About

Joy S. Taylor,follower of Jesus, mother, grandmother, great grandmother, sister to 3 siblings, and sister in Christ to all who follow Jesus, is the author of non-fiction accounts of church abuse. That’s me in author bios. Let me give a more personal perspective.

I earned a Master’s of Science degree in accounting from the University of Missouri and passed the CPA exam shortly after, by God’s mercies and provision. I had the privilege to lead the DivorceCare support group at First Christian Church of Florissant (changed to Christ First), MO. I started also working in leadership for Celebrate Recovery from its inception at First Christian Church of Florissant/Christ First in Florissant, Missouri. With almost 14 years of experience in recovery ministries, I used what God did in my life to point others to the healing only Jesus gives.

I founded Joy in Verse Ministry, Inc., to praise God, promote Christian poetry and point to Jesus in 2009. The official ministry email is jivministry@hotmail.com. The ministry seeks to send encouraging messages to listeners through my poetry, coupled with Bible verses. God allowed me to publish a couple collections of poetry and use those skills to create audio radio spots that played on a local radio station in St. Louis.

With God’s direction, I moved on to writing non-fiction by analyzing what happened to my church that split after one of the youth ministers was convicted of abusing some of the youth who attended First Christian (changed to Christ First). The Lord prompted me to use the skills from my recovery experience to revisit the church history in order to explain how the church found itself is such a difficult position. I retired from the accounting career God provided, and moved to a hickory grove in Indiana where He led me to a retreat home meant for a writer. With God’s help, I began the research for my first two non-fiction companion books: A View from the Pews – The Inside Story of a Broken Church

Clergy Cover-up Does It Work?

Joy’s endorsements include:

A View From the Pews – The Inside Story of a Broken Church: “Between the covers of this book, Joy S. Taylor exposes the true story of a thriving mega=church as it succumbs to leadership failures wrought by the driving force of its “Lead Minister’s” actions and spiritual abuse of those surrounding him. Joy’s personal experience with, and insight into the ugly face of an abuser, gives her an acute perception to recognize the insidious characteristics of abuse.” –Rick Knoop, former Elder, FCCF. Florissant, MO

Clergy Cover-up Does It Work?: “There is a slow train coming. Its track is being laid, not by the glossy steam-engine leaders in their notoriety and reach, but rather by one strike of each John Henry steel-driving gospel hammer at a time. I do not know if Joy S. Taylor’s Clergy Cover-up, Does It Work? is the hammer, the steel or John Henry himself, but I do know the Slow Train is gaining ground because of this work. If you are struggling to find your way out of the church machine that has burned you without going off the rails, or struggling to find a hammer of your own to strike a blow for justice, or if you need wisdom to know where to lay the steel God is calling you to set in place on behalf of someone else. Clergy Cover-up Does It Work? will help you find what you seek. I am grateful for the must-read account.” –Keith Kepley, Ingraham Christian Church, Ingraham, IL.

Joy’s Biblical Study on Relationships

Before You Kiss the Frog…Can We Talk? is a fun but serious look at our relationships. It is the first step to understanding what it takes to make great relationships God’s way as opposed to the worldly view. Come along, reader, to see the ‘ribbiting truth’ expose the fallacies in worldly thinking through a series of decision trees that lead you away from the mistakes that I made and guide you toward a much better way.

Newly Released!

Drops of Joy: A Devotional Journey of Healing is in the editing and initial stages of being published. The scripts of my former radio spots morph into devotion format that gives the reader the chance to interact and create a prayer legacy along with the prayers in each devotion. Life throws some rough punches, but there is healing and restoration in Christ.