About the Host, James Raffenaud

The Raffenaud Family - James, Jimmy, Amanda, and Luke

James Raffenaud has the great privilege of hosting The Marriage Show. He was born outside of Cleveland, OH and is a devoted Cleveland Browns fan. His family moved to Florida when he was just 4 years old. At the age of 13, James experienced the most difficult time in his life when his parents divorced after almost 15 years of marriage. It was through this life-changing event that God began to instill a passion for marriage in James. 

The divorce of his parents propelled James into spending more time outside of his home. The landing spot that God had for him was Northland, where his family attended church each week. During the church's annual youth Christmas Camp, James gave his life to Christ by praying with Dr. Mark Beeson. From then on, James became an avid youth group volunteer and was first invited to participate in emcee-type roles on stage. Northland's youth group provided an innovative atmosphere that gave James the chance to try a variety of things in front of an audience including Game Show and Late-Night type formats.

At the age of 18, James began to date his future wife, Amanda (a Northland attendee). She's an unbelievably supportive, intelligent, talented, and beautiful follower of Christ. Their first date was at James' high school prom in 1998. Two years later on August 5, 2000, James would receive his greatest gift from God when Amanda became his wife.

After getting married, the couple moved to Cleveland where James pursued work in a physics laboratory at his step-brother's aerospace corporation. While in Ohio, they were blessed with the birth of their first son, Jimmy. After the events of September 11th and their resulting economic effects, James and Amanda decided to relocate back to Orlando, Florida. James pursued a career in sales with a large corporation. During his almost five years of employment with IKON Office Solutions, James and Amanda received the gift of their second son, Luke. Also during that time Amanda began teaching as an Adjunct Faculty member at the University of Central Florida, where she also received her Master's degree. 

In March 2002, James' childhood friends, Isaac Hunter and John Parker began Summit Church in Orlando. The Raffenaud family began attending Summit at it's inception. A few years into Summit's ministry, James joined the Summit staff as the Events Coordinator. His responsibilities included overseeing Base Camp Live and the quarterly late-night style event, The Marriage Show. 

After performing the show at Summit Church for three years, James felt God calling him to use his gifts and wirings, combined with his passion for strong marriages, to reach couples not only at Summit, but at other churches as well. In January 2010, James and Amanda started Graceville Ministries, a non-profit corporation aimed at making marriages stronger.

James loves Jesus, Amanda, his two boys, and Elvis Presley (in that order). When James isn't working, he enjoys spending time with his family, watching Smallville on the CW television network, and playing fantasy football. You can contact James here.