Meet Jana Magruder

Jana Magruder is our new Director of Kid’s Ministry Publishing at Lifeway. She officially joined us on March 1, 2013. We are so happy that she is with us and wanted you to get an opportunity to welcome her, too.
Jana brings a wealth of passion, education, and experience to ministry with kids, their leaders, and parents, including curriculum writing, development, and publishing.
Jana “grew up in ministry” and accepted Christ at Vacation Bible School, which holds a special place in her heart.  She says, “As a minister’s daughter, my family was always at the church, and I had numerous opportunities to participate and serve in a variety of ministries throughout my childhood, youth, and college years.  It was as though I was an apprentice being trained under my parents—my ultimate discipleship leaders.  Their leadership has given me a passion for parent discipleship in children’s ministry.”
She graduated from Baylor with a B.S. and did graduate work in curriculum and instruction at The University of Texas, Tyler.
Jana’s experience includes growing up in ministry at Green Acres Baptist in Tyler, Texas; serving in a variety of roles at Green Acres Camp ministry; working summer missions in Central America—including Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala—where she led backyard Bible clubs, teen Bible studies, and adult workshops; serving as director of Faith Lutheran Day Camp in Austin, Texas; teaching fourth grade for five years; working four years as the education program developer at the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum; writing independent curriculum for six years; and recently serving as the director of children’s ministry at Austin Stone Community Church, West Campus, in Austin, Texas.
During these years, Jana has written award-winning curriculum for kids, developed educational content and programming for museum exhibits, led VBS for more than 300 children, recruited and trained volunteers, written resources for kids and their parents, been named as 2001 Teacher of the Year at Dessau Elementary, and appeared on HGTV’s “Buying and Selling” with the Property Brothers.
Most importantly, Jana and her husband Michael have three children of their own—Morgan Grace (age 10), Jason (age 7), and Nicholas (age 5), which keeps her busy carpooling, frequenting the soccer field, and organizing play dates. In her own words, Jana says of all this: “It has been God’s timeline to lead me into using the gifts He has blessed me with for His kingdom. His fingerprint marks are all over my career, ultimately pointing the way to full-time children’s ministry.”