Shannon Jung, PhD
The David Patrick Thomson Professor of Small Church Ministry
Education:
Union Presbyterian Seminary, M Div., 1968
Yale Divinity School, STM, 1969
Vanderbilt University, PhD, 1974
L. Shannon Jung is an American theologian, Presbyterian pastor, and educator best known for his work in rural and small-church ministry, Christian ethics, poverty studies, and the theology of food. He served as Professor of Town and Country Ministry at Saint Paul School of Theology, Kansas City, and has ministered in churches in Tennessee, Minnesota, and Iowa. His work has focused especially on the challenges facing rural congregations and economically struggling communities. He worked as the Director of the Center for Theology and Land/Rural Ministry Program at the University of Dubuque and Wartburg Seminaries. He taught at Concordia College, Moorhead; Loyola Chicago, and has led a number of D.Mn. groups. He has written a number of books on small church and rural ministry, including Practicing Care in Rural Congregations and Communities (with Jeanne Hoeft and Joretta Marshall), Rural Ministry, The Shape of the Renewal to Come. He also wrote three books on the theology of eating as well as a book on transforming communities. Shannon has been the interim pastor of Palmetto Presbyterian Church, Palmetto, FL a well as a part-time pastor at Braden River Presbyterian. He preaches at several smaller congregations in the area. Throughout his career Shannon has been involved in social justice ministries, including jail ministry, halfway houses, hunger issues. Most recently until November 2025 he served as co-president of STREAM, a Manatee Justice Ministry with emphasis on public policy. In many ways his academic work and his Christian social ministry have been linked.