Janice Thornburg, D.Min.

Janice Thornburg, D.Min., is a lay ecclesial minister and independent scholar whose research centers on whole-household faith formation and the domestic church.

She holds a D.Min. in Congregational Development from Bexley Seabury Seminary (2023) and an M.A. in Pastoral Ministries from Santa Clara University (2012). Former inaugural Director of Santa Clara University's Markey Center for Leadership and Ministry, she co-authored and served as Principal Investigator on a Lilly Endowment Thriving Congregations grant grounded in her doctoral research. From that work she authored Proclamation & Practice, a formation process that centers the faith development of households in the practice of biblical hospitality — the mutual risk of welcome, not merely the greeting at the door. She is currently developing a spiritual pilgrimage among the California missions drawing on both the Ignatian and Franciscan traditions.

Janice is a persistent advocate for Co-Workers in the Vineyard of the Lord, including men in the propaedeutic stage of priestly formation — reminding them that those who discern a path apart from ordination retain their standing as lay ministers. It is the same conviction that has kept her engaged in NALM since 2005: that lay ministry is a vocation, with its own formation, accountability, and standing in the Church. She chairs the Advocacy Committee.