Jay Cavaiani grew up in New Berlin, Wisconsin and is the son of Ralph and Diane Cavaiani and the brother of Greg. His father, Ralph, excelled as a business entrepreneur in the area of health care management and both Ralph and Diane have celebrated over 40 years of marriage together. Jay has been married to his beautiful wife Kelly for 14 years and they have three children; Jacob (11), Abigail (9) and Caleb (7).

Growing up, Jay went through the motions in a traditional church setting and in high school and college whatever faith that had existed was essentially lost. Jay attended college in 1993 at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and graduated with honors. He earned a major in Psychology and a minor in Human Resources. Soon thereafter, Jay began a successful real estate career with Shorewest Realtors. In his first year with them, he was honored with the Rookie of the Year award. In 1994, he began to develop subdivisions in conjunction with the sale of real estate. In 1996 Jay opened his own office with Shorewest Realtors (then Wauwatosa Realty) in Eagle, Wisconsin and began hiring other agents to work on his team. By the late 90's, Jay was one of their top agents and was the number one agent in the Kettle Moraine Area.

In 1996, Jay and Kelly were celebrating their first year of marriage and after visiting several churches and that is where they found KMEFC Church (Now called Oakwood Church). A few months later an evangelism explosion team from the church visited Jay and Kelly in their home. It was then, in October of 1996, that Jay and Kelly both knelt down before God and received Christ as their Savior. They immediately were plugged into different ministries of the church and within a few years Jay became a trainer in the Evangelism Explosion ministry and was on the Men's Ministry Board at the church. During this same time, Jay also started a basketball fellowship, developed a Christian golf league and led a men's small group Bible study.

In 2000, Jay attended a Fellowship of Christian Athletes banquet and shortly thereafter became a member of its board. FCA primarily ministers to coaches and students through an athletically based theme on high school and college campuses. As a volunteer, Jay immediately led an FCA group at Palmyra-Eagle High School and Middle School. Jay fell in love with the ministry and in 2003 felt God was calling him to leave his career for full time ministry. In 2004, after raising the funds needed, Jay closed his real estate office to start full time ministry as an area representative for FCA. Within a few months, his brother, Greg decided to revive his old business. Currently, Greg and Ralph are actively leading the real estate team with many of the same great people, which is now called Response Realtors.
 

Most recently, in addition to leading the Campus Way the Cavaiani's have started the adventure of planting Great Mission Church. Jay's desire to lead a discipleship movement through Pastoring a church is something that has grown considerably in the past two years. In 2007, after speaking at a family funeral, Jay felt God tugging on his heart to become a not only a Pastor of a church. He felt God calling him to a discipleship movement that implements biblical principles of discipleship with a focus on multiplication. The Great Commission and specifically how Jesus reached the world through 12 men has been a consuming passion for Jay ever since the spring of 2007. He describes that season of his life as an enlightening time where the vision of seeing the body of Christ awakened and engaged in fulfilling the Great Commission took root. Shortly after that funeral, Jay enrolled at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and is well along in earning his Master's in Ministry. In August of 2009, Jay and Kelly were one flesh in the decision to move forward in starting and planting of Great Mission Church, www.greatmissionchurch.org. Ever since that decision was made, many things have come together showing God's favor in this decision. Since March, Kelly has been looking to get back into teaching in any area school. However, there were concerns that a full time position along with planting a church and caring for the family might be too much. In addition, Jay and Kelly have to transport their kids to the Christian school they go to near Hartland. Kelly applied for over 30 positions. Within hours of the decision to move forward with the church, Kelly was hired as a half time teacher at Swallow Elementary School in Hartland. In addition, key staff and a volunteer intern felt lead by God to step into new roles with the Campus Way to allow Jay to have the time to invest into building Great Mission Church. Recenlty, the ministry was dontated, at least for a season, quality office and weekly meeting space right in Wales. These signs and even more things God has been doing in their personal lives have really given Jay and Kelly peace that this is God's plan for such a time as this.

Interests and Hobbies:
Jay enjoys golf, outdoors/sportsman, researching/reading, trail running, skiing. Kelly likes to spend time playing tennis, running, golf, reading, and skiing.