Rev. Dr. Jennifer Hope-Tringali

With gratitude to our great God and through the guidance of the Holy Spirit – Bishop Christopher deForest, Director for Evangelical Mission Kat Tigerman, and the Synod Council of the Northeastern Pennsylvania Synod joyfully announce the call of Rev. Dr. Jennifer Hope-Tringali to serve as our Synod’s first Director for New Ministries. Her work with us begins on Monday, October 6, 2025.

This new role represents an important milestone in our synod’s mission. In recent years, the NEPA Synod has seen new vitality through innovative ministries and emerging faith communities, particularly with the implementation of the 6261 ministry communities model and the work of our three “Lanes”: Growing Young, Gaining Strength, and Going Beyond Death to Life. Rev. Dr. Hope-Tringali brings a wealth of experience, wisdom, and Spirit-led passion to accompany this growth.

Rev. Dr. Hope-Tringali has a long history of cultivating new ministries and raising up leaders. She previously served as a Director for Evangelical Mission (DEM) for New Mission in the Lower Susquehanna Synod, where she accompanied emerging and renewing ministries particularly among youth, young adults and marginalized groups. Most recently, she has served as Senior Pastor at Christ the King Lutheran Church in Houston, a large congregation with a vigorous online community and a staff of 12, where she lead efforts to develop a second campus and add creative liturgy and programming components. This background has equipped her with the creativity, flexibility, and resilience needed to support ministries outside the box and often outside church walls.

In addition, Rev. Dr. Hope-Tringali has deep experience in nonprofit leadership. She co-founded and served as Executive Director of Tree 4 Hope, a U.S.-based nonprofit supporting children and families in Guatemala. As founder and Dean of Hope Academy, a bilingual STEAM school for girls experiencing poverty, she built a collaborative team and nurtured a culture of resilience and innovation that continues to flourish today. She also continues to serve as Adjunct Professor for United Lutheran Seminary, developing and teaching Missional Evangelism and Latinx Ministry in Context to graduate and post-graduate students in online and in person formats. She speaks fluent Spanish.

As Director for New Ministries in NEPA, Rev. Dr. Hope-Tringali will accompany Synodically Authorized Worshiping Communities (SAWCs), Synodically Authorized Outreach Ministries (SAOMs), and their leaders in their discernment, development, and sustainability. She will foster innovation and new possibilities, support mission developers and lay leaders, and encourage ministries that reach people often not connected to traditional congregations—young adults, immigrant communities, LGBTQIA+ persons, people in recovery, and others. Working closely with Bishop deForest, DEM Tigerman, and the Synod Council, she will help guide our synod in living out our shared values and lanes of ministry.

This is a part-time, salaried position with flexibility for hybrid work, grounded in relationship building across our 235 congregations and worshipping communities. The role is designed to be collaborative, Spirit-led, and responsive to the diverse needs of God’s people in our synod and beyond – connecting to new, emerging, and mutual mission across synod boundaries, denominational lines, and generational distances.

Please join us in giving thanks to God for Rev. Dr. Jennifer Hope-Tringali’s call to this ministry. We pray for her and for all our synod and church as, together, we continue to grow young, gain strength, and go beyond—trusting in the Holy Spirit to guide us into new life and new ministries, as we love, heal, and engage like Jesus.

To contact Pastor Jennifer, please visit the Synod Leadership page on our website.