Rev. Phil is a real minister. He is a third generation minister — like his grandfather and father.

He earned a Master of Divinity degree from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, IL in 1990. He was the pastor of several churches for a number of years. Now, he is a full-time wedding minister. Click to learn about his “religion” — and why that is in quotes.

At the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, he was a political science major. It was there that he met Jesus, the woman who would become his wife, and first had the desire to be a pastor.

On June 23, 1984, he married the love of his life and his best friend (which is still true) — Pamela. They got married on a hot day in an un-air-conditioned church in Antioch. The reception was at her parents’ huge back yard.

He enjoys reading two newspapers a day (the New York Times and Chicago Tribune), loves movies (with the goal each year to see all the nominees in the top 6 categories of the Oscars — so all ten best picture nominees, all five best support actor nominees, etc.) and watching the Bears.

Rev. Phil has been told a number of times that he has a voice for radio. He thinks he has the face for it, too

What were his parents thinking? If you combine his names, “Phil” and “Landers” you get “philander” which Merriam-Webster dictionary defines as “to be sexually unfaithful to one's wife” — an adulterer. He has been faithful to his wife all these years. But it is an ironic name for a wedding minister, isn’t it? (He was named after my two grandfathers — one was Philip and the other was John.) His grandfather, the first-generation minister, was also named Philip Landers.