As an author and teacher, Jana combines real life God stories, the power of Scripture and a fresh honesty that impacts her audience. She delivers profound truths of the living God and the hope of the Holy Spirit to change lives. She invites people from all ages and walks of life to go deeper into Jesus. Not a bible study, or religious experience, but an intimate encounter with God.
Jana’s heart is to bring a fresh word from heaven.
History: She began sharing her story 6 months after a radical encounter with God in 1992. She then spent the next 10 years teaching thousands of students how to build healthy relationships. Her abstinence materials are still used across the U.S. and Canada.
In 2006, she began writing with a refined focus on the God’s worth of women. She launched the Unhindered Encounters which are events that strip away the culture’s lie that a woman’s purpose is for consumption, and instead steep women in God’s truth about their glory. She has since developed events about beauty for preteens and teens, abortion healing retreats, and marriage retreats with her husband, Chuck.
From 2007 to 2013, through an amazing community of women known as Women Getting Real, Jana and friends hosted many events for women seeking freedom. Jana was also invited to speak at many churches in the East Tennessee region, The Cove in North Carolina, Colorado, and Texas. She traveled to Zimbabwe in 2010, where she shared her message at high schools and women’s retreats.
In 2015, Jana and Chuck started the non-profit called Greater Things. Greater Things It’s a 501(3)(c) nonprofit organization dedicated to helping people discover wholeness and fullness as they discover the heart of God. The mission: Encounter Jesus. Elevate Women. Embrace Co-heir. Expand the Kingdom. Jana taught multiple events each year, hosted by a band of dedicated women, plus an annual marriage retreat with her husband. She also led several weekly classes and small groups.
In 2017, she and her husband launched New Wine Church. A deeply connected community for worship, prayer, and revelation. Through the gatherings of Greater Things, more than 52 churches were represented in this spiritual family. She loved and shepherded this community until 2025 when the Lord assigned her to a new adventure in Gulf Breeze Florida.
Her God-given vision: to rescue, restore, and release women and men into their God-given design.
Jana is author of several books with more coming:
Unhindered, Discovering the Glory of a Woman
The Locket and the Mask, a children’s book promoting self-esteem and purity, Dine with Me,
More of Holy Spirit
Leaning on Her Lover
Restless
And three worship CDs: Daughters of Song, Unhindered, and “Real.Life.”
Present Focus:
Things grow differently in sand. This is a word given in prayer to Jana. She is actively writing, seeking the Lord and planning future gatherings in Florida. The mission is the same: encounter Jesus.
Home Life:
Born in Tennessee, Jana lived abroad for many years before returning to her roots in Knoxville where she raised her family until 2022. She and Chuck, moved to Gulf Breeze in 2022. They have two dearly loved daughters, Salem and Charis who are grown and flown. And they enjoy Lola their Great Dane, who thinks she is a cat.
Jana has a rich church history through which she gratefully says God has equipped her and trained her for her calling. She is a graduate of Maryville College.
For information on previous events and retreats click here.