Assistant Pastor 

Rev. Dr. Jim Balke

Education & Experience

Rev. Dr. James Balke has served for 30 years as a pastor in our Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod, serving churches in Wisconsin, Illinois, and Florida.  he has also worked as a therapist for 10 years with troubled children and families at the Child Guidance Center in Jacksonville, Florida and for 3 years as an adjunct professor of religion at Episcopal High School in Jacksonville.  Dr. Balke graduated from Concodia Seminary in St. Louis in 1971 and from Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago where he earned his doctorate in 1978.  Dr. Balke received his Chaplain Training at Shands Hospital in Jacksonville and is a Board Certified Chaplain with the Association of Professional Chaplains since 2003.

Rev. Dr. Jim Balke has accepted the call from Bethlehem Lutheran Church to be an Assistant Pastor at Bethlehem and as our pastor, he will be a missionary or chaplain to the sick and dying in our community through Community Hospice of Northeast Florida and also through Mayo Hospital.  Both facilities will continue to pay his salary and benefits.

It is from Bethlehem Lutheran Church that Dr. Balke will be sent out to take the Gospel message of life and salvation found in Jesus Christ our Lord to people who are sick or in the last stages of life, facing terminal illness and death.  Ministry will be to the patients and their families as they cope with the illness in their lives.  Dr. Balke will assist at Bethlehem in various ways as needs arise.

Hospice ministry finds patients and families in many and varying circumstances with their faith.  Some have deep anxieties about their spiritual condition or about who God is and what He wants of us as well as what it will be like to meet Him.  Some have need to review their life and others are looking for peace of heart, mind, and soul, as they face death.  Some want to be nurtured in their faith with regular readings from the Bible and with prayers.  Questions about God and His will continue to rise in the hearts of patients and families as they confront various diseases sometimes over a few months and sometimes over a year or more.  it is to these patients and families that Bethlehem Lutheran Church sends our Dr. Jim Balker to share the Good News found in our faith in Christ.