Joel Belz

Joel Belz, of Asheville, N.C., died on Sunday, Feb. 4, 2024, at his home in Haw Creek. He was 82. His wife Carol Esther, who was by his side, had supported him over many years since diagnoses of cancer and later, Parkinson’s Disease.

He was a builder, a founder, an educator, a writer, a father of five and friend to hundreds. His life’s goal was to share--with children and with adults alike--his awe of the creator of that world, and the love of his savior Jesus.

Joel was born in Marshalltown, Iowa, to Max Victor Belz and Jean Franzenburg Belz. He was the second of eight children. Max and Jean founded Bible Presbyterian Church of Cono Center and Cono Christian School near Walker, Iowa.

In addition to their work as pastor and teacher, Max and Jean ran a family printing business from their home. Joel had learned to operate a Linotype by the time he was 11 years old. The early experience left him with a lifelong fascination with human invention in general, and with printing in particular.

Joel attended the fledgling Covenant College, then located in St. Louis, Mo. In 1963, he scouted a new location for the college: the Lookout Mountain Hotel in Georgia, built in 1928 but standing now unused and abandoned. For three months during the next spring, Joel lived alone in the empty hotel, taking the measure both of the property and of local support for the planned relocation of the college there.

After Covenant College moved to Lookout Mountain, Joel worked there in public relations and as an instructor. He met and married a Covenant alumna, Diana Ewing. The couple returned temporarily to Iowa, where Joel completed his master’s degree in mass communications.

The family returned to Lookout Mountain, now with two young daughters. Joel helped to found the Lookout Mountain Christian School near the college, and he built a geodesic dome in which his family would live.

Joel’s marriage to Diana ended in divorce. He was then serving as headmaster of LMCS, during which time he actively recruited Black students from the city of Chattanooga, increasing their number to about one-third of the school’s small student body. The school later moved downtown to Broad Street, better to serve the city. Now known as Chattanooga Christian School, it currently enrolls 1,400 students.

In 1975, Joel married Carol Esther Jackson--also a graduate of Covenant. The family moved two years later to Asheville, N.C., when Joel was hired as managing editor of The Presbyterian Journal.

Joel and Carol Esther were founding members of Covenant Reformed Presbyterian Church in Asheville. By 1979, they were the parents of five daughters, all of whom would attend Asheville Christian Academy, then located a short distance from their home in Haw Creek. Joel served for many years on the ACA board and rejoiced to see it grow into an institution that serves 800 students today.

For the next 40 years, Joel and Carol Esther served faithfully in their local church and in the larger denomination, the Presbyterian Church in America. In 2003, Joel was elected moderator of the General Assembly of the PCA. He served on the board of Covenant College over a span of 38 years.

The Presbyterian Journal was succeeded in 1987 by WORLD, a weekly news magazine. WORLD had itself grown from a popular line of children’s papers, which Joel had founded six years earlier. At that time, he had envisioned a news magazine for school children, akin to The Weekly Reader but with reporting from a Christian point of view. The first edition was called It’s God’s World.

Over the years, World News Group expanded to include a journalism institute, a daily podcast, websites to augment the papers, and a video current events program for students.

Joel Belz was always pushing forward, but his roots in reformed Christian faith and practice were sunk deep. For their 49 years together, he and his wife Carol Esther lived and shared with others their confessed belief, “To live is Christ, and to die is gain.” And they bore witness, personally and professionally, to their conviction that:

“The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein,

for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers.”

Joel was preceded in death by his parents, Max and Jean, and his brother, Nathaniel.

He is survived by his wife, Carol Esther; his daughters, Jenny (Andy) Gienapp, Katrina (Eric) Costello, Alice (Mark) Tucker, Elizabeth (Derek) Odegard, and Esther (Brian) Morrison; 16 grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; and a large extended family.

Visitation will be from 4-6 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 9, at Covenant Reformed Presbyterian Church in Asheville.

The funeral service will be at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 10, at Arden Presbyterian Church, and will be live streamed at https://www.ardenpres.org/live-webcast

Burial will follow in Mountain View Memorial Park in Black Mountain.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that gifts be given to Covenant College at covenant.edu, Ridge Haven Cono at ridgehaven.org, or World News Group at wng.org.

Anders-Rice Funeral Home and Cremation Center is honored to serve the Belz family.