Glenn Layne

Glenn Layne is a retired pastor and author. He spent forty years pastoring churches in Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Ohio and California. He’s seen firsthand the challenge and the joy involved in Christian leadership. He’s also served for several years as a pastor mentor leader for Aspire Network Churches in the Inland Empire region of California.

When Glenn and his wife Lynann retired in Tucson, Arizona, he carried with him a desire to befriend pastors in Southern Arizona. When he heard about Standing Stone from Robert Acker, he discovered that his desire to come alongside pastors in his new city was paralleled by the Standing Stone ministry.

Sadly, one thing that many pastors discover is “anything you say can and will be used against you” in the churches they serve. It’s essential that pastors have someone to discuss life and personal discipleship with outside of their church or particular denominational family.

Glenn was born and raised in Ohio. He had a dramatic conversion from atheism to faith in Christ through the persistent witness of a dear friend. He was a leader in the campus fellowship at his college (Alderson-Broaddus in West Virginia) and also holds a master’s degree in political science from Ohio University. He earned both his M.Div. and D.Min. degrees from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Massachusetts.

In his years of pastoral ministry, Glenn often pastored in turnaround settings. He created small group ministries in most of his settings, focusing on making disciples, not building churches. His Biblical hero is Nehemiah, the restorer of Jerusalem. And one of his favorite passages is Colossians 1:28-29, which defines the goal of discipleship:

28 He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. 29 To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.

Glenn’s wife, Lynann, has pursued a career in health care as a nurse, nursing case manager and as a nursing educator. She holds a M.S.N. from the University of Phoenix and has taught for UOP and at Azusa Pacific University. They have two adult children.  Glenn and Lynann are avid swimmers, and Glenn in recent years has produced over twenty books. While most are Bible studies (on Elijah, the Psalms, The Sermon on the Mount, John, Romans, 1 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, the Pastoral Epistles, James, 1 Peter, James, the Letters of John, and Jude), he’s also done topical studies such as Know our Faith (an introduction to theology for new believers) and Ten Skills Every Believer Should Have. His first novel, Nereus, A Novel of Ancient Rome appeared in 2022 and is now working on a second novel set in the present.