Joe Watkins was just 10 years old when he sensed a call to ministry. “It’s as if it were today that I remember telling my parents,” he said. “I come to this season of life with a deep sense of gratitude that God has been faithful. I just stand in awe at the idea that the God of creation and of salvation whispers into the heart of a 10-year-old.”
Watkins began his journey to vocational ministry at Point Loma, earning his undergraduate degree in pastoral theology in 1978 and his Master of Ministry in 1990. Watkins earned a doctorate in higher education administration from the University of Arizona in 2000.
An ordained minister in the Church of the Nazarene, Watkins served three congregations as a pastor over 23 years before returning to PLNU as a higher education administrator. As executive vice president, he oversaw key university functions, including advancement, undergraduate admissions, marketing, alumni relations, and public affairs, and helped guide major campaigns, partnerships, and long-term institutional strategy.
“Going to [work at] Point Loma and serving almost 18 years there was ministry, just a different form.”
“Going to [work at] Point Loma and serving almost 18 years there was ministry, just a different form,” he said. Retirement was not retirement for Watkins, however. As he left Point Loma, he accepted the executive pastor role at Pasadena First Church of the Nazarene (nicknamed PazNaz). Then, when the senior pastor moved, Watkins served as interim senior pastor for 18 months before being called as the senior pastor. He served in that role for another three and a half years, retiring in the spring of 2025. PazNaz is a multi-congregational church that serves people in six languages: English, Spanish, Armenian, Mandarin, Korean, and Cantonese. Watkins enjoyed baptizing, dedicating, and taking into membership people from the different congregations and collaborating with leaders from each.
As the second church established by Phineas Bresee, the founder of the Church of the Nazarene, Pasadena Nazarene embodies a sense of history, stewardship, and commitment with some members there as long as 70 years. “I was always blessed by the resilience of those people who stayed in that community of faith for all those years … They really had created something over such a significant period of time that matters.”
“I was always blessed by the resilience of those people who stayed in that community of faith for all those years … They really had created something over such a significant period of time that matters.”
Watkins and his wife, Joan (MSN 10), were at PazNaz during an especially profound seven years, as their service there bridged the Covid-19 pandemic.
“It was at times a challenge, but to watch the church care for all was really a rich experience,” he said. “Our team of leaders at PazNaz set up grocery shopping, prescription pickup, anything people needed where they didn’t feel safe going out, we tried to care for.” PazNaz’s food distribution program, Helping Hands, became a drive-through operation and moved from serving 70 people before the pandemic to approximately 700 families a week today. As the congregation regathered, Watkins helped rebuild community in simple ways — including cooking weekly Wednesday night dinners that brought 100-plus people back around shared tables. After the devastating fires in Altadena, Watkins held up a gallon jar of ashes and later distributed them in small vials as a reminder to pray for and support the 25 families in the church who had lost their homes. “To be a part of a church that has a great vision for the work of the Spirit and places outside of its own boundaries is significant,” Watkins said. “When you become a pastor at a place like that, you become a student and a steward of what has happened before you.”
Inspired by the mission work of PazNaz and the many missionaries who have chosen to retire into that congregation, Watkins will be making his seventh trip to Cuba this coming May.
“Pastor Joe, as we called him here at PazNaz, left an indelible mark on the life of the congregation and on my life,” said Judy Maria Ferguson Patel, who has been a member of Pasadena Nazarene for 45 years. “He … left us in solid financial conditions. He engaged in community building by providing affordable Wednesday night dinners combined with faith building weekly seminars offered by church members. In addition, there were many opportunities for building relationships… The church community was thriving and providing outreach to the entire San Gabriel Valley.”
In their second retirement, Joe and Joan have relocated to Winchester, California, and are enjoying time with their grandchildren. Joe continues to serve as staff secretary to the PLNU Board of Trustees and as chair of the Point Loma Trust.
