Biography

Dr. Jeffrey M. Kelly
Salvation Testimony
Growing up in a Christian home afforded me the opportunity to see Christ up close and personal. Seeing Christ at eye level—being lived out in our home—gave me a vantage point to clearly see the beauty of Christ in the everyday. Christ wasn’t just a Sunday topic—He was a present person in the calm, quiet, and chaotic. He was the fabric of our family.
By God’s grace, my eyes were opened to Christ, and I placed my faith and trust in Him as my Savior. Even at an early age, I understood that my faith was God-given—not something I could earn—and that it would be worked out daily in my life.
As I grew in the knowledge of God, I began to sense competing desires: following the flesh and following the Spirit. The pull of both were strong. In my teens, I was, as James says, a double-minded man. This made me unstable—in my walk with God, my confidence in Him, my relationships, and my pursuit of righteousness. Living in this tension was exhausting.
This exhaustion brought me, in my early college years, to a turning point. I made more of an intentional effort to put off the old man (the flesh), to be renewed in the spirit of my mind, and to put on the new man—created by God in righteousness and true holiness. What God had been calling me to since childhood was becoming clearer to me—as I grew in wisdom and stature.
This intentional pursuit was a way of living out the salvation God had already completed in me. It meant learning to live like Christ through a strong sense of grace. Being in Christ was enough for me to be able to experience the joy of living like Christ in the everyday. My relationship with God was only tethered to the finished work of Christ which made my work a product of praise and worship not of debt.
The lust, pride, laziness, fear of man, et cetera, in my life was being replaced with worship and over time I was and am being conformed to Christ.
That work continues to this day. My confidence in my salvation is rooted in God’s evident power—not only to rescue me from sin, but also to give me freedom to enjoy endless pursuit of him.
Family
In 1997, I married my college sweetheart, Leyanah, we have four wonderful children who continue to delight us everyday: Will, Emma, Grant, and Kate. We live in Greenville, SC.
Education & Experience
I hold a B.S. in Marketing Management and a Master’s in Pastoral Theology from Bob Jones University & Seminary. I also earned a Doctor of Ministry degree from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, in the School of Theology, with a concentration in Biblical Spirituality. My advisor was Dr. Don Whitney. I spent the first twenty-five years of my ministry in church planting in both New York and North Carolina. The past three years, I have been the Director of Student Care at Bob Jones University overseeing their on campus counseling department.
Over the past twenty five years I have been able to help hundreds of individuals work through issues related to anxiety, depression, same-sex attraction, pornography addiction, suicidal ideation, irrational fear, family/marriage/pre-marriage and child counseling, and working with those walking through divorce.
The challenges we face as God’s children should not lead us to despair, but to courage. As we look to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, we know that every crises can work out to the praise and glory of God.
My Approach
With a passion for Christ-centered transformation, I integrate my God-given strengths into a biblical counseling approach that offers both structure and spiritual depth.
- I help individuals envision a hope-filled future rooted in Scripture,
- Reframe challenges through a biblical lens,
- Build confidence by highlighting one’s identity in Christ,
- Seek ways to mitigate the effects of physical or biological impacts on one’s thinking and actions, and when needed, with the help of health care professionals, and
- Help to build long-term success by encouraging participation through God-given community.
Your life is a testament to God’s grace, and your story is His way of demonstrating His power and love to you. My hope is to help you see your story from God’s perspective and to provide practical steps that lead to a more flourishing life.
Let’s discover together how God intends for you to live your life today.