Jeff Galley
9 min read ⭑
“Here’s what I find myself believing more and more: the local church is the most underestimated force for combating the loneliness epidemic in America. Not a government agency or a social platform, but each of us as followers of Jesus.”
Jeff Galley has a passion for combating loneliness through connection. He is a church leader and author, and his first book, Conversations: Turn Your Everyday Discussions into Life-Giving Moments, encourages people to move past small talk into more intentional conversations. He is the Central Group Leader for Community at Life.Church, an innovative multi-site church passionate about leading people to follow Jesus and love their neighbors through the power of community. He leads the Community ministry team, which oversees small groups and missions at Life.Church locations across 12 states, including over 6,000 LifeGroups and over 150 local and global partner organizations. He also serves on the boards of the Chalmers Center for Economic Development and Tearfund USA. He has a graduate degree from Colorado State University in Organizational Leadership.
Jeff takes time in this interview to share about some of the things closest to his heart — the modern epidemic of loneliness and how the local church is designed to combat it with community. He shares about the art of conversation and how it has become a spiritual practice for him. He opens up about the kryptonite of independence and how it led him to great personal loss. And he lets readers in on his own life-giving rhythms, including watching the sunrise on his kayak and enjoying the stillness.
QUESTION #1: ACQUAINT
Food is always about more than food; it’s also about home and people and love. So, how does a go-to meal at your favorite hometown restaurant reveal the true you behind your web bio?
The Oklahoma City metro has a surprisingly great food scene, but Christy and I are pretty simple. We live in an OKC suburb, and most evenings in the spring, summer, and fall you'll find us on our ebikes. So our go-to is riding into downtown Edmond, splitting a sandwich at The Mule, then walking across the street to Frenzy Brewing to eat together. What this reveals is that I’m always looking for a reason to be outside. And we love Frenzy because it’s relaxed — a local singer playing live music, a familiar crowd, and a weekly rotation of trivia or Singo. The bio version of me sounds like a ministry guy. The Frenzy version is a husband who loves his wife, loves being outside, and really likes half a sandwich and some conversation.
Tim Foster; Unsplash
QUESTION #2: REVEAL
What “nonspiritual” activity have you found to be quite spiritual, after all? What quirky proclivity, out-of-the-way interest, or unexpected pursuit refreshes your soul?
Kayaking. Hands down. I paddle everything from whitewater — for the challenge and the adrenaline — to early morning flatwater at Lake Arcadia, just a few minutes from my house. Those quiet mornings have become some of my favorite moments. I'm not sure I feel any closer to Jesus than when I'm watching the sun come up over the water. There's something about being out there alone in the stillness. Life-giving doesn't quite cover it.
I’ve also started building my own skin-on-frame kayaks — cutting the wood, bending the ribs, lashing the frame, sewing and coating the skin. It’s slow, tactile work. There’s something about working with my hands that connects me to the physical world in a way little else does. What makes both feel spiritual is the same thing that makes any practice spiritual: presence. On the water or hunched over a frame in the garage, I’m there with my thoughts and reflections. Along the way, kayaking opened up friendships I’d have had no other way to build. I never pictured myself as a club guy, but I’m a proud member of the Arkansas Canoe Club! And I’ve made some good friends at our local OKC whitewater center, where a group of us paddle on Saturdays in the summertime.
QUESTION #3: CONFESS
Every superhero has a weakness; every human, too. We’re just good at faking it. But who are we kidding? We’re all broken and in this thing together. So, what’s your kryptonite and how do you confront its power?
My kryptonite is independence. And I say that as someone who lived out its consequences in a pretty concrete way: I went bankrupt. Years ago, I started a nonprofit focused on leadership development for students and young adults. I believed in it, worked hard at it, and things went well for a few years. But in an effort to grow, I overextended. Took on too much financial risk without enough good guidance from people who could see what I couldn’t. When it didn’t work out, we had to close the doors, and I was left holding financial obligations far beyond what I could ever pay back. For someone who likes to appear competent at all times, it was incredibly humiliating. Looking back, I had absorbed the same lie a lot of us carry: that you figure things out on your own, that needing people is a weakness. I was fiercely self-sufficient. That kind of independence feels like strength — but it isn’t.
I wish I could say I fixed that during that season. I didn’t. I still battle that tendency every single day and like to appear competent. But I’m learning that all flourishing is mutual and that interdependence is where it’s at — the kind that leads to relationships where people actually know me well enough to tell me the truth. And I’m okay letting them see I don’t have it all figured out.
QUESTION #4: FIRE UP
Tell us about your toil. How are you investing your professional time right now? What’s your current obsession? And why should it be ours?
I’m obsessed with our modern problem of aloneness — and how much I’ve been inspired by my experiences with the church around the world to want to experience the kind of relationships God intended for us and help others experience them, too. Half of Americans report being lonely. The loneliness rate among younger generations is nearly double that of adults over 65. A 2024 Harvard Business Review article found that after generating ideas, the second most common use of AI was therapy and companionship. We are paying for the simulation of relationships we were made to have for free. That’s what drove me and my friend Phil Smith to write “The Way Back to One Another.” Phil spent years with HOPE International working alongside savings groups — small communities of 15 to 25 people who meet weekly to pool their money, share their lives and hold each other up. They join for financial transformation. What they talk about most is the relational transformation. Across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, members say the same thing in different languages: before we began, we were isolated. Now we are like family.
Phil and I came home from visiting these groups many times over the years with a longing for the kind of community we see in them. This book is our attempt to say that there’s a way back. And it starts with small, counter-cultural, and intentional shifts most of us can make.
QUESTION #5: BOOST
Whether we’re Cashiers or CEOs, contractors or customer service reps, we all need God’s love flowing into us and back out into the world. How does the Holy Spirit invigorate your work? And how do you know it's God when it happens?
There’s a memory I return to often. Christy and I had rushed to the hospital after our small group friend Margaret texted that her husband, Josiah, had collapsed on their kitchen floor. Sadly, he didn’t make it. We found out later he had an unknown heart defect. Margaret was nine months pregnant, and their daughter Linley was born the next day.
In the weeks and months that followed, our group of friends held together to care for Margaret and each other. There was grief, tension, anger, joy — and the Holy Spirit was so present in it all. Dale, who was new to our group, chose to follow Jesus during that season.
That’s not where the story ends. Linley has grown into a beautiful young girl, and Margaret has remarried and is experiencing the joy of a new family. What started in the worst moment imaginable became something only God could have written. That’s where I see the Holy Spirit most present. Not when things go smoothly, but when something happens that no one could have manufactured, planned or taken credit for. The Spirit moves through the gaps, through the mess, through a group of people who were present with each other.
QUESTION #6: inspire
Scripture and tradition beckon us into the rich and varied habits that open our hearts to the presence of God. So, let us in. Which spiritual practice is working best for you in this season?
Conversation. I know that might sound like a strange answer for a spiritual practice, but I’ve come to believe it’s one of the most underestimated ones. The kind of conversation where you actually listen — where you’re not formulating your next thought while the other person is still speaking. The kind where someone finishes a sentence and you sit with it for a second before responding.
I try to do this intentionally, whether it’s with a cashier at the grocery store, a colleague in the hallway, or a neighbor who stops to talk outside while taking a walk. I’m learning that good conversation, ranging from simple everyday chats about life all the way to more vulnerable conversation with a trusted friend, is an essential for connection with others.
Hannah, a woman whose story we tell in the book, described it this way: “We all need thought partners — the kind where we can say the thoughts in our head that we’re embarrassed we’re even thinking. When I say those things out loud, the lies and insecurities that create anxiety lose their power.” That’s been true for me, too. There’s something about spoken honesty, offered in a safe relationship, that has a clarifying — even sanctifying — effect. We know ourselves best through the eyes of others. Those conversations are often where I hear from God most clearly, in the back-and-forth of genuine conversation.
QUESTION #7: FOCUS
Looking backward, considering the full sweep of your unique faith journey and all you encountered along the way, what top three resources stand out to you? What changed reality and changed your heart?
“The Mission of God” by Christopher Wright. God used this book to help me see the storyline of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation more clearly than anything else to this point in my lifetime. It’s dense, but I couldn’t put it down and have returned to it many times. As a thinker, it helped me understand how God is working in the world and how I can be a part of that work. It helped me fully grasp that the gospel is holistic — it encompasses all parts of our lives and all of his creation.
Tim Mackie’s teaching through the book of Matthew. Just a few years ago, I spent nearly two years doing a deep dive into Matthew, and the concepts and resources Tim’s teaching introduced me to were the backbone of that journey. I am truly a different person because of it. I feel as if I met a Jesus I’d never fully known and gained a grasp of the Kingdom I’d never fully understood. I’m still closer to Jesus than at any other point in my life, and that season is what made it possible.
“Preparing for Heaven” by Dallas Willard. My dad, who has Alzheimer’s, shared this book with me. It meant a lot to him, so naturally it meant a lot to me. But I’ve also always loved how Dallas writes as a philosopher. This book recalibrated my understanding of how today relates to eternity and made me take the present far more seriously — because what we’re becoming now matters for what comes next.
Certain things can be godsends, helping us survive, even thrive, in our fast-paced world. Does technology ever help you this way? Has an app ever boosted your spiritual growth? If so, how?
The YouVersion Bible App has genuinely boosted my spiritual growth. I love the Guided Scripture feature on the homepage because of the diverse voices from all over the world who share a short thought each morning. And I’m currently working through a Bible Plan that covers the entire Bible — though I’m taking my time with it, so it’ll probably take me closer to two years to complete. What I love most is how the Bible App has lowered the barrier to encountering God’s Word for millions of people in every country on the planet. It puts Scripture in the hands of people at 2 a.m. when they can't sleep. It connects people to each other — a friend sending a verse at exactly the right moment, or a Bible plan completed alongside someone across the world.
I do think and write about the dangers of screens replacing real human connection. But this is a good reminder that technology isn’t the enemy. It’s what we do with it. The Bible App doesn’t try to replace community or substitute for a genuine relationship. It makes the Scriptures way more accessible to people in their own language, wherever they are. That feels like exactly what technology should do.
QUESTION #8: dream
God’s continually stirring new things in each of us. So, give us the scoop! What’s beginning to stir in you but not yet fully awakened? What can we expect from you in the future?
Here’s what I find myself believing more and more: the local church is the most underestimated force for combating the loneliness epidemic in America. Not a government agency or a social platform, but each of us as followers of Jesus. Phil and I wrote “The Way Back to One Another” because we believe this is just the beginning of the conversation.
In the year 260, when plague swept through Carthage, everyone fled the city. Christians ran in. That countercultural love is literally how Christianity spread. Today’s epidemic is loneliness. It’s quiet, invisible, devastating, and I believe followers of Jesus are the first responders again.
There’s a picture in the book that Phil and I return to: the trim tab. It’s the tiny device on a ship’s rudder that, with minimal effort, helps turn the entire vessel. The small, intentional relational shifts that ordinary people are willing to make — one conversation, one invitation, one commitment to show up — are trim tab decisions. And joined together, they become powerful enough to change the direction of a culture.
Jeff’s passion for connection is a motivating force in his life. He sees the church as the first-responders to the plague of loneliness devastating our modern world. He talks about conversation as a spiritual practice — listening intently with a heart to understand instead of instantly responding. Take a minute to consider your conversation habits. Are you always in a rush to express your next thought, or do you take the time to truly engage another’s thoughts? As you go about your day today, slow down and cultivate the art of conversation. Ask God to help you hear the needs of the person in front of you in new ways.
Jeff Galley is the Central Group Leader for Community at Life.Church, an innovative multi-site church that is passionate about leading people to follow Jesus and love their neighbors through the power of community. He leads the Community ministry team, which oversees small groups and missions at Life.Church locations across 12 states, including over 6,000 LifeGroups and 150+ local and global partner organizations. As a part of the Global Lift Collective, Jeff serves alongside a group of Kingdom-minded churches and non-profit organizations working together to abolish extreme poverty and unleash the God-given potential of all people. He also serves on the boards of the Chalmers Center for Economic Development and Tearfund USA. He has a graduate degree from Colorado State University in Organizational Leadership. Jeff’s first book, Conversations: Turn Your Everyday Discussions into Life-Giving Moments, encourages people to move beyond surface-level small talk to deeper, more intentional conversations. Jeff and his wife Christy live in the Oklahoma City area and have three married children and four grandchildren.