Meet Our Leadership

TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOUR FAMILY AND WHAT YOU DO FOR A LIVING.

HOW DID YOU BECOME A FOLLOWER OF CHRIST?

HOW DO YOU HOPE TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE MISSION OF CHBC?

Geoff met his wife, Chelsea, when they were studying music in college. They have three children.

Geoff and Chelsea are both from the suburbs of Los Angeles. After completing an undergraduate degree in Music Composition at California Baptist University, Geoff went on to earn an M.A. in Theology from Talbot School of Theology at Biola University. Geoff and Chelsea joined the Bible Church coming from Southern California in 2019. As the Pastor of Worship, he leads singing and crafts the Sunday morning services.

Geoff and Chelsea spend time writing songs together, camping, canoeing and enjoying good food and coffee. More than that, they enjoy spending time with their kids and with their family of Chapel Hill Bible Church.

TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOUR FAMILY AND WHAT YOU DO FOR A LIVING.

HOW DID YOU BECOME A FOLLOWER OF CHRIST?

HOW DO YOU HOPE TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE MISSION OF CHBC?

Janet and I have lived in the Triangle area for almost 25 years. Janet is a retired elementary music teacher and I tried to retire April 2020 from managing insurance claims for a large independent agency. COVID got in the way and I have been working two days a week to help them out since then.

I play trumpet and flugelhorn with the Durham Community Concert Band and The Durham Bullhorns and have served as various positions on the Board including President and Treasurer. I have also been on the Board of The Carolina Tiger Rescue in Pittsboro.

We are blessed to have our son and daughters’ families here in the area and have a wonderful time with our six grandkids between them. Just last December we were so excited when our son and daughter-in-law were blessed with an adoption of a 3-year old special needs daughter from Taiwan!

I grew up in a Christian home, but really didn’t recognize a close relationship with Jesus until late in my high school years and then in college. When Janet and I were married right after graduation we were transferred to Florida. God led us to a great Bible-believing church where we became deeply involved, enabling us to grow in the Word and our relationships. Through the many job transfers we had in my career, God has replicated that blessing again and again. Each time we were graced with the opportunity to become involved as part of these individual communities, growing in our faith and making great friends along the way.

The Bible Church has taught us that we all have a role to play as ministers of Christ. Through working with the Deacon Board over the past five years, I have had the opportunity to help the Bible Church in practical ways. Janet and I lead a Life Group in Chatham County and are excited to see the ways that God has used and continues to use our Life Groups to come along side the folks at the Bible Church. Through the teaching and encouragement that is the Bible Church, we are blessed with daily opportunities to grow in our faith as we also help others do the same.

We are excited to see how God is honing and refining CHBC, to make us more effective disciples, ministers and ambassadors of the Gospel throughout our community, North Carolina and to the ends of the earth, and I am humbled and excited to play a part in that plan.

Jay met his wife, Rebecca, while interning at College Church in Wheaton, IL. They have four children.

Jay was born in India, but grew up in Marin County, CA. He holds degrees from Wheaton College (B.A.) and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (M.Div., Th.M.).

Jay became the Lead Pastor at Chapel Hill Bible Church in 2011 after serving as the College Pastor at College Church. He is co-author of Sex, Dating, and Relationships: A Fresh Approach, and the author of 1 Corinthians: A 12-Week Study in Crossway's Knowing the Bible series. He has also written articles and reviews at The Gospel Coalition, Tabletalk Magazine, and Themelios.

I love serving in a major culture and university environment. We can make a high impact on our nation and world. This is an international, relational, semi-southern area with a strong need for a healthy, gospel-driven church.

For fun, Jay likes to dabble in music, humor (especially puns), art, architecture, eating, and occasional fitness.

TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOUR FAMILY AND WHAT YOU DO FOR A LIVING.

HOW DID YOU BECOME A FOLLOWER OF CHRIST?

HOW DO YOU HOPE TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE MISSION OF CHBC?

Michael met his wife, Ginger, at Furman University and they have been married for almost 19 years. They have three children, Makayla, Declan, and Brennan. They moved to the area to attend graduate schools and have been attending CHBC since 2001. Since graduating from Duke University with a PhD in chemistry, Michael has enjoyed designing and developing medical devices.

During his childhood, Michael attended a Southern Baptist church in Asheville, NC. While he was brought up in the church, he specifically remembers God tugging at his heart after a day at Vacation Bible School when he was about 10 years old. He went home that evening and accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior. As he's grown and matured, his relationship with Christ has also grown. Michael is thankful for the godly men God has used to disciple him.

TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOUR FAMILY AND WHAT YOU DO FOR A LIVING.

HOW DID YOU BECOME A FOLLOWER OF CHRIST?

HOW DO YOU HOPE TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE MISSION OF CHBC?

Roddy and his wife, Katie, met at a Fellowship of Christian Athletes event at the University of South Carolina. They have 3 children (one of whom is adopted). They also actively foster as God provides opportunities.

Roddy grew up in Rio de Janiero, Brazil, and moved to Bristol, TN, when he was 13. He majored in German at Presbyterian College, where he was an all-American soccer player.

Before coming on staff as Youth Minister in 2007, Roddy was the singer/songwriter for the Christian rock band Origami and served as a worship leader and youth pastor at Saxe Gotta Presbyterian Church in Lexington, SC. Roddy has preached in four different languages (English, Portuguese, Spanish, and German) and has done ministry in four different continents.

I love languages and cultures of the Triangle. It is a fantastic place to meet people from all over the world and to learn about them and their cultures. I especially enjoy the fact that we can reach the nations right here in the Triangle.

For fun, Roddy enjoys soccer, songwriting, gardening, and languages.

Ryan served the Bible Church nearly 3 years as a pastoral resident before coming on full-time as a minister at CHBC and ordained as pastor in 2019. Ryan’s residency was defined by coupling his biblical and theological training at Western Seminary with hands-on ministry training and mentorship from the pastors and elders. Ryan has served in various roles, which include: preaching, teaching, next-generation formation, shepherding, and community building.

As Spiritual Formations Pastor, Ryan leads the training and oversight of over 50 life groups around the Triangle. In addition, his role oversees our congregational care to respond to tangible and spiritual needs within our church family.

Ryan has also worked as a college football coach and continues to steward his knowledge and skillset of the game of football by mentoring and discipling young athletes.

Ryan & Laura have called Chapel Hill Bible Church their home since 2013. They live in Durham with their two boys and two girls.

TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOUR FAMILY AND WHAT YOU DO FOR A LIVING.

HOW DID YOU BECOME A FOLLOWER OF CHRIST?

HOW DO YOU HOPE TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE MISSION OF CHBC?

Wally Turnbull and his wife Betty, have been part of the Bible Church since 2003 when they moved to Durham from Haiti where they served for 30 years as missionaries.

Wally, who has been a Bible Church elder since 2005, is the publisher of Light Messages Books. He has a heart for those who do not know Jesus, for diversity, and cross-cultural unity.

Amanda and I have been married for 10 years and have two energetic boys, Henry, 6, and Jack, 3. We moved to Durham in 2011 and began attending CHBC in the parking lot in September 2020. We feel very loved by the life group we have connected with and have grown deeper in our walks with Christ since then.

I am a CPA and work as an audit associate at a local public accounting firm. I enjoy working with area businesses, churches, schools, and nonprofits while ensuring their financial statements paint a clear picture of their organization.  I love working alongside leaders to make a sometimes-stressful process as painless as possible.

I grew up in a Christian home and became a follower of Christ early in elementary school. God used a presentation by a touring ministry called the Power Team to show me why I needed the Gospel and I became a believer shortly after. I grew in my faith throughout my high school and college years and try to continue to remind myself of my constant need of God’s grace.

I hope to contribute to the mission of CHBC however possible behind the scenes and to support ministry leaders by anticipating their needs.

Charlie & I have been married for over 40 years. In 2006, my job transferred us to NC and we were introduced to CHBC by a friend and attended while here house-hunting; we became members that same year. Prior to retirement in 2012, I worked as a medical science liaison for Eli Lilly. I am a nurse and health educator by training, and although retired, my passion is for serving people with differing abilities (spiritual, physical, mental, cognitive, sensory, and social). We have a son, a daughter and 5 amazing grandchildren who live in Ohio & New Jersey.

As a child and teen, I attended a small denominational church where the Word was not taught and the Bible was seen as “part poetry, part history, and part fiction.”  I never knew Jesus as anything more than a historical figure. One day a patient of mine asked me, “Do you know Jesus?” That started a quest for the truth. We started listening to Moody Radio and learned from some of the best teachers as we sought and found a Bible-believing church. We both gave our lives to Jesus as adults. Thanks be to God, to a kindly patient, Moody Radio, and some wonderful bible-believing churches in the 4 states we subsequently lived in as we followed my career across the country.

My desire is to serve humbly and with integrity in any capacity for which I am both needed and equipped.  I am passionate about seeing our church grow in maturity, outreach, fellowship, and godly repute and that we continue to be lead by godly pastors who are faithful and devoted to God’s word.

I'm originally Canadian, but immigrated to the U.S. in high school. I am married to Travis Hornsby, and we have a daughter (Margot). My parents have recently moved here to be with us as well. I went to school, med school, residency and fellowship mostly in the Northeast (NJ, New York, Philadelphia) and then took a job at Washington University in St Louis as an assistant professor until 2021. I am currently a gynecologist at UNC.

I was raised in a Christian family, and was baptized fairly early at 12, but feel that I really started a relationship with Christ in my college and med school years, where the Korean churches I was a part of really showed me what an interactive, living relationship Christianity is supposed to be. I also had incredible brothers and sisters in Christ as my examples. In residency, I had the incredible opportunity to attend Redeemer Presbyterian in New York, which further helped me to deepen my faith in both an intellectual and emotional standpoint during an admittedly taxing and challenging time in my life. I still feel that every day, I'm trying to work out what it means to be a follower of Christ, sometimes struggling in this journey, but having learnt from these churches and fellow believers that "the Hound of Heaven" chose me first and will pursue me to the end has been a point of comfort.

I hope to contribute by being a new voice from someone who is not from the area and has not grown up in this church. I hope also that my viewpoint as a millennial woman of color may be helpful to growing the church in its outreach and future goals. I would love to work on ways that the church can actively serve and grow its mission to the surrounding area, particularly the underserved and those who are different from the average CHBC church member. If we aren't acting as God's hands, giving our money, time, and ears, helping to fulfill physical needs while pointing to the spiritual ones, as Jesus and the early church did, then it seems that our service is incomplete.

My wife Ellin and I have been married for 38 years, the parents of two adult children and grandparents of four. After pastoring churches for over three decades in Brooklyn, Staten Island, and New Jersey, we relocated in 2018 to North Carolina where I drive a city bus for Chapel Hill Transit and Ellin works for Google in downtown Chapel Hill. We’ve been attending CHBC since the fall of that year and you can typically find me playing with our worship team and Ellin greeting on Sunday morning at the front door.

I grew up in a Christian home attending our small baptist church in Brooklyn. When I was around eleven, after years of hearing the message of the gospel, I put my faith in Jesus. As I grew older I recognized the importance and value of serving that led to taking on music, teaching, and leadership roles as both a deacon and elder.

One thing that I hope to encourage our body to do is invest in service wherever possible as individuals, as part of a team, and most importantly, as a family, instilling in our kids a mind and heart for serving Jesus, our church, our community, and each other.

I was blessed to grow up in a Christian household. I accepted Jesus Christ as my savior at five and chose to be baptized at twelve. As I reflect, I find my school and college years marked by solidifying my identity as solely in Christ. I’d say that subsequently, the overarching thread has been the ministry of the presence of God solidified in the midst of hardship and grieving. We have experienced great blessings as well, but it’s the balance of having walked through deep griefs that has rooted in me the knowledge that this world is not our home and Christ is all.

Michael and I met in undergrad at Furman University. We married after I graduated in 2001. Since he was pursuing his degree at Duke, naturally, I pursued mine at UNC. I have a MS in Biochemistry and Biophysics. I currently lead a seventh grade homeschool community once a week and also homeschool our three children: Makayla (16), Declan (14), and Brennan (12).

I love this fellowship of believers deeply. I have served in various ways in the twenty years we have been here, and during different seasons have had the chance to get to know many believers that are still here and many that have moved away. It is a gift to know even a part of what the Lord is doing and has done in and through this body. I am a practical and detail-oriented person; I look forward to continuing to use my administrative gifts and serving the church in the particular role of deacon so that this fellowship can continue to serve the Lord and make Him known in our community and spheres of influence.

Archie and I have just celebrated our first-year wedding anniversary and live in Durham. We enjoy family, projects, flowers, and the beach. I have always had a passion for taking care of children. Vocationally, I have been a teacher, assistant principal, principal, and currently serve as Assistant Superintendent for Research and Accountability in Durham Public Schools.

I have been a follower of Christ as long as I can remember growing up in a home with Christian parents and values. My spiritual formation has matured with the teaching at CHBC, various bible studies, and rich Christian fellowship. I continue to grow in awe of God’s greatness and grace on a daily basis.

I hope to use the gifts God gave me to further the kingdom of God -- through the mission of CHBC. I enjoy using my spiritual gift of administration that includes budgeting, logistics, and planning, to align with the work of the Lord. It is an honor to serve my Lord and our church in these ways.

Bob and I have been married for 25 years.  We met and were married at CHBC. CHBC has been our church family since 1995 and has helped us raise our three wonderful children, Nathan (22), Katherine (20), and Rebecca (14).

I am a Registered Dietitian for Durham County Dept. of Public Health. I work on a grant funded program that provides nutrition education to students in Durham Public Schools and combats food insecurity.

I was eight years old and visiting my aunt and uncle when they shared with me Jesus’s love and gift of new life.  I decided that week to give my life to Christ.   My spiritual growth has followed many hills and plateaus since that moment in my aunt’s spare room, but I continue to be in awe of God’s unending love, care, and faithfulness to me.

I have served in Kid’s Ministry over 20 years in different capacities.  I find great joy in loving the kids and teaching them about Jesus and His love for them.  I see my role as deacon as an opportunity for me to serve and support more of the CHBC body as we strive together to take the good news of the gospel to our communities and the next generation.

My wife Kristin and I live in North Durham and will have been married for 18 years this summer.  We moved to Durham in 2005 after we were newly married and started attending CHBC back in 2006.  We now have three kids (Eli 12, Barrett 9, and Abigail 3), each with quite different personalities!

Professionally, I work at Biogen in pharmaceutical manufacturing, where I have been since 2006, making drugs to help people with effects of serious neurological diseases.

I knew Jesus from a young age and was blessed to have believing parents.  As a young adult, I really came to walk with Jesus in a personal way in college when the Lord put some people with the Cru ministry in my path and the Holy Spirit started to tug on my heart. It was during these years that I came to know what it was to have a relationship with Christ and started to develop a passion to share that with others.  What a blessing it has been to walk with Jesus and see others (including my own children) grow in faith alongside me.

I hope to be a blessing to the body of Christ, helping to maintain CHBC’s witness for the Gospel in an increasingly secular world.  I hope to help facilitate CHBC’s mission of reaching every person with the Gospel message and growing our body in discipleship.

Mary is married to Kyle (elder) and they live in Chapel Hill with their dog, Lulu. Mary is a chemistry professor at Elon University. Mary and Kyle have been members at CHBC for 10 years.

"The mission of being transformed by the Gospel: our lives, our cities, our world, is played out in big and small, public and private ways. And I believe that is just the way God intended it – He cares about both the big and small things. As a chemist, I care a lot about the small things, the really small things, and I want to be able to contribute to the mission of CHBC in the small, sometimes behind-the-scenes things, so the big things are unhindered."

I am the well-loved wife and mother to my husband, Ian, and our 5 children. Our boys, Winston and Stuart, along with Winston’s lovely wife, Alex, live in Los Angeles. Our 3 girls, Emma, Claire and Phoebe, live locally with the younger two attending UNC and NC State respectively. I am a stay-at-home mom and homemaker who enjoys spending time with family and friends, reading, and all things chocolate.

I was raised in the Catholic faith so I knew of God, but it was my husband (already a seeker) and his friends who shared the gospel and lived relationally with Jesus which led me to know Him as Savior and Lord. I continue to be amazed the God of the universe wants to know and dwell with us.

The more I know Jesus, the more I want to serve Him and His body. I believe I can do this as I support, care and minister to His church at CHBC.

My wife Ann and I married a year out of college, and have been married for 37 years. We have five children, the youngest a junior in high school, and one very new granddaughter.

I grew up in Chapel Hill, but have spent most of my post-school adult life as a commercial litigator working in Manhattan. I loved that work, if not that city, but took early retirement at age 55 so that I could devote my legal skills to religious liberty and free speech litigation. For the last 4 years, I have been full-time employed as a litigator with Alliance Defending Freedom, doing just that. Once work no longer required us to live in New York, we promptly moved “home” to the Triangle in late 2016, and are glad to be here!

I grew up in a thoughtful and intentional Christian family, and became a Christian younger than I can remember. My parents were much the most formative influence in bringing me to faith, and to helping me grow into thoughtful, considered faith. In my high school years, I usually attended the CHBC (then small, and meeting in Gerard Hall), and learned much more about careful study of the scripture from Jim Abrahamson’s sermons—overhead projector and all. I made a more intentional “adult” commitment in my mid teens, and was baptized by Jim in Lake Clearwater in 1977 or thereabouts.

Early in my legal career, I quit and went to Regent College Seminary in Vancouver, BC, where I received an M. Div. and an eye-opening introduction to how much more I could learn from the Bible when I studied it with the rigor I had learned to apply in the law, rather than merely “devotionally” and casually. Flowing from that, I love to teach, and find that I am able to get people excited about the “more” they too can find with careful study . . . and a helping hand. So, I’ll do that when need arises.

Ann and I feel deeply that in our increasingly anti-Christian world, young families in the church need to be encouraged in the all-too-countercultural idea that raising a (numerous!) Christian family is a high and demanding calling of greater importance, challenge, and joy than (for most) anything else God will put before them. In whatever way we can—through relationships, through hospitality, through helping with women’s Bible study child-care (Ann)—we want to provide that encouragement.

More generally, in the modern world and particularly the mobile slice of society that largely makes up CHBC, we believe that cross-generational relationships within the church are deeply needed, for both emotional and modeling reasons. Since it’s too late for us to be the younger end of that equation, we want to do what we can to befriend younger members and families.

And of course, in any large human organization, there is just “stuff that needs to get done” . . . waiting tables, as it were. I believe that helping with such “stuff” is a rather explicit part of the scriptural job description.

My husband Kurt and I have been married for 3 years and have been attending CHBC since we moved to the area in 2021. We have loved being a part of CHBC and are so grateful for the strong Biblical teaching and the immediate warmth and welcome we have felt, which we were not expecting from such a big church! We spend a lot of our free time hiking with our sweet puppy Maple, playing board games, and connecting with our neighbors and nearby family. Both Kurt and I grew up in different parts of the world (Kurt in Micronesia and myself in South Africa and then Australia), so we enjoy connecting with others who are from different cultures, especially when there is food involved! During the week I work as an occupational therapist and spend most of my days crawling around on the floor with play-doh stuck to my knees. I love supporting kids and their families as they navigate the ups and downs of life.

I grew up in South Africa and honestly just assumed that I was born a Christian because that’s what most of the people I knew said they were. My family moved to Australia when I was 16 years old and I was faced with being in a large high school where very few of my new friends went to church. This forced me to reassess what I believed and why I believed it and started me on a journey of experiencing God through reading His Word on my own and with the help of other followers of Jesus. I came to realize that I wasn’t as perfect as I thought, and that God was more full of grace than I could ever have imagined.

I have been encouraged by the effort so many put into making CHBC feel like a big family. My prayer is that God would use me to help others within our community and beyond know that they are seen and loved, both by our loving Father, and by his people.

Michael and I have been married for nearly 19 years, and we are blessed with three sons (Gabe - 16, Micah - 13, and Joseph - 9). I have an engineering degree, but have had the privilege of being a homemaker ever since the birth of our second child.

We moved to Chapel Hill in 2013 for Michael’s career. Chapel Hill Bible Church was the first church we attended since it was walking distance from our house (at that time). We have been attending CHBC ever since and are so grateful to have found community, solid Biblical teaching, opportunities to serve, and more at CHBC.

I grew up in a Christian home where daily prayer, Bible reading, and church was encouraged and demonstrated. When I was 13 and fully realized my sin and need for a savior, I put my faith and trust in Jesus and was baptized a few years later. My faith has grown so much since I first gave my life to Christ, and the Lord continues to mold me, teach me, and show me His goodness and faithfulness as I follow Him.

I hope to contribute to CHBC’s mission by serving the Lord and His church humbly, prayerfully, and joyfully in order to bless our church family and bring glory to God.