The Team
- Mark Batterson
- Blog
- Lead Pastor
Mark is married to Lora and they have three children, Parker, Summer and Josiah.
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 University. He is the author of ID: The True You and In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day.
And most importantly, he is still the undisputed wrestling champion of the Batterson family.
- Paul Irwin
- Pastor of Marriage and Counseling
Paul and Colleen Irwin have lived in Washington, DC since 2005. They’ve been married over twenty-eight 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, particulary from underserved 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.
- Joel and Nina Schmidgall
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- Campus Pastor, Ballston
- Children's Ministry Coordinator
Joel grew up in Naperville, Illinois, where he gained a love for the Trifecta (Cubs, Bears, and Bulls), pickup basketball, and Malnotti’s pizza. He graduated from Central Bible College in 1999 and moved to Washington DC. A year and half later he came on staff full-time at NCC. He married Nina in 2004 and they’re living happily on Capitol Hill with their daughter Ella.
Joel works with outreach and missions at the church and is the campus pastor at Ballston.
- Heather Zempel
- Blog ·
- Discipleship Pastor
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.
- Dave Clark
- Blog ·
- Media Pastor, Georgetown Campus Pastor
Dave Clark is happily married to Jenn, and they have a baby boy, David. Dave and Jenn were married in May of 2004 and they moved to DC to join team NCC a few weeks after that. Dave graduated from Valley Forge Christian College in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania with a major in pastoral studies and a minor in music. The thing that Dave enjoyed most about attending college was meeting his wife.
Being a pastors kid and practically being born in a church pew—actually a hospital in Kalamazoo, MI—Dave grew up being involved in church and ministry throughout his childhood. As he got older, he developed a passion for using technology in the church. Dave began to use his hobbies and talents for God through his high school and college years. Planning on going into a more traditional role of ministry after college, Dave was excited when the opportunity arose to come to NCC and to use his calling into ministry and his passion for technology all at once.
- David Russell
- Facebook Profile · Blog ·
- Digital Pastor
David and Missy live on Capitol Hill. As Digital Pastor, David manages electronic communications at NCC. The Russells grew up in Alabama in pastors’ homes. They were married on Valentine’s Day 2004 and moved to DC in 2006 to join team NCC. In September of 2007, David and Missy celebrated the birth of their son, Andrew.
David is a technologist with a B.A. in Speech and Communications from the University of Montevallo (2003). He enjoys web standards, accessibility and usability, XHTML, CSS, PHP, MySQL, design, open source ideology and free information.
- Chris Jarrell
- Blog ·
- Campus Pastor, Union and Ebenezers
Chris and Lora have been happily married for 13 years and just moved to Capitol Hill with their 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 and spent six years in a church near Richmond where Chris served as an Associate Pastor. They are excited about the opportunity to be a part of the NCC team.
- Jeremy Sexton
- Blog ·
- Associate 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.
- John Hasler
- 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.
- Christina y Dairo Borja
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- Business Executive
- El Pastor de Español
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 recently had their first baby, Giovanny, on May 8, 2007. Christina’s most recent project was overseeing the construction of 201 F Street NE, which includes the coffeehouse, church offices, and meeting space for Saturday evening services and community events. She currently acts as our Chief Financial Officer.
Dairo was born in Santa Marta, Colombia, but grew up in Bogotá. He and Christina have been happily married since December 2001 and are happy parents. Dairo leads NCC en Español. He and his wife feel a calling to minister to the Hispanic community in the DC metro area. Dairo has been living in the U.S. for more the five years. He studies music at the University of the District of Columbia and enjoys many different instruments: drums, bass, piano, guitar, and percussion.
- Juliet Main
- Conference Coordinator
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.
- Bekah Kitterman
- Administrative Assistant
Bekah grew up in Ludington, Michigan on the shore of Lake Michigan where she learned to swim, sing, dance, and make her own fun. She has a B.A. in Studio Art from Greenville College (2006) with a mixed media sculptural emphasis. She enjoys getting her hands dirty, introducing people to the arts, international travel, and doing all sorts of fun random things with her husband Ian.
Bekah and Ian moved to Washington, DC in August of 2006 after a whirlwind summer of graduating from Greenville College, planning a wedding, getting married, and preparing Ian for his first year of law school at Georgetown. They now reside on Capitol Hill which serves as “home base” for all of their adventures.