Lee Eclov has been a pastor for 35 years, and is currently the Senior Pastor of the Village Church of Lincolnshire (Evangelical Free) in the northern suburbs of Chicago where he has served since 1998. It is a church of about 225 with a strong shepherding sense. He also served as Senior Pastor of Chippewa Evangelical Free Church, Beaver Falls, PA, for 14 years, and as Assistant Pastor at North Suburban Evangelical Free Church in Deerfield, IL.
Eclov’s 2012 book, Pastoral Graces: Reflections on the Care of Souls (Moody Publishers) won Leadership Journal’s “Best of the Best” 2012 book award in the category, “The Leader’s Inner Life.” In it, he writes, “In the books and conferences urged upon us as pastors and in the pastoral models put before us, we feel a kind of relentless pressure to be better strategic and visionary leaders, more compelling communicators, more astute theologians, and better culture-shaping evangelists. But all of these other assignments get in line behind Peter’s instruction to us, ‘Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care.’”
Lee has a great love of other ordinary pastors like himself and delights in drawing them into the heart of shepherding. He is a mentor to many seminary students and younger pastors, and occasionally speaks in pastors’ gatherings.
He has long been a contributor of both articles and sermons to PreachingToday.com and is a Contributing Editor of Leadership Journal, both publications of Christianity Today Inc. He has been an adjunct professor at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, Ill., for well over ten years, currently teaching pastoral counseling. Lee is a native of South Dakota and the product of a rural church. He and his wife Susan have been married for over 40 years and have one son, Anders.