West Hills Leadership

I currently serve as lead pastor and campus elder of the West Hills San Jose campus. My primary ministries include preaching God’s Word, shepherding, and leading the San Jose campus. I am also privileged to lead a community group, provide addiction recovery counseling, and occasionally lead worship on Sunday mornings.

I live in San Jose, CA with my amazing wife Jeanine and our four sons, Joshua, Samuel, Asaph, and Benaiah. My passion and life pursuit is to see Christ exalted in the Bay Area through the love of God proclaimed, and made manifest, through the local church. It is my goal to shepherd our congregation into the perpetual pursuit of this goal and to partner with other local congregations who are pursuing the same end.

I received my bachelor of science in Kinesiology from Fresno State in 2009 and–after receiving my call to the ministry–completed my Master of Divinity degree through Western Seminary in 2015 . I have enjoyed leading worship and community groups as well as engaging in one on one discipleship and evangelism. Since my installment as Pastor of West Hills Evergreen, I have focused primarily on shepherding, and preaching and teaching God’s Word. It is my hope and prayer that, by God’s grace, I can devote the rest of my life to this calling for the glory of God and for the joy and progress of the church’s faith.

Additionally, I enjoy reading, barbecuing, family days, and cheering for the Oakland Raiders. I also love meeting new people so come introduce yourself!

I was blessed to be born into a Christ-centered family. My parents became members of West Hills Community Church when I was a baby and by the grace of God I have been following Jesus from a young age. God called me to the ministry at the age of eighteen. I completed a Bachelor’s degree in Biblical Studies in 2013 and a Master of Divinity in 2017.

My pastoral role focuses on making disciples, ministering with the word, shepherding the flock, and prayer. My passion is to see the name of Jesus exalted throughout the world and to equip the saints at West Hills for the work of that mission. I also function as the Director of Communications for both the Morgan Hill and San Jose campuses.

I live in Morgan Hill with my incredible wife, Vanessa, and our four children- Calvin, Owen, Geneva, and Avonlea. My favorite pastimes are morning coffee with my wife, reading, exercising, and being outdoors with my family.

I grew up in a Christian household, and my parents have been and continue to be exemplars of winsome discipleship to Christ.  I moved to Los Angeles for college to study at Biola University, and I lived in Southern California for sixteen years prior to moving to the Silicon Valley.  I have spent twelve years serving in church ministry, primarily as a youth, college, and young-adult pastor.  I have a desire to see young people grow in Christian maturity and discover that following Jesus is eminently rational and wildly exciting.  One of my passions is to glorify the triune God through music, and I have played with many worship bands (I also worked as a guitarist in the greater Hollywood area for several years).  I regard myself as privileged to be part of the amazing community at West Hills Community Church.

I have the great fortune of being husband to Alissa (that than which no greater wife can be conceived).  She has a degree in music and a graduate degree in counseling psychology.  We are parents to four energetic and entertaining kids.

I am a fan of Philz Coffee and Oklahoma Sooners football (Boomer!).  I am always encouraged by these words of St. Paul:  “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:58).

I had the blessing of growing up in a Christian home. My parent’s faith in Jesus Christ’s life, death, and resurrection is what led me to begin following Christ myself at the age of 18, when I was just starting community college in Ames, Iowa.

Since then God has given me many opportunities to be a part of various ministries in the church. In 2017 my desire to be better equipped for ministry led me to transfer from community college to Boyce College in Louisville, Kentucky. From there I received my bachelors degree in Biblical & Theological Studies. I met my wonderful husband Elliot at Boyce and we were married a few months before we graduated in 2020. In the summer of 2020 we moved to Morgan Hill for Elliot to begin serving as the Director of Student Ministries for the West Hills Morgan Hill campus. After a few years of working different full-time positions in the Bay Area, I received the blessing to also come on staff with West Hills.

Bio to come...

Our family has belonged to the West Hills Community Church family since 2006. With deep roots in both the Morgan Hill and Evergreen/SJ bodies, both campuses are our church family in every sense. It has been amazing experiencing God’s faithfulness building & growing His church and seeing the Word of God faithfully proclaimed knowing that His Word always accomplishes what He purposes. Scripture teaches the New Testament church is the family of God, that we are individual members of one body that together form the body of Christ, the holy and living temple and dwelling place for God built from living stones with Christ as the foundation and cornerstone and the Holy Spirit’s indwelling. My heart’s desire is to faithfully serve the body of Christ, to shepherd our members as we grow to spiritual maturity, and to model those beautiful biblical descriptions of church as family as we labor together living and proclaiming the gospel of Christ to ourselves, our families, our neighborhoods, our workplaces, our cities, and the world. I am humbled to serve as an elder/overseer/shepherd here.

I grew up in the heart of California’s Central Valley, where God called me to Himself as a high school student. God blessed me with a loving and supportive family and a strong believing faith family of friends. I graduated from UC Davis with BS and MS degrees in Mechanical Engineering and started working in the South Bay Area where I have lived and worked in the technology sector ever since. Here, I met and married my wife, Stacy, and we raised our three children, Darrick, Lauren, and Jackson. I consider myself the most blessed of men with Stacy as my wife & best friend and with each of our children saved by God’s grace through their professed faith in Christ.

Most of my favorite activities involve anything outdoors like hiking, biking, camping, fishing, hunting, sports, gardening, woodworking, building stuff, and just tinkering. I’ve also been known to enjoy a few indoor activities like reading, studying, learning, family game nights, very informal entertaining, and watching soccer with fellow soccerheads.