Jack Shitama is an author, teacher, speaker and coach. His family systems approach to leadership helps congregational and nonprofit leaders achieve their best spiritually, physically and professionally. He is an avid learner with a passion for taking the most recent secular learnings and applying them to spiritual leadership.

Jack is an ordained elder in The United Methodist Church and currently serves as the Executive Director at Pecometh Camp & Retreat Ministries in Centreville, MD. He is also the Director for the Center for Vital Leadership. He was President of the International Association of Conference Center Administrators from 2003-2007 and served on the United Methodist Camp and Retreat Ministries Association Board from 2007-2015, including as Vice-Chair (2011-2013) and Chair (2013-2015).

Jack is the author of Anxious Church, Anxious People: How to Lead Change in an Age of Anxiety, One New Habit, One Big Goal: Change Your Life in 10 Weeks,  If You Met My Family You’d Understand: A Family Systems Primer, and Everyone Loves a Non-Anxious Presence: Calm Down, Grow Up, and Live Your Best Life.

Jack and his wife of 42 years, Jodi, have four adult children and five grandchildren. Jack is an avid runner and has completed the Baltimore Marathon three times. He plays guitar and bass in the Jacob’s Well Band, his church’s worship band. He enjoys all kinds of sports, cooking, reading, traveling and, most of all, seeing people experience spiritual growth.