Bishop Jim was born and raised in the greater Chicago, Illinois area and completed his religious studies at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington.
He was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in the Diocese of Baker by Bishop Thomas Connolly in 1993. From 1993 to 2013, as Father Jim, he served as the pastor of several parishes in Central Oregon and as the Director of Youth Ministry for the Diocese of Baker.
In 2014, he resigned as a priest of the Roman Catholic Church and was instrumental in forming Holy Communion Evangelical Catholic Church here in Bend, Oregon.
On November 12, 2021 Father Jim Radloff was consecrated as Bishop Jim Radloff at Holy Communion Church in Bend, Oregon by Bishop Louis Serra of Evangelical Catholic Church.