Jemimah Wright reflects on Jennifer Garner’s quiet return to faith in a culture that rarely highlights it.
I recently returned from a trip to America, speaking at a conference run by CBN anchor, Wendy Griffiths. While I was waiting at the airport for my flight home, I went to buy some water in one of the terminal convenience stores and walked over to the news stand, more out of habit than interest. The first magazine I saw was Life & Style, with Jennifer Garner on the front cover. The headline read: “Faith, Family, and Doing it Her Way.”
It caught my attention. Not because I’m a devoted follower of celebrity culture, but because faith doesn’t often make the cover of a mainstream magazine, at least not without irony or controversy.
Faith doesn’t often make the cover of a mainstream magazine, at least not without irony or controversy.
Inside was a short feature titled: “How Jen Finds Strength in Her Faith — Through worship and reflection, Jennifer Garner has built a sense of peace that helps her continue to show up for others.” It wasn’t particularly in-depth, but it was surprisingly sincere. It described Jennifer’s quiet return to faith in recent years, and how she incorporates worship and reflection into her everyday life, not as a brand, but as something personal.
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Jennifer, known for her roles in Alias, 13 Going on 30, and more recently The Last Thing He Told Me, grew up in West Virginia in a Methodist family. Her mother was a teacher, her father an engineer. She was raised in a stable, middle-class home where church was a regular part of life. She said on The Dr. Oz Show:
“My parents did such a great job of raising my sisters and me in a world where faith was part of our lives. It’s the centre of our social lives, as well as a spiritual centre.”
But like many who move away from home, and especially those who enter and find success in Hollywood, faith took a back seat as her career grew.
What seemed to mark a turning point was her role in the 2016 film Miracles from Heaven
What seemed to mark a turning point was Jennifer’s role in the 2016 film Miracles from Heaven, a year after her split with husband, Ben Affleck. The film is based on the true story of a child’s unexplained recovery from a serious illness. In interviews around the time, Garner spoke openly about how filming the movie reawakened her connection to Church. “I hadn’t been attending church regularly, and doing this movie reminded me how much I missed it,” she said in an interview with Good Morning Texas.
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She later told Vanity Fair, “I fell so in love with the message of the film and the people I met… I realized how much my soul needed Church.”
She shared for People: “The thing about this film was it kind of encouraged me to reengage in just participating, not just believing, actually participating in raising my children so that they have the same background my parents gave my sisters and me.”
The article noted that Jennifer makes time each morning for quiet reflection, occasionally attends her local Methodist church, and encourages spiritual conversations with her children. Her exploration of faith isn’t limited to personal reflection. In an interview with The West Australian, she likened religion to the liberal arts:
“What I like about the study of religion, it reminds me of the study of theatre … You have to understand history, geography, literature. It’s art, it’s everything.”
She also recalled a childhood sermon that taught a lesson about healing grief: “Our minister talked about … fashioning a beautiful box out of what you find there [by the river] and placing this hurt carefully in the box and watching it float down the river. The power of letting go. Don’t carry it. Just let it go.”
Jennifer Garner is not apologetic or embarrassed to share her need for church, for the community of believers, and for the worship of God. May her faith continue to grow and flourish.
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