Staff Bios

Don't worry. As much as I wanted to write a bio of Jesus it always came off small. Our heart is just to say in a practical way that Jesus runs this place. We serve and follow Him.

Paul writes to Ephesus, "and God placed all things under His feet and appointed Him to be head over everything for the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way.

Standing in the Jordan I knew something had changed. In that one exhilarating moment so much of my life's journey made sense.

Growing up in Austin was beautiful. My family was and always has been close and whenever the doors of the church were open we were there. My younger sister and all our friends explored every corner of the old downtown church and eventually found much more than great places to hide. We found faith and a deep desire to change the world around us.

College was a time in the desert. Like many, I naively imagined myself to be far from God. Outside of the gift of struggle during those years, one of God's most profound gifts came into my life. Her name is Cathi. She is my wife and the mother to our four beautiful children.

Attending Concordia Lutheran University, in Austin, I had a profound experience with Jesus and felt called into the last job I ever wanted. Moving to Garland to become a Youth Pastor, I attended Perkins School of Theology and received a Masters in Divinity. From Garland we moved to England for a year to serve the British Methodist Church, then back to San Antonio to serve Alamo Heights UMC. They sent me to the river.

Standing in the rushing water I knew a new adventure had begun. While I am still discovering what it means the most profound moment of it all was coming up out of the water and into The Riverside Community.

For years and years I attended church and knew so much about God and yet it wasn't until I was 36 years old that I really knew Him. The scriptures tell us when we seek Him, we will find Him, but I didn't understand what that meant until the day I finally got on my knees and said, "I give up," "I surrender," help me find the life you want me to have and give me the grace to be obedient to do the things you ask me to do. Wow, did my life change! It was as if I had come out of the desert and entered an oasis - I had no idea what I had been missing.

Since that day, I have been actively engaged in mission, discipleship, prayer, and pastoral oversight. Serving the Lord and His Kingdom is the passion of my life outside of my husband and children. My husband's name is Randy and I have four children - Madison who is married to Elizabeth (my 4th child!), Travis, a student at Texas A&M (Whoop!) and Meredith, an incoming Freshman at the University of Texas (Hook 'Em!). Life is good and I look forward to our journey together!

I studied accounting in college. I love math and numbers, but I didn't always love church. I judged women who claimed they were Christians and I never wanted to be a part of their studies, retreats, or prayers. My assumptions were rocked as soon as I received an invitation to church by one.

The church has become a part of my family. Loving my neighbor has become a reality as I eat dinner at my neighbor's home and water their plants when they leave town. I am also able to use what I learned in accounting and administration to "number crunch" for the Kingdom of Heaven.

My days are a mixture of washing Power Ranger t-shirts and driving to Little League, while answering the church phone and watching over ministry finances. What a gift to be able to use both my mom skills and my accounting skills as a way of investing in the Kingdom.

From the early age of six, I knew God had a call on my life. I was bold and I spoke to anyone who would listen to how much Jesus loves them. As I entered my teen years, I ran from the call on my life in every wrong direction, but I knew that God would catch me and say, "It's time to come back, my child." Oh boy, did he ever grab a hold of me, throwing me into ministry right from the start.

When I married my husband, Lance, I instantly became a mom to a 7 year old boy. It was not your picture perfect family model! I had a hard time with the fact that he didn't like me. Every child loved me up to this point. It was hard that I had students who admired me, but my own step-son didn't want to be around me. I struggled with the fact that I went to college to learn how to deal with children in difficult situations, but I couldn't "fix" this issue. I gave up and gave it to the only one who can fix all things. As time passed, God would show me different ways to love this child. When I got pregnant with my son, Zane, three years later, God filled me with a love unimaginable and a heart of grace. I knew then He had been preparing me for something. He allowed me to know the struggles that some families face. He taught me how to love and learn from a child that didn't want my love.

When people ask, "Why children's ministry?" I simply smile and say, "I have no idea, but I know God called me and He brought me through a journey to get here."

Story. I love to hear the stories that make up peoples lives. My story has lots ups and downs, fear and freedom, things that are hard to talk about and things that are fun to share. I hope my story looks like someone who hates to play it safe, who likes to be filled with wonder rather than certainty, and someone who is willing to risk much.

My wife, Christi, and I started our story together almost 6 years ago. She has made my story anything but boring! She is wild, hilarious and most of all she loves Jesus. We have a little girl named Rhyan that we deeply love and who has certainly spiced up our story.

I love what I do. I love working with youth because I get to help them wrestle with their own story. I believe that the stories of youth are some of the most colorful and life giving that you will ever hear. They dream big stories: stories that are hard, stories that are real, and stories that need to be told.

When all is said and done...I hope that all of our stories look like the heart of God."

"Who am I and why do You want me?" this was the question i constantly asked myself as i muddled my way through the motions of a Christian life. Growing up in a Christian home i knew very well what it took, but was never really interested in what it had to offer. I lived my life how i wanted and was never interested in what God wanted it to be. As long as i was happy that was all that mattered, right?........wrong and oh how wrong i was. It wasn't about me, it really had nothing to do with me. Could there possibly be something more to life? Yes, and that would be Jesus. It was in some of the roughest parts of my life that Jesus came and rescued me. He pulled me out of my "little world" and completely shook my life up.

After so many years of slapping the title "Christian" on my life, i finally knew what it meant to live my life as a Christian. To chase hard after Christ and to settle for nothing less than what He wanted for me. It is still a constant struggle in accepting all that He has for me, and I am your typical stubborn child who doesn't always want what the Father has to offer. Luckily He loves me through my child-like actions, my rebellious attitude, and my stubborn ways. He wants me regardless of where I came from or what I did, for He knows where I'm going and who I'm becoming. And that blows me away!

As an 18 year old fresh out of high school, why teenagers?? Why go back?? Well i was there not long ago, in the middle of the jungle amongst heartbreak, failure, and a feeling of worthlessness. It is the roughest, meanest, most awkward years of a teenagers life and I want to be there to encourage them, to love on them, and to ask them one of the hardest questions "Who am I and why does He want me?"

Growing up in a VERY small town in West Texas, I was forced as a child to go to church but never paid attention during the service. I had learned at a young age who Jesus was and how he died for our sins, but that was all. This whole having a "relationship" with Christ was of no importance of me.

After the divorce between my mom and her ex-husband was finalized, we all moved to the Spring Branch/Bulverde area. It was definitely a hard transition for me going from living in a small town with 13 classmates to now living in the suburbs of San Antonio with up to 400. My mom also had a difficult time with the transition and began to look for answers while going to a nondenominational church and, of course, dragging my younger siblings and myself along with her.

It wasn't until after my senior year in high school that I realized a life without Christ isn't a life at all. In the summer of 2007, I gave my life to Jesus hoping that my struggles would no longer have control over me. As I began to attend church more regularly (because I WANTED to), I felt that there was still an absence inside of me. I knew I had begun this new life of mine, but I realized that I had no one to share it with. The church I was attending was great and all, but I felt as if I were just a number to the amount of people attending that specific service. I had heard about Riverside from a couple of friends of mine and how all the people there were really close with one another. I heard how lives were shared openly and how God was using them in one way or another, and how people came together as a community and held each other accountable in their walk with Jesus. After my first visit to Riverside, I knew instantly that this was the church for me. I thought to myself, "I choose this church." Having this type of community in my life has been GREAT! I've met so many lifelong friends and have definitely grown in my relationship with Christ with the help of this community.

All my life I was told which church I had to attend and when I was going to attend it. Finally, I was able to choose which church was my church! Well...so I thought. You see, it was almost a year ago that I realized that as much as I would like the credit for choosing Riverside, It was the Lord all along that chose Riverside for me. He knew what type of community I had to be in and how the people in that community were going to impact my life.

Isn't it funny how God works? Like many at Riverside the story of how I came to be here begins at the Loft. Having released my first album in 2004 I was encouraged to talk with the folks at the Loft about playing there. Coming in I met with several faces I already knew and within a couple of weeks was playing music on the back porch. In walks Scott... not only had we met at a Starbucks a year earlier but we hit it off, and I began leading worship on Wednesdays. This went on for a year when I was called away to Riverside's parent church. During that time I played for many local churches but my heart always felt drawn back to Riverside.

My favorite part of this story is that another year later Sharon, Tyler and I made the commitment to join Riverside simply to come and worship. As God often does, within months He surprised us as the leadership welcomed me as Worship Pastor.

Today I am blessed to continue my songwriting and recording in addition to the ministry of Riverside. I am enjoying the best of my 25 years in ministry and it is proving time and again to be an answer to prayer for my family. Here we have discovered our roots in a Spirit-led Kingdom community, made lasting friendships, been challenged to dig deeper, and walked closer with our God. This is home... this is Riverside!

After 28 years of making some hilariously (now) awful decisions, and reading every self help book under the sun, I thought, "why not give this Jesus thing a shot." In 2002, post a painful divorce, I surrendered fully to the Lord doing my best to give Him my everything. I remember reading a quote, "Your greatest life messages and your most effective ministry will come out of your deepest hurts." Seriously?

Not two years later, through journaling, the Lord revealed His path for my first adventure...opening a coffee house to create community and be a front door for the church. I laughed out loud. Me? The queen of making a million bad decisions everyday who has attended church for maybe only 4 months now? YEAH RIGHT! A good friend said to me, "Remember Gideon." Thinking of Gideon's story was enough for me to step out in faith and sure enough, the Lord walked beside me every step of the way... although still very hard at times...but I know it is all possible with Him.

I believe that God plants something inside of people. My "something" is a constant awareness of people in my own backyard that don't have shoes to wear or food to eat.

When I was young, I lived in Brazil with my dad who was in the military, stationed there. I learned that there are people who lack basic needs, who usually live uncomfortably close to people who have much more than the bare necessities. Now, living in Comal County, I cannot go out to eat or to the store without God highlighting people in need. It was out of this need that the HOPE Center was birthed. The Kingdom of Heaven doesn't have boundaries or a zip code. I am continually blown away when God shifts my thinking and expands my heart. The HOPE center is now being prepared to reach struggling people as far as Mexico and Africa. In fact, He has even prompted me to complete an application for a Passport. I am excited about the possibility of reaching across oceans, but my heart will be always be drawn to those in our own backyard.

One of my mentors when I was a teenager, Jay, said, "If you ever want to make G-d laugh, tell Him your plans."

I grew up in Garland. I have two great parents and a little sister who is too cool for school. We grew up in a great community of believers, and I started volunteering in that community when I was in the third grade.

When I was thirteen or fourteen, our youth intern told me to read the Sermon on the Mount. I did, and it wrecked my life. Since then, I have been trying to follow G-d as closely as I can. I want to be covered in the dust my Rabbi kicks up behind Him. Following my Rabbi has led me to make decisions that don't seem to make sense, like leaving a community I love in Austin to move to San Antonio, where I knew nearly no one, but that's what has made my story so exciting and fun to live out.

So, I moved from Austin to San Antonio, and this incredible woman I have been dating for some time introduced me to Riverside. In the ten months my girlfriend and I have spent in this community, we have had so much fun being apart of the Kingdom building that is going on. I am honored and humbled to be working along side these men and women who are so committed to what the Lord is doing.