Arizona pastor honored at Gateway lunch during SBC

Pastor Jermey Fass of Silent Hope Church was one of two Gateway Seminary graduates to receive the distinguished alumni award at the seminary’s annual lunch on June 10 at the Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting in Orlando.

The distinguished alumni award celebrates a lifetime of faithful leadership and ministry service.

Gateway Seminary President Adam Groza recognized Fass, the founding pastor of Silent Hope Church, the first deaf-led church in the East Valley.

Fass was born hearing but became profoundly deaf as a toddler due to complications from spinal meningitis. He became a Christian through his wife Kim a believer who learned American Sign Language to communicate with him. They have been married for more than 16 years and have three children.

Fass is the first deaf graduate from Gateway with a master of theological studies through the seminary’s Arizona campus.

Today, Fass is gracefully and faithfully facing a diagnosis of stage four lung cancer.

“Gateway gave me the tools to believe in myself and to suffer well. … I haven’t missed a Sunday since being diagnosed with stage four lung cancer,” said Fass through Kim who interpreted.

“My first year as a student, [I was in] a five-hour class, and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m going to fall asleep for a long time.’ I said, ‘How am I going to do this? God, you created these eyes, you have to keep them awake, because I cannot.’

“After that, my eyes were opened … and I jumped in, and I wanted to be awake. I wanted to study, and I wanted to show the deaf people that someone here has the tools to share Jesus Christ with them, not only for the church, but for the lost out there.”

Read Gateway’s full story about the seminary lunch here.