Connect With Our Staff
Pastor GeoRene Jones
The Rev. GeoRene (“Pastor Jo”) Jones joined St. Luke’s on December 1, 2025, and serves in the dual roles of Pastor of St. Luke’s Lutheran Church and Executive Director of The Encouragement Center at St. Luke’s.
A self-described “third-career minister,” Pastor Jo often explains her journey into ministry with a smile:
"It’s a lot like the way Steven Spielberg’s team advertised Jurassic Park —‘a film 65 million years in the making!’ God carried me through several seasons of life before I was able to fully discern a call to ordained ministry. First came a career as a medical technologist. Then came the blessings and responsibilities of being a wife and mother. After that, I spent nearly thirty years as a paralegal. Through it all, God was patiently at work. Even then, the Holy Spirit had to prompt my very best friend to look across the supper table one evening and ask, ‘When are you going to go to seminary?’”
Pastor Jo earned her undergraduate degree in Business Administration from Catawba College in Salisbury, North Carolina. In 2014, she received a Master of Theological Studies degree, with a concentration in Pastoral Care and Counseling, from Hood Theological Seminary.
After being accepted as a candidate for ministry in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), she continued her studies at United Lutheran Seminary in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. While serving the ELCA as an ordained Deacon, Pastor Jo discerned a call to ordained pastoral ministry, returned to candidacy, and completed additional theological studies. In November 2024, she was approved as a Candidate for the Ministry of Word and Sacrament.
Upon accepting the call to St. Luke’s, Pastor Jo was ordained and installed as Pastor on February 18, 2026, by Emily K. Hartner.
Pastor Jo is passionate about helping congregations discover new ways to share God’s love beyond their walls. As Executive Director of The Encouragement Center at St. Luke’s, she works alongside community leaders, nonprofit organizations, volunteers, and congregation members to create a safe and welcoming space where people can gather, learn, serve, and grow. She believes God is calling St. Luke’s not simply to maintain a congregation, but to become a people sent into the neighborhood as the hands and feet of Christ—building relationships, encouraging others, and serving the community through partnerships that reflect God’s love for all people.
Pastor Jo is the proud mother of one daughter, Dr. BethAnn Guevara, and grandmother of two: Daniel, a firefighter trainee, and Emma, an accomplished high school student and aspiring veterinarian.
She also serves as the full-time, live-in personal assistant to Willow, a ten-pound Shih-Poo who excels at supervising knitting projects and navigating from her safety seat on the passenger side of the Pastor-mobile.
Willow
Ami-Luise Vucovich
Office Administrator & Facilities Mananger
I was introduced to St. Luke’s by my husband Michael and was a helping member of the Live Stream Team to keep the services available during Covid.
I found my Higher Power, God through my recovery program and look to take it one day at a time and to just let God take the wheel.
I really enjoy being able to give back to the church and its members because you have filled a space in my heart that I didn’t know I needed filling.
“O God, judge eternal, you love justice and hate oppression,
and you call us to share your zeal for truth.
Steady our hope as we walk in Your ways.”
Archie Hayes
Parish Sexton
Archie joined the staff of St. Luke’s in 1985. He enjoys watching football (especially the Carolina Panthers) and shooting pool. He works tirelessly to keep the St. Luke’s build clean. He has lived in Charlotte for over 40 years.
COUNCIL MEMBERS
President: Lisa Rhyne
Vice President: Tom Ainsworth
Co- Treasurer: Phil Brooks
Co -Treasurer: Kristen Conner
Secretary: Rebekah Woodward
Members: Julie Bartlett, Tony Murray
and Erin Pushman