Jones grew up near Edina, Minnesota, and graduated from Edina High School in 1986. He later graduated from Dartmouth College and attended both Fuller Theological Seminary and Princeton Theological Seminary, earning a doctorate from the latter. Jones divorced his first wife, Julie McMahon, in 2009. In July 2011, Jones wedded Courtney Perry in a religious marriage, but not legally by the laws of Minnesota in solidarity with non-heterosexual couples who could not wed: "It was for this reason that Courtney and I decided to forego legal marriage until such time as our GLBT friends were afforded all of the benefits that accrue with a legal marriage." Twenty-eight months later, they were legally wed at the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden on November 11, 2013.
Career
After attending FullerTheological Seminary, Jones returned to his childhood church—Colonial Church in Edina—and worked there as a youth pastor for seven years before leaving for his doctoral work at Princeton Theological Seminary. As a spokesperson with the emerging church movement, Jones was invited by a similar Jewish organization, Synagogue 3000, to speak at their 2006 meeting. On October 31, 2008, Jones resigned from his leadership position of the emerging-church organization Emergent Village. Jones began attending Solomon's Porch in 2005—a church inSouth Minneapolis, and by April 2012, he was the group's "theologian-in-residence" and helped run workshops about connecting with congregants with 21st-century means. At the same time, Jones was an adjunct professor with Fuller. From 2009-2019, Jones worked in various capacities at 1517 Media, including five years as senior acquisitions editor for Fortress Press. Jones has written for Christianity Today magazine, the Christian Century, and several other periodicals. Jones is the author of several non-fiction books, including The New Christians. Religion Dispatches Peter Laarman was pleasantly surprised by Jones' 2012 non-fiction bookA Better Atonement; Laarman called Jones a celebrity in the emerging church movement, and recommended the book for "anyone who’s even considering whether 'that old-time religion' isn’t quite good enough any more." Jones also turned his doctoral dissertation into a book—The Church Is Flat—about the emerging church movement. In 2015 he published an expanded version of that book titled, Did God Kill Jesus? In 2012, Jones also published the controversial mobile appOrdain Thyself, which offers a variety of religions in which the user can virtually ordain themselves; the app has options for Catholicism, Hasidic Judaism, Hinduism, and Klingon religions, each of which instructs the user on their new belief system and provides photo filters to apply the appropriate vestments to personal photos. Ordain Thyself retailed for.
