About Jerry Funston

A pastor who swore off taxes.
Then became
a tax pro anyway.

Enrolled Agent (EA) 30+ Years in Ministry Galena, Ohio QuickBooks ProAdvisor
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The Story

How a pastor ends up as an EA.

At 17, I job-shadowed an accountant for a day. I walked out having made exactly one decision: absolutely not. Taxes felt cold, transactional, mechanical — the opposite of everything I wanted to do with my life. I was good at math, sure. But math wasn't the point.

So I became a pastor instead. I spent a decade in student ministry, then planted a church in the Galena and Sunbury area. Thirty years of walking alongside people in their hardest moments — grief, crisis, loss, broken marriages, the quiet grind of financial stress. That last one showed up more often than most people talk about.

"I watched financial anxiety quietly destroy things that money shouldn't be allowed to destroy."

Then came COVID. The church went bivocational. I picked up TurboTax as a stopgap, then moved to H&R Block, then sat for the Enrolled Agent exam — the highest credential the IRS issues — and passed. What started as a stopgap became something I couldn't ignore: people needed exactly this, and almost nobody was doing it this way.

Common Tax launched because the vending-machine version of tax services — show up in March, get your return, disappear — was failing the people I cared about. Business owners who didn't know what they didn't know. Clergy filing incorrectly for years because no software handled their situation. W-2 employees owing every April with no idea why.

I'm not pastoring numbers. I'm pastoring people who happen to have a tax problem. The tools are different. The instinct is exactly the same.

The Arc

How we got here.

Age 17

The Job Shadow That Didn't Take

One day with an accountant. One clear decision: this is not the life for me. Math, yes. Taxes, never.

College

Called to Ministry

Felt a clear sense of calling toward pastoral work. Traded the spreadsheet for the seminary and never looked back — or so I thought.

Early Career

A Decade in Student Ministry

Years of youth ministry, teaching, and walking alongside families. Learned that financial stress was quietly present in almost every hard conversation.

2000s–2010s

Church Plant — The Journey Fellowship

Planted a congregation in Galena and Sunbury, Ohio. Led it through growth, change, and the particular complexity of small-church finances.

Post-COVID

Bivocational by Necessity

The pandemic changed the economics of ministry for a lot of churches. Went bivocational — TurboTax first, then H&R Block. Started seeing how much better this could be done.

EA Exam

Enrolled Agent — IRS Certified

Passed all three parts of the EA exam. The highest credential the IRS issues — unlimited representation rights for any taxpayer, any issue, any IRS office.

2024

Common Tax & Bookkeeping

Left corporate tax preparation to build something different — a subscription practice built around ongoing relationships, real strategy, and clients who feel known, not processed.

Today

Common Table Church & The Galena Commons

Still pastoring — Common Table Church meets Sunday evenings in Galena. The Galena Commons is a community hub and multi-tenant space owned by the church. Tax work and ministry work are the same work.

What Drives the Work

Three words. Meant literally.

Integrity

What Jerry tells you is what Jerry believes — including "I don't know," "that doesn't make sense for you," and "you don't need me for this." The advice is always in your interest, not his revenue.

Compassion

Thirty years of pastoral ministry taught one thing above all: people carry more than they show. Every client interaction starts with that assumption. Financial stress is real. It deserves to be taken seriously.

Wisdom

Not just knowing the tax code — knowing which parts matter for you, when to act, when to wait, and when the right answer is more complicated than it first appears. That only comes from experience and attention.

Outside the Office

The rest of the picture.

Jerry and Megan have been married for 30 years this July — a milestone they're celebrating by being exactly as they are: a team. They have five kids, three of them adults, with a high school senior and freshman still at home.

He's a reader. Theology, fantasy fiction, personal finance, the occasional vintage paperback found at an estate sale. C.S. Lewis and Tim Keller share shelf space with Terry Pratchett. He collects the Yankee Flyer Series, which tells you something about him if you know what that is.

He's also a math guy with a pun problem — a combination that turns out to be surprisingly useful in a tax practice. Dry humor, genuine warmth, and the pastoral habit of making people feel heard before they feel advised.

The short version: he came to tax work reluctantly, stayed because it matters, and built Common Tax to be the practice he wished had existed when he needed it.

Married to Megan — 30 years this July Five kids. A house full of opinions and very good food.
Galena, Ohio Born elsewhere. Planted roots here. Not going anywhere.
Avid reader — theology, fantasy, personal finance C.S. Lewis, Tim Keller, Terry Pratchett. Vintage book collector.
Math-gifted. Pun-prone. Dry humor. A combination his clients find either endearing or exhausting — usually both.
Sunday Evening Pastor Common Table Church, Galena. The work never really stops — and that's the point.
The Bigger Picture

The tax work and the pastoral work are the same work.

Common Tax, Common Table Church, and The Galena Commons aren't three separate ventures held together by one person's calendar. They're three expressions of the same conviction: that people deserve to be met where they are, with honesty and care, without being processed.

"I pastor the work. All of it."

The Galena Commons is a multi-tenant community hub in Galena — home to Common Table Church, AWP Yoga, Wild Blooms, LA Counseling, Common Tax, and others. It exists because community matters, and so does the kind of space that makes it possible.

Common Table meets Sunday evenings — smaller, slower, more intentional than a traditional Sunday morning. A congregation built around the table, in every sense of the word.

The Three Ventures

  • Common Tax & Bookkeeping — the tax practice you're on right now. EA services, bookkeeping, IRS representation, subscription model.
  • Common Table Church — Sunday evenings, Galena. A congregation built around worship, the meal, discipleship, and outward focus.
  • The Galena Commons — a community hub owned by Common Table Church. Multi-tenant space with offices, a yoga studio, a counseling practice, a floral studio, and more.
Visit The Galena Commons

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