John’s life and love upon the lives of junior high students and their families is immeasurable. His nine years as full-time junior high pastor touched over 500 youth; many say that John changed the course of their lives and taught the Bible using illustrations they remember today.
John went on to serve as youth and family pastor at Buffalo (Minnesota) Covenant Church; pastor at Neighborhood Covenant Church in Rosemead, California; and pastor of Pisgah Family Worship Center in Los Angeles.
John was serving at Neighborhood Covenant Church when a Hispanic Covenant congregation was forming and sought to rent space to meet. Rather than enter into a landlord-tenant relationship—which Pastors John and Santiago, who quickly became true friends, considered unbiblical—the churches decided to merge into a single bilingual congregation. Each had separate worship services but shared a children’s ministry and every month shared communion together and lunch. John proposed the idea and took a cut in hours and pay so that the church could provide Pastor Santiago Tezagüic the same Covenant benefits that he had.
Also during the ten years at Neighborhood Covenant Church, John and Susan adopted Charissa, who became a bond between the Spanish and English groups.
After leaving full-time ministry, he served as a family counselor at need, in marketing and sales, and in training and development.
John was diagnosed in 2010 with a specific type of early-onset dementia, Primary Progressive Aphasia, which takes away all language and then also affects the rest of the brain. He lived in an assisted living facility for about a year and a half until departing to live anew with our Lord.
He is survived by his wife, Susan; daughter, Charissa; mother, Pat; sisters, Diane and Suzie; a niece and nephew; two grand-nieces and a grand-nephew.
SHARE OBITUARY
v.1.8.18