God began preparing John Wagenveld for international ministry at an early age. John was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan. But when John was two, his family moved to Argentina to serve with Christian Reformed World Missions. With Spanish as his heart language, John went on to become fluent in both English and French. John's postgraduate education reflects his dedication to the idea that church planting should be front and center on the missions agenda of churches.

He received a B. A. in Theology from Dordt College and an M. A. in Missions and Church Growth at Calvin Theological Seminary. Most recently he received his Doctorate in Ministry from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. John has authored the book Iglecrecimiento Integral (Wholistic Church Growth), which was published in Spanish. He led the team of 22 authors who joined together to produce the book Sembremos Iglesias Saludables (Let’s Plant Healthy Churches), and then edited the compilation. In 2014, he coauthored the book Take Your Church’s Pulse: Ten Vital Signs of a Healthy Church and was also an editor and contributor to Planting Healthy Churches with eight other authors, published in 2016.

Not only multi-lingual, John is multi-cultural. He has lived half of his life in Latin America and the other half in the United States. He and his wife were missionaries in Puerto Rico from 1994 to 2001.

John lives in Zeeland, MI with his wife and children. John loves the game of soccer and plays whenever he has the opportunity.