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.

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.

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 experience of Scripture.

Pat Maier and Connie Denninger

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.

Connie Denninger, Co-Founder, Vision Team, Discipleship Director

Family Life Educator. Spiritual Formation researcher. Blogs at Vintage Grace. Gardener. Visual Faith Coach learning to be a Digital Missioner. Loves the sacred space of home. Seeks to live life as prayer. Encourager to husband John - President Emeritus of the Southeastern District, LCMS, and three daughters with super spouses. She delights being Gigi to eight grandsons, and two granddaughters.

Pat Maier, Co-Founder, Vision Team, Artist Director

Artist. Teacher. Visual Faith Coach. Friend. Uses God’s Word as inspiration for creative writing and drawing to cultivate understanding, hope, and joy in faith living. Loves nature, gardening, rocks, Montana, Michigan, and Family! Encourager to husband David - President Emeritus of the Michigan District, LCMS, 4 children, 3 kids-in-love, and six grandchildren.

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 for 42 years
Mother to 2 daughters
Grandmother to 5 grandchildren
Retired Director of Christian Education which she served as for 40 years.
Author, writer, reader, computer game player. Author of VFM's first Bible Study Book "The God of Change: Moses's Journey of Transformation."

Member Creative Team - Prayer

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, 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. Then 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 has been married over 30 years, accepted Christ into her life during her teens, and has been involved in many churches (women's and children's ministry). After living at over 30 different addresses now lives in FL, 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 Christian gift planning counselor for a national Lutheran foundation. She bakes sourdough bread every week, gardens, supports their local symphony, and has found a new appreciation for scripture scribing alongside her favorite practice of Bible journaling.

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!

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.

What We Believe

the Bible is God's inerrant and infallible Word, in which He reveals His Law and His Gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ.

The Bible is the complete revelation of His will for salvation and the only unfailing rule of faith and practice for the Christian life.
in one God, Creator of all things, eternally existing in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and that these three are co-eternal and of equal dignity and power.
in the deity of Jesus Christ; His miraculous conception by the Holy Spirit; His virgin birth; His sinless life; His substitutionary death on a cross; His bodily resurrection; His ascension to the right hand of the Father; and His personal, imminent return.
that man was created by and for God; that by man's disobeying God, every person incurred spiritual death, which is separation from God, and physical death as a consequence; and that all people are sinners by nature and practice. God loves the people of the world, even though they are sinful, rebel against Him and do not deserve His love. He sent Jesus, His Son, to love the unlovable and save the ungodly.
the Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins and that all who believe in Him are declared righteous because of His sacrificial death and are, therefore, in the right relationship with God. Those who hear this Good News and believe it have the eternal life that it offers. God creates faith in Christ and gives people forgiveness through Him.
in the present ministry of the Holy Spirit, who creates faith through God's Word and Sacraments, indwelling all believers and thus enabling and empowering the life and ministry of the believer.