Pastor: Bill Hartley

Bill has been in pastoral ministry for over 20 years – as a a Senior Pastor (Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Atascadero CA), Pastor for Worship (Spokane WA, Santa Barbara CA, Lompoc CA, St. Charles IL), Associate Pastor (Spokane WA, Concord CA), and most recently as Mesa Area Pastor at East Valley Bible Chureach, Gilbert. It was there, from 2006 to 2008, that God put on the heart of Bill and many others the vision of planting a church in East Mesa.

Bill’s educational training includes a BA in Religious Studies (Bible/Christian Theology) from Westmont College in Santa Barbara, CA; an MA in Historical Theology from Wheaton College Graduate School (Wheaton, IL); and PhD work (Church History, incomplete) at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Bill and his wife Karen, both originally from California, have been married since 1990, and have two children, Camille and Evelyn.

Elder: David Finney

Dave was born again in January of 1997 in South Lyon, Michigan. He graduated East Valley Bible Church Training Center in May, 2006, and currently serves as an ordained Chaplain with Chaplain Fellowship Motorcycle Ministries, and a Chaplain with Black Sheep Harley Davidsons for Christ Motorcycle Ministry.

In November of 2007, Dave and Patti became founding members at San Tan Bible Church in Gilbert, AZ. Dave served as a Pastor/Elder there until joining the church plant team of Christchurch in June of 2009.

Dave is has been employed full time in the telecommunications industry for 33 years. Currently he works for Polycom, Inc. as a Senior Systems Engineer. He and his wife Patti have a daughter, Lisa MacCallum, who with her husband Matt have four children: Drew, Lorelai, Topher, and Ezra.

Elder: Jason Haas

Jason was born into a “religious” family, but turned away from God as a teen. But God was not through with Jason! He started to get excited about ministry after working at Christian summer camps in the 1999 and 2000.  He then spent three years with a group of men going through Dr. Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology.  Jason served as an an interim co-pastor at a small church in Pheonix, doing much of the preaching during that time. He and his family eventually made their way to East Valley Bible Church in 2007, and joined the Christchurch planting team when it was founded in 2009.

The Haas family is also training for cross-cultural missions/church planting, with an eye toward possibly serving the Lord on the mission field in Papua New Guinea.

Jason and his wife Teresa have four children: Mia, Gwenyth, Nicolette and Harmony.

Elder: Thom Olmstead

Born in western New York state, Thom moved to Arizona at the age of 11, and was led to faith in Christ at the Church of the Redeemer in Mesa in 1971. Having served in youth, music and adult ministries for many years, including his service as an Elder at Cornerstone Church in Mesa, Thom joined the church planting team for Christchurch early in 2009, and brings his considerable experience and wisdom to our new leadership team.

Thom graduated from Arizona State University with a degree in math and biological science education, and has been a mathematics teacher at “The Harvard of the East Valley” (a.k.a., Apache Junction HS) ever since. Thom and his wife Sue have two grown children, Katie and Ryan, and one grandchild, Samuel.

Elder: Larry Ross

He’s a great guy – we just don’t have his bio in yet!