Jeff Cavins

Cavins grew up outside of Minneapolis in a Catholic family.[5] In college, he met his fiancée, Emily. While attending Christ for the Nations Institute, he noticed how many born-again Christians were attracted to the Bible. This contrasted with how he saw his own faith. In his words, he was looking at "dead" people in the pews next to me, constantly comparing this and the 'on fire' pentecostal worship services."[6] This led him to leave the faith, which he did after having a public fallout with a Catholic bishop.[7]

While working for a Christian radio station, Cavins pursued a career as a pastor, and after completing a program at The Institute of Ministry in Bradenton, Florida, returned to Minnesota as the first pastor of Open Arms ministry.[8] While there, he developed the first iteration of his Bible Timeline program, which focuses on understanding the narrative books of The Bible, using a color coded timeline to display the supporting books for each element.[9] This later became the basis for his Great Adventure Bible Study program.

Cavins decided to return to the Catholic Church following twelve years as an evangelical pastor.[10] In 1996 he introduced his Great Adventure Bible Timeline to Franciscan University of Steubenville where he taught Introduction to Scripture. Later that year, Franciscan University professor Dr. Scott Hahn partnered with Cavins to film, "Our Father’s Plan," a 13-part series based on the Timeline program, to be broadcast on the EWTN Global Catholic Network.[11] Cavins received his MA in Theology from Franciscan University of Steubenville in 1999.[12]

Cavins developed The Great Adventure Bible Study program, which organizes the Bible into a reading plan structured on the narrative parts of the text.[13][14]

The Great Adventure Bible Timeline was used, in 2021, as the framework for the popular The Bible in a Year Podcast, hosted by Father Mike Schmitz with commentary by Jeff Cavins. The Bible in a Year Podcast was the number one podcast in America for 17 days in 2021 and for 5 days in 2022.[15][16][13][17]

Mother Angelica, then president of EWTN, asked Cavins to develop a weekly live program for young people.[18] At this point, the Cavins family moved to Birmingham, AL where EWTN is located, and started "Life on the Rock" which he hosted for six years.

Cavins has authored a number of books including My Life on the Rock, Walking with God: A Journey Through the Bible, I'm Not Being Fed, the Amazing Grace Series, Praise God and Thank Him: Biblical Keys to a Joyful Life, and When You Suffer [19]

In 2014, Cavins was named Director of Evangelization for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.[20]

In 2008 he began as the Director of the Archbishop Harry J. Flynn Catechetical Institute in St. Paul, MN. So far, the Institute has graduated over six hundred adult students who are now prepared for teaching Catechetics in the home, at parishes, and in parochial schools.[21]

In 2016, Cavins presented a video reflection as part of a multi-part series offering guidance for thousands of viewers as a response to the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy declared by Pope Francis.[22]

In April 2016, Cavins was a featured panelist at the Amazing Parish Conference, speaking to parishes in the Archdiocese of Detroit about ways that parishes can engage their parishioners to become more involved with the church[19]