Our Church staff

Lynn Barger Elliott is a 4th generation Presbyterian pastor. She met her husband, Mark, on the steps of the Princeton Theological Seminary chapel and they soon imagined a life in ministry together. When she graduated, Lynn received the David H.C. Read Preacher Scholar Award given to one seminarian in the country demonstrating the greatest potential for benefiting the church with the skills of scholarship and preaching.

Lynn has served five congregations with her husband Mark in Michigan, Illinois, Minnesota and Connecticut and is a consultant with Compelling Preaching, a $150 Million Lilly Foundation initiative that works with 142 organizations to cultivate best practices to assist preachers to communicate to diverse audiences in more engaging and effective ways. For 13 years Lynn was a professor of Ministry Leadership at Calvin University and for a time taught in a maximum security prison. She is an author and contributed toIntergenerate: Transforming Churches through Intergenerational Ministry and is the author of the upcoming book, Grief is Art: 17 Ideas on How to Invite Art to Heal our Pain and Loss. She has certifications in Nonprofit Executive Leadership from the University of Notre Dame Mendoza College of Business, End-of-Life Doula training from the University of Vermont, and how to Create a Happy and Meaningful Life from Stanford University Graduate School of Business Executive Education. She recently co-founded, along with her husband, the Miracle Year Project.

Lynn and Mark have three children who live in D.C., Chicago, and San Francisco. Lynn loves the New York Times Spelling Bee, reading novels, trying risotto recipes, and is inspired by the Justice Garden as she is perpetually seeking to grow the perfect tomato.

Mark Barger Elliott was baptized in John Calvin’s church in Geneva, Switzerland and 18 years later made a profession of faith while attending Cornell University. Upon graduating from Princeton Theological Seminary, he received the John T. Galloway Award in preaching and would later teach homiletics at McCormick Theological Seminary and write Creative Styles of Preaching. Mark has served five congregations with his wife Lynn in Michigan, Illinois, Minnesota and Connecticut.

Mark is the author of A Miracle Mindset: What I Discovered Looking for One Miracle Every Day and Easter: 21 Stations. He is an award-winning documentary filmmaker (Lost Boy Home and Last Songwriter). Mark has certifications in Nonprofit Management from the Executive Education programs at Northwestern University and Harvard University. He spent two delightful summers in Marin County earning his Doctor of Ministry in preaching at San Francisco Theological Seminary. He recently co-founded, along with his wife, the Miracle Year Project. While his wife Lynn pursues the perfect tomato, he is perpetually seeking to brew the perfect cup of coffee.

Alex Walker has spent just about all of his adult life doing music- as a performer,  music director, educator, choir conductor, studio musician, producer and songwriter. He commutes from Sacramento to bring joyful, uplifting music to the church each week, and to lead the a cappella group, the youth band, and the hand chimes choir.  As a young child, Alex decided that he was destined to play for his hometown Portland Trail Blazers, and assume the glorious mantle of Clyde Drexler. At the urging of his mother, Alex agreed to the backup plan of exploring his musical talents, learning piano, guitar, saxophone, drums and bass along the way to becoming a saxophone performance major. While still awaiting the call from the NBA, Alex studied composition, aural and written music theory, conducting, and orchestration, going on to tour the country and record with his own band for several years. He then went on to teach high school choir and band while serving as Director of Music for churches in Portland and southern California. He feels deeply honored to get to sing with and make music with wonderful people in wonderful places over the years, but is starting to wonder if the basketball thing isn’t going to work out.