Bobby and Jonae Cunningham

Associate Pastors

Detailed Biography

Bobby was born in Hill City, Kansas on March 28th of 1983. He began his ministry career at an extremely early age as his parents, who had been pastors, officially became missionaries to Spain only seven days after Bobby’s birth. He spent the first ten years of his life learning the Spanish language and cultures as he and his family ministered to people there. By the time Bobby was in Middle School his family felt God calling them to leave Spain and work with Bible Schools in Bucharest, Romania. It was in Romania that Bobby and Jonae first met as they attended both the same church and school in Bucharest. Even during High School Bobby knew he was called to work with ministry, and he felt a specially affinity for helping music programs in churches.

     Initially when Bobby went off to college he decided to pursue studies in graphic design. He enjoyed building web pages, designing logos, and doing all types of general design work on the computer. But, the more involved Bobby became in the music at the church he was attending the more he realized that was where his calling truly was. Eventually Bobby responded to God’s call and left Southeastern
College in Florida to attend Evangel University in Springfield, Missouri and pursue a degree in Church Music.

     After having dated for two years in Romania and successfully completed two years long distance, Jonae and Bobby were finally reunited in college when, in 2003, Jonae graduated high school and joined Bobby at Evangel University. Here they worked together to at least have Bobby make it through college before getting married. Five years after beginning college Bobby graduated Evangel having accomplished many goals including: being Vice President of the
touring Concert Choir, helping start the classical guitar ensemble, faithfully participating in the college band, and eventually achieving the award for Academic Achievement in Church Music. During Jonae’s last year of college, Bobby felt God might have more in store for him than carreer only specializing in music so, in response to this call, he enrolled in the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary
and began pursuing a degree in Theological Studies.

     Jonae also finished college five yeas after she started. She studied psychology for the first four years, deciding to change to a ocial work degree late on in her junior years. After managing to cram all the extra social work classes into her senior year she graduated with honors having also been apart of the local Psi-Chi fellowship. Currently, while Jonae carries many responsibilities as a pastor’s wife, she also is using her degree as a full time social worker with
St. Francis Academy, a boys home in Ellsworth, Kansas.

     While being at the Assemblies of God of Ellsworth is Bobby and Jonae’s first hands on ministry experience, their lives on the mission field and in Springfield provided a great deal of preparation for life in Ellsworth. In Springfield they intentionally attended and were a part of a vast plethora of churches. They enjoyed studying the individualism of each church, and were able to see the benefits and downfalls of different leadership styles. As they have now been a part
of the Assemblies of God of Ellsworth since Sept. 2008, they have begun to see how to implement their training and observations to begin many new and exciting ministries within the church.