I’m Joshua Kingsley – Priest, Musician, Educator.
Joshua Kingsley is a priest, musician, scholar, and organizational leader based in Portland’s Montavilla neighborhood. He currently serves as a priest on special assignment, supporting peaceful neighborhood life and investing in people through institutional leadership and direct action. His work brings together spiritual depth, community organizing, and organizational development to help individuals and communities navigate meaningful change.
As a clergy leader, Joshua has forged groundbreaking relationships between housed and unhoused neighbors, fostering trust across lines that often divide communities and leading organizational discernment across industries. He is currently the senior pastor at Spirit of Life. Ordained as an Episcopal priest and educated at the Graduate Theological Union, he has served Episcopal, United Methodist, and Lutheran congregations.
In organizational development, Joshua integrates evidence-based frameworks, nonviolent communication, and ancient spiritual practices. He has guided faith-based and nonprofit organizations through seasons of expansion, contraction, strategic redirection, merger, and closure. He is a doctoral candidate at the University of Idaho, where he researches organizational development with a focus on decolonizing workplace spirituality. His research explores how spiritual practices can be integrated into organizational structures to foster inclusive, adaptive, and resilient workplaces. He regularly presents his work to professional associations, including the Oregon Medical Assistants Association and the American Association for Adult and Continuing Education, and works with many church denominations, such as TEC, UMC, ELCA, and UCC.
Joshua offers what he describes as a “reachingly rooted and ordered spirituality.” Deeply at home in the Christian tradition and shaped by early formation in a Benedictine community, his spirituality is contemplative, hospitable, and open to dialogue with diverse spiritual experiences. He holds a certificate in spiritual direction from the Franciscan Spiritual Center and lives at Nehalem, an intentional community he co-founded, where he resides with his teenage child, their housemates, three cats, and a dog.
Before being ordained, Joshua was the founding artistic director of Portland Chamber Music. He holds a Master of Music in clarinet performance and has toured as both a classical and jazz musician. Recognized for excellence in musicianship and teaching by the Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation and the Columbia Gorge Artist in Residence Foundation, he has worked as a licensed music educator in public and private schools and as an artist-in-residence teaching rhythm and percussion using found objects.
Whether preaching, teaching, consulting, or performing, Joshua brings kindness and patience alongside clarity and courage. He accompanies individuals and organizations as they align their structures and practices with the truest desires of their hearts and minds. Outside of his professional life, he enjoys hiking, martial arts, cycling, and gathering around good food with friends.
What I Do
Where I’ve worked
Senior Pastor at Spirit of Life Lutheran Church, Gladstone (2024 – present)
As senior pastor, my duties include organizational development, public speaking, and community liaison roles. Under my leadership, Spirit of Life has continued the development of affordable housing, transitional shelter work, and supports innovative arts and humanities work in the Gladstone community.
Pastor at King of Kings Lutheran Church, Milwaukie (2021 – 2024)
I was called to King of Kings, providing traditional pastoral leadership while enabling the congregation to develop affordable housing, open the county’s only transitional shelter for families, and successfully merge with another ELCA congregation in the county, forming Spirit of Life Lutheran Church.
Minister of Discipleship at First United Methodist Church, Portland (2017 – 2020)
My main duties included organizational leadership, program development, and overseeing institutional discernment leading to concrete deliverables.
Priest in Charge at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, Portland (2014 – 2017)
My role was to provide theological, liturgical, and organizational leadership. I organized a coalition of business leaders, housed and unhoused partners to address common neighborhood problems related to crime and sanitation.
Artistic Director at Portland Chamber Music (2010 – 2014)
As the founder, I brought together a group of talented musicians with a heart for sharing art music with new audiences. Through my direction we became the largest classical music series in Portland.
Joshua David Kingsley 