The Executive Team
- Mark Batterson
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- Lead Pastor
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Mark was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, did a short stint in Wisconsin where he became a cheese head, and grew up in Naperville, Illinois.
Mark went to the University of Chicago on a basketball scholarship and majored in pre-law. After a prayer walk through a cow pasture in 1989, he felt called to full time ministry and ended up at Central Bible College. That’s the short story. Mark also has two masters degrees from Trinity International University. He is the author of In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day and Wild Goose Chase.
And most importantly, he is still the undisputed wrestling champion of the Batterson family.
- Christina y Dairo Borja
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- Spanish Ministries Coordinator
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Christina is married to husband Dairo and has been on staff since January 2002. Dairo and Christina met in Cuenca, Ecuador while Christina was doing a year-long missions term. The rest, as they say, is history. They live on Capitol Hill, just a few blocks from Ebenezers Coffeehouse, and have two children, Giovanni (May 2007) and Cali (January 2009). Christina serves as our Chief Financial Officer and has done several different jobs over the years at NCC, including overseeing the construction of 201 F Street NE (coffeehouse, church offices, and meeting space for Saturday evening services and community events) and was our founding manager of Ebenezers Coffeehouse.
Dairo was born in Santa Marta, Colombia, but grew up in Bogotá. He and Christina have been happily married since December 2001. Dairo leads NCC Bilingual, our monthly service for Spanish speakers, and is one of our floor managers at Ebenezers. He and his wife feel a calling to minister to the Hispanic community in the DC metro area. He enjoys many different instruments: drums, bass, piano, guitar, and percussion and plays at our various locations on the weekends.
- Joel and Nina Schmidgall
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Email - Campus Pastor, Ballston
- Children's Ministry Coordinator
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Joel was born and raised in Naperville, Illinois. He is an unpaid marketer for all things Chicago, especially the Cubs, Malnotti’s pizza, and Portillo’s beef-and-cheddar!!!
He graduated from Central Bible College in Springfield, Missouri with a BA in Biblical studies. He then spent a year working with the National Prayer Breakfast before joining the NCC team full time in 2000. Joel overseas all locations at the church as well as leading the Ballston site. He also gives leadership to the missions and outreach initiatives.
Joel & Nina were married in 2004 and have two little Cubs fans: Ella and Zeke. Favorite family traditions are music jam sessions, tickle time, and reading books over and over and over and over. They live on Capitol Hill and love this city!
- Heather Zempel
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- Discipleship Pastor
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Originally from Mobile, Alabama, Heather enjoys humid weather, SEC football, and fried dill pickles. She attended Louisiana State University (Geaux Tigers!) where she earned her B.S. and M.S. in biological engineering.
After leaving the swamps of Cajun country, Heather worked for two years as an environmental engineer for a consulting firm in Tennessee and spent 5 years as a legislative assistant on environment and energy policy for a United States Senator.
Now, she engineers environments to facilitate community and discipleship as she works with the small groups at NCC. Her blog, Wineskins for Discipleship, fuels discussion and innovative ideas for creatively discipling emerging generations. Heather is married to the multi-talented Ryan Zempel, and they live on Capitol Hill.
The Pastoral Team
- Paul Irwin
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- Pastor of Marriage and Counseling
Paul and Colleen Irwin have lived in Washington, DC since 2005. They’ve been married over twenty-nine years and have four young adult children: Justin, Brandon, Christine and Kent.
Paul lived in Egypt and Malawi in his childhood years. He has an abiding interest in Africa and the Middle East. With a background in Biblical studies, psychology and pastoral counseling, Paul has served as a university campus pastor, Bible college teacher, and in church leadership in diverse settings. His passion is to encourage and equip emerging servant leaders, those in DC and beyond. He also coaches interns and young adults in urban ministry. Paul loves to see people catch God’s heart for world missions outreach.
Paul currently serves his NCC church family with team initiatives to prepare couples for marriage, to strengthen marriages and to give guidance to those who need extra support.
Colleen is a registered nurse. She has a passion for single moms and fatherless kids, particularly from under-served families. She has worked alongside Paul in marriage and family classes and small groups. Together they have been involved with young-adults and married couples everywhere they have lived: California, Colorado, Minnesota, Michigan and DC.
- Chris Jarrell
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- Campus Pastor, Kingstowne
Chris and Lora have been happily married for 15 years and live in Northern Virginia with their son, Torin, and two dogs, Pebbles and Bam Bam. They both enjoy a little healthy competition whether they are challenging each other in a 10k or their respective football teams are locked in battle.
Chris was born and raised in Alexandria, Virginia and has a passion for the Washington metropolitan area. Chris is also an avid fan of all Pittsburgh sports teams. “Steelers, baby!”
Chris and Lora have been in ministry since 1994.
- Dave Schmidgall
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- Campus Pastor, Union Station
- Jeremy Sexton
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- Media Pastor
Jeremy graduated from Valley Forge Christian College in May of 2007. After having completed an internship with NCC in summer 2006, he was thrilled to have the opportunity to come back and serve on staff. In college, serving on a ministry team with some friends, he developed many of the skills and abilities with multimedia that he puts in practice every day as Associate Media Pastor.
Originally from the Cleveland, OH area, Jeremy is one of those Buckeye fans as well as a bit obsessive over the Cavs, Browns, and Tribe. He also is a hobbyist magician and loves performing. To add to his list of strange interests, he is also an avid pro wrestling fan and loves small independent promotions such as Ring of Honor and Chikara.
The Support Team
- Melissa Cummins
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- Finance Team
Melissa spent the first 22 years of her life in Kansas, learning to love KU basketball and flat skylines. After studying social welfare and Spanish (and watching dozens of home basketball games), she graduated from the University of Kansas. Melissa moved to DC for a two-year placement with Teach for America in the DC Public Schools that soon turned into an eight year teaching career. While in DC, Melissa met her husband, Dan, and they now have a son, Eli. After Eli was born, Melissa decided to put away the chalk and joined the NCC staff part-time in June of 2009. She has been attending NCC since 2002.
- John Hasler
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- Assistant Discipleship Pastor
A proud Midwesterner, John grew up in the southwestern suburbs of Chicago and spent his summers with family on the other side of ‘the lake’ in Sister Lakes, Michigan. He received his B.A. in International Economics and Cultural Affairs and German from Valparaiso University in Indiana.
Combining an undergraduate exchange program, a Fulbright Scholarship, numerous internships, and a Masters Degree program in European Studies, John spent four years living in Germany. In addition to his academic studies there, he worked with campus ministry in Berlin and completed a Discipleship Training School with Steiger International in Karlsruhe.
His tenure at NCC started in a volunteer capacity in 2004, where he helped create NCC’s In Service homeless ministry. Over the years he has been instrumental in cultivating small groups that focus on social justice. After interning with Heather Zempel in 2007, John joined the staff in early 2008. Officially part of “Team D” (Discipleship) John has his hand in any and all things involving social justice and community building, while bringing his unique passion and international experience to the team.
- Juliet Main
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- Conference Coordinator
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Juliet joined the NCC Team in 2006 as the Buzz Coordinator and the Events Manager at Ebenezers Coffeehouse.
Originally from Belle Fourche, SD, Juliet went to the University of Wyoming on a rodeo scholarship where she graduated with a degree in Communications. Upon graduation she headed east to Washington, DC to work for a US Congresswoman. After working on the Hill for five years she escaped the Beltway and did a two-year stint with Youth with a Mission (YWAM) in Townsville, Queensland Australia where she was part of an event management team that coordinated events in Australia, New Zealand and Greece.
Juliet began attending NCC in 1998 when it was just one church, one location and Pastor Mark wore a suit.
- Dasha Smith
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- Office Manager
- Maegan Stout
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- Office Assistant
The Protégé Team
- Chris Howell
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- Discipleship Protégé
- Jenilee LeFors
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- Kids & Youth Protégé
- Ross Middleton
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- Campus Pastor at Ebenezers
Ross has been married to wife Amy Middleton for 7 years. They have two little boys, Aiden (4) & Eli (2) who have so much energy that if bottled could make their parents millions of dollars. They hail from the great state of Florida and have worked with Every Nation Campus Ministries at Florida State University, their Alma Mater, for almost 7 years before coming here to NCC.
- Kari Olney
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- Deaf Ministries Protégé
- Andy Pisciotti
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- Media Protégé
- Josh Rust
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- Media Protégé