Our Leadership

ABOUT US

Staff Leadership

Our Elders

  • Johnathan Richardson

  • Tyler Choate

  • Mark Russell

We believe the ruling body of a church should be a team of elders. Elders are character-qualified, mature Christians. This is a sacrificial servant role to which men only are called. This is not because women are less spiritual, less intelligent, or incapable. Women are certainly as capable and perhaps more so. Rather, we believe this is God’s model for family and Church leadership and for calling men out of passivity and into proactive leadership.

Elders are recognized by the body as those men who are already exercising pastoral care and servant-leadership in the body. Becoming an elder is not a promotion to an administrative position; rather, it is recognition of God’s call on a man to serve the family of God in humility and hard work and to equip the whole church for the work of ministry. In addition to their pastoral duties, this body of men is responsible for setting the vision and mission of the Church.

Our Deacons

A second church office that is talked about in the New Testament is that of deacon (servant). Those appointed by the apostles to serve the poor and those in need within the body are often considered the model of deacon ministry, intended to take care of the church’s practical needs and to free the elders for spiritual shepherding.

Deacons serve the physical needs of the church, primarily in relief of the poor within the church, and in caring for physical needs, like buildings and grounds. We believe 1 Timothy 3:11 (refers to “women” and not “wives”) and the practice of the early church, which indicates that this is a sacrificial servant role for both men and women.