About Us
In the fall of 2017, Visual Faith® Ministry was co-founded by Connie Denninger and Patricia Maier.
Visual Faith® Ministry is the endeavor of Connie Denninger and Pat Maier to create an online collaborative center that brings together visual faith tools and resources, and collaboration with practitioners and coaches, to help more people spend time with Jesus.
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Visual faith documents help us to spend time with God through visual and kinesthetic processes. This helps us to remember His Word and serve as reminders of God’s presence in our lives. We are all made in the image of a creative God, and visual faith is an invitation to slow down and creatively connect the story of God’s interaction in our lives. We are then invited to record His faithfulness in our life story, which then equips us with a faith story to tell others about a God who cares and loves us all!
Connie and Pat enjoy leading retreats, workshops, and participating in many places of encouragement for Visual Faith® Ministry practitioners. The expanding creative endeavors continue to ignite their passion to lift up, connect, and equip laypeople and professional church workers to serve using visual faith practices.
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​Every experience brings together prayer with the reading and reflection of God’s Word in a way that is unique for each person. It includes many practices that include processes such as: Bible journaling, visual prayer/prayer spaces, Scripture Scribing, devotional journaling/processing, Visual Church Year/Worship Into the Week processes, Logos365, and Around the Word events. These “hands-on” processes become “faith tools” that may bless practitioners with significant changes to help with focus, encourage attention and deal with the distractions of our noisy, busy, media-driven lives.
Meet Our Co-Founders
If you’re like us, you don’t just want to read the Bible—you want to live it. Visual Faith® Ministry grew out of a simple practice: jotting notes, prayers, and reflections in the margins of our Bibles. Over time, those scribbles became a way to see God’s Word not only with our minds but also with our hearts.
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​When we discovered others doing the same—adding color, art, and creativity to their time in Scripture—we realized this wasn’t just personal devotion. It was a movement. In 2017, we co-founded Visual Faith® Ministry to help people everywhere connect with God’s Word in meaningful, visual ways.​
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Connie Denninger, Co-Founder, Vision Team, Discipleship Director
Connie is a Family Life educator and spiritual formation researcher. She blogs at Vintage Grace (constancedenninger.blogspot.com) and loves to garden. In the sacred space of home, she seeks to live life as prayer. She is a Visual Faith Coach learning to be a Digital Missioner. Connie is encourager to husband John - President Emeritus of the Southeastern District, LCMS, and three daughters with super spouses. She delights in being Gigi to eight grandsons and two granddaughters.
Pat Maier, Co-Founder, Vision Team, Artist Director
Pat is an artist, teacher, Visual Faith Coach, and friend who uses God’s Word as inspiration for creative writing. She draws to cultivate understanding, hope, and joy in faith living. Pat loves nature, gardening, rocks, Montana, Michigan, and family! She is an encourager to her husband, David - President Emeritus of the Michigan District, LCMS- 4 children, 3 kids-in-love, and six grandchildren.
​Today, we’re still passionate about encouraging believers to slow down, listen, and let Scripture shape their lives. Whether through journaling, prayer practices, or creative tools, our mission is simple: to make space for God’s Word to dwell richly in you
Join us on this journey. Explore our resources, connect with our community, and discover how Visual Faith can transform your time with God.
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Sincerely,
Connie & Pat
Our Leadership Team
At Visual Faith® Ministry, leadership looks a little different. We are an all-volunteer team, united not by titles or paychecks but by a shared passion for helping people engage with God’s Word in meaningful, visual ways.
Our team brings together a multitude of talents—artists, teachers, writers, designers, and everyday believers—each offering their gifts to serve the mission. What makes this group special is not only the variety of skills but also the spirit of collaboration. Every project, resource, and event is the result of people working side by side, combining creativity with faith.
Because we are volunteers, our leadership is rooted in servant-hearted commitment. We believe that ministry is most powerful when it flows from love, not obligation. That’s why our leaders dedicate their time and energy freely, creating tools and practices that help others connect Scripture to daily life.
Together, this diverse team embodies the heart of Visual Faith® Ministry: ordinary people using extraordinary gifts to make God’s Word accessible, memorable, and transformative.
Meet the team that works collaboratively with Connie and Pat to carry out the vision and mission of Visual Faith® Ministry:
Linda Ekong, Vision Team, Communications/Resource Director
Linda brings her long-time love for graphic design to Visual Faith® Ministry. Her years of experience in layout and design combine with her heart to share visual faith with many others and the opportunity to serve God in this way. She serves with a meticulous eye and the skills to offer the very best resources in our ever-expanding library, as well as publish our monthly newsletter. Linda is a blessed child of God, wife, mother to 5, and grandma to 1. Her other passions include singing praises to God and spending time with her family.
Carolyn Bira, Vision Team, Theological Director
Carolyn Bira is a Lifelong Christ Follower, wife to Cliff, mother to 2 daughters, and grandmother to 5 grandchildren. Carolyn is a retired Director of Christian Education, a position she served in for 40 years. She is an author, writer, reader, and computer game player. Carolyn is also the author of VFM's first Bible Study Book, "The God of Change: Moses's Journey of Transformation and has written subsequent studies published by VFM.
Jenny Long, Vision Team, Education/Collabrative Director, Creative Design Team
Lifelong habits of journaling and scrapbooking have chronicled Jenny's story of numerous cross-country relocations, the adoptions of her three daughters, and - most importantly - her daily walk with Jesus. As a retired elementary teacher, Jenny now enjoys facilitating VFM workshops, adult Bible studies, women's retreats, discipleship huddles, and family ministry events. Currently, she resides in Nebraska, where she and her husband are slowly adjusting to an "empty nest" lifestyle.
Denise Miller, Vision Team, Creative Director, Creative Design Team
Denise has always loved color and has found many ways to express this love over her lifetime. ln her earlier years, she loved needlework, quilting, and scrapbooking. After homeschooling her 6 children for close to 20 years, Denise found her love for art journaling. Presently, she enjoys Bible journaling, teaching art classes, trying new art techniques, and digging into God’s word daily. Denise is married and became a follower of Jesus during her teens. She has been involved in many churches (women's and children's ministry). After living at over 30 different addresses, she now lives in Florida and, most importantly, loves being Grammie to her 3 grandchildren.
Dionne Lovstad-Jones, Vision Team, Strategic Business Director
Dionne Lovstad-Jones shares her love of Visual Faith practices mostly with her friends, family and church family in La Porte, Indiana where she resides with her husband and two dogs. With a background in Christian development and the tourism & hospitality industry, she understands both the joy in giving and the value of a genuine welcome. Currently, Dionne works as a Retreat Development manager. She bakes sourdough bread every week, gardens, and serves as President of her local symphony. She has found a new appreciation for scripture scribing alongside her favorite practice of Bible journaling.
Creative Design Team
The Creative Design team is the glue that holds together the building and creation of all the resource offerings each year. This group works with collaborative expertise that allows for the original works of art, writing, and biblical foundation to unite as the practical application offerings for individuals, families, and worship communities.
The team includes: Denise Miller, Carolyn Bira, Jenny Long, Jennifer Barbe, Eden Keefe, Jamee Thieme
Jennifer Barbe, Creative Design Team
Jennifer Barbe loves Jesus. Wife to her husband who has made her laugh for the last 24yrs. Mom to two young adults. She is also enjoying her new role as a mother-in-law. She is nested quite well in her Canadian home. Jennifer chooses to use her God giving gifts to transform the ordinary into visual worship. Jennifer seeks the heart of God while praying for others using many creative mediums. She is currently learning how to continue expressing her faith through her new found love of creating digital art with the app ProCreate. Jennifer is enjoying learning her new role on the design team.
Eden Keefe, Creative Design Team
Eden started incorporating visual faith elements into her daily faith walk in 2015. It enhances her time spent in the Word and prayer and has opened up new opportunities to facilitate retreats and events. In the past couple of years, she has experimented with more faith art projects and cherishes the ability to share her journey with family, friends, and on social media. Eden is very involved in LWML - Lutheran Women in Mission, and currently serves on the Official Publication Staff. She lives in Kansas with her husband, close to kids and grandsons, and she loves tea!
Jamee Thieme, Creative Design Team
Jamee was introduced to visual faith practices through Connie Denninger in 2016 at a spiritual retreat focused on Counting gifts and gratitude journaling. The visual faith practices that speak to her heart include gratitude journaling, daily devotional journaling and church season journaling for Advent & Lent. As a Visual Faith coach, she enjoys introducing others to visual prayer practices especially through prayer cards and prayer journaling. In addition she likes to encourage others by sharing VFM resources in a variety of small group settings. Jamee is a retired elementary educator living in North Carolina and enjoys international travel, having traveled to 5 continents and almost 30 countries!
Communications Team
The Communications team is led by Linda Ekong and includes those who assist with email and social media communications. They work for timely and helpful notification of events, resource release information and the noteworthy heart of invitation and welcome. This team includes: Emily Phoenix (social media team manager), Penny Adler, Jean-Marie Galing, Bev Wicher, Susan Harman and Valarie Messerschimdt.
Emily Phoenix, Social Media Team
Emily is an avid writer and blogger, who is passionate about sharing stories and experiences that provide opportunities for interaction, growth, and deepening faith in Jesus. She considers herself to be a digital missioner, as she shares her visual faith practices via her blog and social media channels. Emily serves as New Programming Coordinator for KINDLE Servant Leaders. Emily resides in Baltimore, MD, with her husband, Jack.
Bev Wicher, Social Media Team
Bev is a pastor’s wife and mother of three grown boys, and two grandsons, living in the Buffalo NY area. Since being introduced to Visual Faith® she has embraced it as a way to better connect to God’s word and enhance her prayer life. Bev is always wanting to share visual faith practices with anyone who will listen. What is especially meaningful for Bev is that each visual faith activity she does creates a memory for the future. The visual faith practices that she finds most meaningful are gratitude/visual prayer journals, prayer cards, Lent, Advent, and monthly calendar journals.
Susan Harman, Social Media Team
Susan has been a Lutheran all of her life. Her grandpa was a Lutheran Pastor. She has always thought the Bible was something to be worshiped and holy. It was so hard for her to write in her Bible but she has always been a note-taker and would write all over her bulletin. The words in the Bible that God gave the prophets and apostles tell us everything we need to know about how to live our lives. We just need to find them by reading, listening, and studying. Visual Faith® Ministry has given her many tools to help her understand and share God’s word. Practicing Visual Faith® made her slow down and read with purpose. VFM has opened her to many new ways to share and she realized it is okay to write, color, and draw in her Bible. God wants each of us to learn all we can and follow Him and use all the tools we have so we can remember and share His word.
Valarie Messerschmidt, Social Media Team
Valarie has been married to Steve for 37 years and they have 3 adult children. She has been a member of Concordia for approximately 30 years. For the past 17 years, Valarie has been a special education assistant. Visual Faith® resources have been a healing practice for her. She regularly shares her faithart on FB.
Care & Keeping Team
The Visual Faith® Ministry Care & Keeping Team is a vital blessing to our work, faithfully serving as prayer partners. Some have witnessed the growth and development of Visual Faith practices for more than two decades, and all are dedicated to covering our events, coaches, and leaders in prayer as they share these practices with others. This team continually seeks the Lord’s guidance for the future of Visual Faith® Ministry, interceding that we may follow His lead and step into the places “where the Holy Spirit is already working.”
Prayer needs may be sent to: prayer@visualfaithmin.org.
Pictured Top to Bottom Left to Right: Karen Field, Carolyn Bira, Denise Miller, Dionne Lovstad-Jones, Jenny Long, Pamm Haley, Bev Wicher, and Connie Denninger.
Additional people who pray for VFM: Anne Westphal, Susan Theiss, Lois Giordano, Rev. Todd Jones, Susan Jones, and Rev. Art Umbach.
Visual Faith® Ministry Logo Use
Visual Faith® Ministry and its logo are Registered Trademarks. If you would like to use our logo for an event at your church or on special items, please reach out to our Website/Resource Coordinator, Linda Ekong, at visualfaith@visualfaithmin.org to make a request for use.