Pastor Jose Herminio Cortes Jr. was born on August 28, 1972 in Pinar del Rio, Cuba. He is the husband of Joanne Maree Cortes, formerly, Joanne M. Gillespie, a native of Sydney, Australia. They were married on May 23, 1999 in Silver Spring, Maryland. Jose and Joanne are the blest parents of Jose Herminio Cortes III, who was born on June 22, 2005 and Joel Benjamin Cortes, born on January 20, 2007; both were born in Long Island, New York. Pastor Jose is a friend of God, who loves and takes care of his family and is proud to be a fourth generation Seventh-day Adventist and a second generation Seventh-day Adventist Ordained Minister.
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Pastor Jose & Joanne Cortes
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Pastor Jose is a graduate of Columbia Union College and of the AndrewsUniversity Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary. He is presently pursuing a Doctor of Ministry Degree (D. Min). His pastoral experience began in 1992, as a Youth Pastor in Silver Spring, Maryland. He served God in the Potomac Conference for almost 11 years, as Youth Pastor, Associate Pastor, Senior Pastor, and Associate Youth Director. There he led many people to Christ, through baptism and planted two new churches. In September 23, 2000 he was ordained to the Gospel Ministry at his church, in Silver Spring, Maryland. From 2001 to 2003, in his spare time, he also served as a Professor at his Alma Mater, Columbia Union College, where he taught the introductory course, Jesus & the Gospels.
In January 2003, having felt the call of God, Pastor Jose and Joanne came to New York, where he assumed a new ministry post, as Director of Adventist Youth Ministries in the Greater New York Conference. In this post he provides leadership, vision, training, and resources to leaders in the areas of: Adventurers, Pathfinders, Master Guides, Teens, Collegiate, Young Adults, National Service Organization, Bible Bowl, and Summer Camp. Pastor Jose, Joanne, Jose III and now, Joel Benjamin are a team, they minister together; you will never see one, without seeing the other three.
Pastor Jose is grateful to God for His grace and for the risk God takes to entrust such important mission to a sinner. He believes that young people and adults need each other to finish the proclamation of the Gospel. He believes that the only way to keep the youth and young adults faithful to Jesus and in the church is to give them assurance of their salvation, hope in the Second Coming, and to keep them working on behalf of those who have neither of the first two. Pastor Jose upholds the fact that Youth Ministries do not happen at the Conference Office, but must happen daily at the local church; and definitely, not only within the walls of the church, but outside in the church’s community. He is a firm believer that Youth Ministries produce baptisms and faithful disciples to God and His church. If it doesn’t, it isn’t Adventist Youth Ministries.
Pastor Jose is conscious that just as God used Joseph in Egypt, Esther in Susa, Daniel and the three Hebrews in Babylon, John the Baptist by the Jordan, and Timothy in Ephesus, God can also use him and each youth and young adult in New York, the capital of the world, in the twenty-first century.
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