AE Newsletter - Fall/Winter 2001

From time to time, we encounter an AE alumnus who has chosen a non-typical career path after graduating from Penn State with an Architectural Engineering degree.   Joseph Miller, ’93, or rather, “Pastor Joe,” is one who has taken a road less traveled (shown left with wife, Suzanne).

Pastor Joe is the Associate Pastor of Student Life Ministries at the Lighthouse Christian Center in Puyallup, WA.  He works primarily with youth grades 7 through 12.   His church has a congregation of approximately 450 people and a youth group of 75 students.  He also leads an adult volunteer staff of 20.  

When Joe was a sophomore at Penn State, he was actively involved with the Campus Crusade for Christ, and it was then that he realized that he was being called to serve in church based ministry.  However, he still had a desire to use his AE expertise to help churches with building design and construction. His senior thesis was dedicated to developing a program that could help churches plan for new facilities and avoid costly mistakes.  It was his teacher and mentor, Professor Victor Sanvido, who first suggested this topic and made him aware of the need churches have for effective planning.  Sanvido was aware that Joe was heavily involved in Christian ministry and felt that he would be in a good position to help the church by using his AE training. Joe’s thesis was selected as one of the top three in the CM option to be presented at the 1993 Partnership for Achieving Construction Excellence (PACE) Research Seminar. 

His pastoral ministry and the ministry to help churches both developed through circumstances and time.  His first goal after graduation was to get his thesis converted to a more readable book format.  After taking a year to re-write it, he turned to the Internet for marketing.  It was then that he realized that there was nothing on the Internet to help churches find good quality resources.  With this focus in mind, he began to develop an Internet resource to link individuals and congregations who are looking to build or renovate their church, 

with a network of pre-qualified professionals and resources that specialize in building and equipping church facilities. 

In the meantime, he was in seminary pursuing a masters degree in divinity and working part time in youth ministry in a local church in Tulsa, OK.   After graduation, he focused on his part time job at the church and full time on developing his Internet service.   The website at http://www.ChurchConstruction.com now averages over 225,000 hits per month and is still growing!   His thesis has evolved into an interactive CD that helps churches plan for new facilities.  He is currently working on the development of a training program for churches in which he will hold national training seminars for local church leaders on how to effectively plan for building facilities.  

Pastor Joe says, “I am excited by what I am doing and none of it would be possible without my AE background.  I would hope that I could inspire others in the AE program to do thesis work that will change the construction world!  The AE experience has helped a lot in church ministry because it taught me how to plan ahead and think for the future, better plan for special events like missions projects, and with all the aspects of management that are a part of pastoral ministry.  Truth is, the AE program has provided me with some of the best preparation for Pastoral ministry that I have ever had.”

So far, he has not had the opportunity to work with any of his fellow AEs on these projects; however, he stated that he “would love to make some connections with any of my AE family who would like to be involved.”  Pastor Joe says, “There are a variety of opportunities for working together, so the best thing would be to contact me and talk about how we could work together.”  He can be reached via email at pastorjoe@lighthouse-cc.org.

His greatest personal reward for his activities is that he has the opportunity to combine all the things that he loves; engineering, helping people, and serving God.  Best of all, he has found that all those tough years in the AE program were really worth it!