Ross and Jennifer Gerber are the founding leaders of SMPI. Both Ross and Jennifer grew up in southwestern Ontario in Canada. They were raised in small towns and met while in high school. They were married in August 1973.
Ross graduated from the University of Waterloo with a Bachelor’s of Science degree (Honors Kinesiology) and then obtained his Bachelor of Education degree from the University of Toronto.
Jennifer graduated with her Bachelor of Arts degree (Psychology) from Wilfred Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
Both Ross and Jennifer worked in the Scarborough school system for several years. They began their family and now have three grown and married children and four grandchildren. In 1983 Ross left the teaching profession to be the pastor of a church in Pickering, Ontario. In 1987 Ross and Jen moved to Sturgis, Michigan with their three small children to work with a friend of theirs in a new church plant. Immediately they began to pursue one of their dreams – to take teams of people into other nations of the world on short term missions’ trips. From 1988 to 2000 they led many teams into Costa Rica, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, Germany and Romania. During those years Ross became the Associate Pastor of the church in Sturgis and in 1998 took on the responsibilities of Senior Pastor. You can visit the church site here.
In 2006 God opened a door and directed Ross and Jennifer, with the support of their church, to take on the responsibility of Associate Trainer with John C. Maxwell’s Million Leaders’ Mandate (Equip)– specifically in Uganda, East Africa. They have traveled to Uganda twice a year ever since, as well as expanding their training locations into Rwanda and Burundi.
Strategic Ministry Partnerships International continues to be the vehicle that God is using for Ross and Jennifer to fulfill their call to the nations. They have a burden to share leadership lessons they have learned with young leaders worldwide. Ross and Jennifer have sensed a deep need for young leaders to have a “mother and father” figure with whom to relate. God has given them strategic relationships with many young leaders and they look forward to the years ahead with anticipation.