About me

A professional style photograph of Jonathan Balmer
Jonathan Balmer

Jonathan is one of the Co-Pastors of First Baptist Church Muncie, Indiana, alongside his wife Kendall Ellis. His Bachelor of Arts degree in English and History is from Georgetown College in Kentucky.

Jonathan received his Master of Divinity with a concentration in Ministry Leadership from Truett Theological Seminary at Baylor University in 2020.

He hosts the Meeting Muncie Podcast, which hosts interviews with the people who make Muncie truly unique.

Before serving as a pastor, Jonathan worked as a youth minister, taught high school English in the United States and middle school English as a Foreign Language in South Korea.

In his free time Jonathan enjoys video games, podcasts, the Cincinnati Reds, and going to the movies.

-He received a Fulbright English teaching assistantship grant for the 2015-2016 year in South Korea.


– He served as Managing Editor of Fulbright Korea’s Infusion literary magazine (Volume 9).

-During the 2014-2015 school year, he taught English II and Journalism at Western Hills High School in Frankfort, Kentucky.

-He graduated from Georgetown College with a B.A. in English and a B.A. in History and certified to teach both subjects in the state of Kentucky, grades 5-12.

He has a mom, Lisa, a dad, Michael, and a younger brother, Eric (also a Truett seminary graduate).

Kendall Ellis, his wife, is a Truett M.Div/ Garland School of Social Work Master of Social work dual-degree student. She and Jonathan live on Baylor’s campus, where Kendall serves as resident chaplain to first year women.