When Paul Joiner stepped away from the pulpit after fifteen years as senior pastor of Zion Presbyterian Church in Columbia, Tennessee, he didn’t step away from ministry — he stepped deeper into it.
A Foundation That Travels
Joiner’s path from seminary moved quickly and creatively. Fresh from RTS Orlando, he pioneered Reformed University Fellowship (RUF) ministries at two Florida campuses — Florida Southern College and the University of South Florida — before transitioning into congregational leadership. Those early seasons of campus work and pastoral ministry would shape everything that came next.
Looking back, Joiner traces the arc directly to his time at RTS. “My time at RTS Orlando provided a deep theological foundation and a vision for pastoral ministry that now helps me care for pastors,” he reflects. “The relationships I formed at RTS, along with my theological studies, gave me rich tools to navigate organizational strategy while maintaining a clear focus on serving pastors and churches.”
A Crisis Worth Addressing
Three years ago, Joiner transitioned to a new kind of ministry: serving as Assistant Vice President, Wellbeing at PCA Geneva Benefits Group. The need he encountered was pressing. The PCA faces a generational challenge — a wave of anticipated retirements meeting the denomination’s continued growth — while many pastors navigate that season quietly and alone. Joiner knew the terrain. Fifteen years in pastoral ministry, including leading a congregation through the uncertainty of the pandemic years, had given him both empathy and experience.
The connection to Geneva Benefits felt natural. “We’ve made great strides in promoting pastors’ financial wellbeing,” he says. “It makes even more sense to promote their spiritual, emotional, and professional vitality.”
Getting Ahead of the Challenges
Rather than waiting for pastors to reach a breaking point, Joiner is focused on building resilience before crisis takes hold. He currently oversees five grant-funded cohorts of pastors who gather semi-annually over two years — experiencing restoration, community, and the kind of deep relationships that sustain ministry over the long haul. His hope is that many of these cohorts will continue meeting long after the formal program ends.
The work takes him across the full breadth of the PCA, a significant shift for a man whose ministry was once rooted in a single congregation and community. He and his wife Jill — married thirty-two years — are navigating this new season together alongside their two young adult children and a teenager still at home.
For current RTS students preparing for ministry, Joiner’s journey is a quiet reminder: the theological depth and relational roots formed in seminary don’t only launch a pastor into ministry — they sustain him through it.