Jason grew up in Austin, the youngest of three brothers. Though he attended church occasionally with his family, he did not really have a strong sense of how he could relate to God or the church. At 19, he began attending church with a friend from high school and was deeply impacted by the welcome of the people at the church and the families there. After six months of regularly attending, Jason became a follower of Jesus.

Jason received an art education degree from the University of Texas. He met Nina (pronounced with a long '“i”) while working at his church in Austin, and they married shortly after she graduated from Vanderbilt. They moved to St. Louis to attend Covenant Theological Seminary, where Nina worked full time as an administrator. After seminary, Jason took pastoral roles in The Woodlands, Texas, Atlanta and St. Louis. In 2011, Jason began to study education theory and human development in the Educational Studies Ph.D program at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.

Jason and Nina live in Central Park. They have two grown sons, Elliot and Stone. Jason enjoys reading, hiking, Lego, and music.