Meet Pastor James Drake

Lead Pastor of Christchurch Miami. Husband to Heidi. Dad to five. Army chaplain. Marriage-conference speaker. Pilot. Fitness competitor. The guy his Soldiers call "Chaplain America."

Pastor James Drake leads Christchurch Miami in Kendall, Florida - a faith family on mission to glorify God by helping people know, love, and serve Jesus. He believes the Christian life is meant to be lived all the way through, in every room of a person's life - pulpit and family table, military post and morning workout, kitchen counter and seat 14C on the way home from a deployment.

The shorthand most people use for him is "Pastor James." His Soldiers call him Chaplain America. His five kids call him Dad. His wife Heidi calls him hers.

Background and Calling

James went to Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama, where he lettered in football and track and earned a B.S. in Business Administration. He stayed in Birmingham for seminary at Beeson Divinity School, earning a Master of Divinity. Beeson is also where he met Heidi - a fellow Samford athlete (a college sprinter and basketball player) who would later become his wife and ministry partner.

In 2004, James joined Cru - the worldwide ministry many people still know by its older name, Campus Crusade for Christ. He has served with Cru ever since: launching ministries, mentoring leaders, and engaging cities with the gospel. His earliest assignment took him and Heidi to New Zealand, where they spent two years interning with Cru and learning the mechanics of cross-cultural ministry. By the time James arrived at Christchurch Miami, he had two decades of ministry experience and a settled conviction about what a healthy church should look like. He is an ordained teaching pastor. He preaches the historic Christian faith - Jesus as Lord, the Bible as God's Word, salvation by grace through faith - and he preaches it with the conviction that it actually changes how people live on Monday.

Ministry: How He Leads Christchurch

The way James preaches says a lot about how he pastors. He starts most Sundays with a hook - a question, a real-life scenario, sometimes a piece of news from the week - and then walks the church into the passage. He likes to repeat one anchor phrase across a whole sermon so that people leave with one sentence they can take home. "If the tomb is empty, anything is possible." "Biblical faith doesn't silence the anxious heart. It speaks truth to it." Those are James lines - and the way he uses them is very James.

His preaching style blends three things he genuinely cares about:

• Scripture taken seriously. James reads the passage line by line, connects Old Testament typology to the cross, and quotes scholars without being stuffy.
• Real life addressed honestly. He talks about anxiety, sleepless nights, parenting fears, marriage hard seasons, deployments, finances, doubt - all from the pulpit, often with personal stories. He never preaches at people; he preaches alongside them.
• A clear next step. Every sermon ends with one. "Take your next step with Jesus." "Don't miss this." At Christchurch, no one leaves a service without knowing what to do with what they just heard.

Beyond Sundays, James leads the staff and elders, sets vision for the church's WIN-BUILD-SEND strategy (win the lost, build the believer, send out everyone to live on mission), and is a constant champion of the church's three-word promise: community, grace, purpose. He believes Christchurch should be a place where people can belong before they believe - a faith family with the door wide open.

Military Service: "Chaplain America"

James joined the United States Army Reserve in January 2021, carrying on what is, in his family, a long tradition of military service. He currently serves as a U.S. Army Chaplain attached to the 20th Special Forces Group (Airborne), ministering to Soldiers of one of the Army's most demanding communities.

In 2023, at age 42, James completed Special Forces Assessment and Selection (SFAS) at Camp Mackall, North Carolina - one of the most physically and mentally punishing courses in the entire U.S. military. He completed it, the Army Reserve later reported, in spite of being diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis ten years earlier. He doesn't lead with the MS diagnosis from the pulpit; he leads with the gospel. But the story is part of why his Soldiers trust him: he has put his body where his theology is.

The nickname "Chaplain America" stuck because his Soldiers love him, trust him, and confide in him - and because he keeps a PT score that leaves the twenty-somethings humble. The nickname has followed him beyond the unit: in features by the U.S. Army Reserve, Authority Magazine (October 2025), and a nationwide YourUpdateTV media tour (August 2025) on the rise of spirituality among Gen Z and the role of faith in holistic health.

Chaplain America in the Media

• "Through Adversity, Triumph: A Chaplain's Tale" - U.S. Army Reserve
• Authority Magazine - "Happiness and Joy During Turbulent Times" (October 2025)
• GlobeNewswire - Nationwide YourUpdateTV media tour (August 2025)
• Instagram - @jamesbryandrake

Ministry to Professional Athletes - Miami Marlins

James also serves as Team Chaplain for the Miami Marlins through Baseball Chapel - the longstanding ministry to professional baseball that provides regular chapel services and one-on-one pastoral care for players, coaches, and staff across Major League Baseball. The Marlins clubhouse is its own particular world: high-pressure, deeply human. James engages the players as friends - by showing up consistently, refusing to perform, and being known as someone players can talk to without their words leaking anywhere. Heidi serves alongside him by leading a Bible study for Baseball Chapel wives.

Marriage Ministry - FamilyLife's Weekend to Remember

James and Heidi speak nationwide for FamilyLife's Weekend to Remember - a marriage conference circuit run by FamilyLife (a Cru ministry) that has, over four decades, taught hundreds of thousands of couples a biblical vision of marriage. The Drakes are featured speakers on the speaker roster and travel several times a year to lead conferences in cities across the United States.

What they teach, in plain terms, is that marriage is more than romance and logistics - that it is a covenant designed to display the gospel to the world. They speak from their own marriage, honestly, about hard seasons, about the rhythms that have kept them strong, and about the places they have had to show each other grace. Their public ministry presence lives at jamesandheidi.com and on YouTube at @JamesBryanDrake.

Service to the City - Boards and the Public Square

James also serves the city of Miami beyond the walls of Christchurch. He sits on the boards of Explore Foster Miami (supporting children and families in South Florida's foster-care system) and City to City Miami (the regional church-planting movement founded in part by the late Tim Keller). He was also appointed by Governor Ron DeSantis to the Florida Faith Council, a state body that brings faith leaders into conversation with policymakers around questions of religious life and civic engagement in Florida.

Family

James and Heidi met as undergrads at Samford and got to know each other for real at Beeson Divinity School. She is also a college athlete (a Samford track sprinter and basketball player), a Licensed Physician Assistant in cardiothoracic surgery, and the person who currently runs the kids ministry at Christchurch as Family Ministry Director. The two of them speak together nationwide for FamilyLife's Weekend to Remember marriage conferences.

They have five children and one extremely opinionated hunting dog named Ginger, who does not technically run their household but is convinced she does. The Drakes live in Miami. They like the beach, the Miami Marlins, long Saturday breakfasts, and the kind of family rhythms that are loud, full, and full of grace.

Preaching Themes and Theology

• Jesus is the better story. He preaches Jesus as the answer to the longings of every other story humans tell themselves - about meaning, identity, belonging, and hope.
• The gospel is not religion. James pushes back gently but firmly on church-as-self-improvement. "Not advice. Not philosophy. That's good news."
• Belong before you believe. The church is a faith family where people are welcomed in to wrestle with their doubts, not a club for people who have it figured out.
• Faith doesn't silence anxiety; it speaks truth to it. James is honest from the pulpit about his own anxiety and seasons of struggle.
• Every Christian is sent. Mission is a normal Christian rhythm - at work, in the neighborhood, on a deployment, in the dugout. Win the lost. Build the believer. Send out everyone.

Off the Clock: Faith, Fitness, and the Worm

A few things people learn about James pretty quickly. He has been a licensed pilot since 2003. He is a certified fitness instructor. He recently placed Top 10 in the HYROX World Games (Men's Pro Doubles 40-49). He represented Team USA on Netflix's Ultimate Beastmaster Season 3 (premiered August 31, 2018), where he was the last American standing in the finals, and he has competed on NBC's American Ninja Warrior. When pressed at parties, he has been known to perform "the worm" on demand. His point in all of it isn't the medals - it's stewardship of the body God gave him for his family, his Soldiers, and his church.

Recent Sermons and Series

• What About? - series addressing honest questions: anxiety, doubt, suffering, salvation
• Jesus Said What? - series unpacking the harder sayings of Jesus
• Field Devotions - short messages recorded from his current Army deployment, posted weekly on Instagram and YouTube
• Easter - Did Jesus Really Rise From the Dead? - a historical-evidence sermon walking through 1 Corinthians 15

The full library is at christchurchmiami.org/sermons and on YouTube at @christchurchmiami in English and Spanish.

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Christchurch Miami is a faith family on mission - to glorify God by helping people know, love, and serve Jesus.