The Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II would be the first to tell you that community played a powerful role in his journey with God. Growing up in the 1960s, the Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) can name a number of Christians in his father’s church and neighborhood who were guiding lights for him in those formative years.

But Nelson says it has been the lifelong partnership with his wife, the Rev. Gail Porter Nelson, that has been his strength as he moved from pastorates to heading up the Office of Public Witness in Washington, D.C., and finally, his move to Louisville in 2016.