John Eads’ Bio
John Eads grew up in New Mexico, and at the age of 14, became a cadet at New Mexico Military Institute (NMMI) where he graduated from high school four years later. Between his junior and senior years, in July, 1983 he became a Christian and began his walk with Christ.
He continued at NMMI on a boxing scholarship and earned a junior college diploma and a commission as an officer in the United States Army, he then completed Airborne School. Following his military service, John earned a Masters of Business Administration degree from New Mexico State University in 1994, the same year he married his wife, Dolores, who served as a public school teacher.
They moved to San Antonio, TX where he earned a Masters in Hospital Administration from Trinity University and from 1998 through 2007, he served as Chief Executive Officer in two different hospitals for the Infirmary Health System. In 2005, he was awarded the Distinguished Early Career Healthcare Executive award for the state of Alabama.
From 1997 to 2001, John and his wife, Dolores, served with Prison Fellowship Ministries and conducted in-prison seminars in prisons throughout Alabama. They established Prison Fellowship seminars in the State’s juvenile facilities in 1998 and continued to serve inside both adult and juvenile correctional facilities until 2001.
In 2001, John and his wife founded Light of the Village, an inner-city Christian ministry in Prichard’s Alabama Village and served there part-time while pursuing their careers. This community is one of Alabama’s most impoverished and violent.
In 2007, John decided to leave the healthcare field to devote full time to his work as Executive Director at Light of the Village. John traveled to East Los Angeles and learned about gang intervention at Homeboy Industries, considered to be the nation’s Best Practice for gang intervention. Additionally, he and his wife traveled to Camden, New Jersey to learn about youth programs from Urban Promise.
In 2007, John began to serve as an adjunct lecturer at Spring Hill College for the Business Division. He was hired as a regular part-time lecturer for Spring Hill College in 2016.
Currently, the Light of the Village offers a six day a week presence inside the Alabama Village and surrounding communities. It serves children, teenagers, and adults. Since 2014, the ministry has expanded to five summer camp sites, and five after-school programs. We serve over 400 inner-city children a day for eight weeks during the summer and over 100 a day during our after-school programs. Additionally, we offer job placement, ACT College prep tutoring and a variety of other programs to meet the needs of our community.
The Light of the Village was the topic of the National PBS documentary, “The Good Road” in 2020 and is the subject of several upcoming books discussing urban community Christian ministry.