The Reverend Christian Joseph Savage serves as 32nd Pastor of the Historic St. John’s A.M.E. Church in Norfolk, Virginia, the Mother Church of African Methodism in Virginia.

Pastor Savage is the son of Mr. Wade Savage and the Reverend Andrea Seward Savage. He was born in Baltimore, Maryland and educated in Baltimore County Public Schools. He continued his education at the  University of Baltimore where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 2014 and Yale Divinity School where he earned a Master of Divinity degree in 2017.

He preached his Trial Sermon at the age of eighteen in April of 2010 under the pastoral leadership of his  mother in ministry, the Reverend Charlotte Clemons.  In April of 2015 he was ordained an itinerant deacon and in April of 2017 he was ordained an itinerant elder.

Pastor Savage previously served as the pastor of New Mt. Olive A.M.E. Church in Chesapeake, VA from 2017-2021. He became the pastor of the Historic St. John’s A.M.E. Church in Norfolk, VA in May of 2021.

He has also served as an associate minister at two congregations. The first was as an associate minister at Shiloh A.M.E. Church in Baltimore, Maryland under the pastoral leadership of the Reverend Charlotte Clemons and the Reverend Sandra Moore-Stanley. The second was under the pastoral leadership of the Reverend Dr. Frank Madison Reid, III (who was later elected and consecrated the 138th Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church) where he served as a intern minister at Bethel A.M.E. Church in Baltimore, Maryland.

Pastor Savage is a brother of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.

He is married to Mrs. Tierra R. Langley.