Stanley Jenkins was born in Wurzburg, Germany. Since he was a child, he knew he wanted to be a minister. He explained his religious upbringing in this way:

The church has always been an important part of my life. My mother had moved around as a child a great deal. Whenever her family came to a new community the first thing they did was get themselves established in a new church. My own family moved quite a bit and my mother continued the tradition. Early on I was taught to see the church as a kind of portable home, a place where there are no strangers and one is always welcome.

I have carried this vision of the church around with me. Wherever God's people are gathered the Lord is with them--and home is wherever God is present. I feel very fortunate to have come to know the abiding presence of God in the Presbyterian Church.

Stan majored in religion at Oberlin College in Ohio, graduating in 1985. While at Oberlin, he worked at the Presbytery of Detroit's summer camp. At this camp, he served two years as counselor, two years as assistant director. In his final year before seminary, Stan was director of the camp.

Immediately after graduation, Stan enrolled at Union Theological Seminary in New York. He served as a pastoral assistant at Rutgers Presbyterian Church in Manhattan and did his field education at the Presbyterian Church in Brewster, New York (which is near the Holmes Retreat Center). Stan graduated from Union in 1988.

Stan's first pastoral call was to the First Presbyterian Church of Waterloo, New York. He soon returned to the Midwest to continue his theological studies at the University of Chicago. At Chicago, he served as the interim campus minister. Stan was the part-time, installed pastor of Parkview Presbyterian Church in nearby Oak Park, Illinois from 1993 to 1995, when FPCN called him to be their pastor.