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Meet the Vibrant Faith Team

Vibrant Faith is proud to have an ever-growing group of experienced and effective leaders working with us as coaches and trainers. You’ll be delighted with the ways that the Vibrant Faith team will come alongside you and your faith formation ministry.

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Rick Lawrence

Executive Director

Rick is a ministry leader and an award-winning author, journalist, cultural researcher, editor, and national speaker—he was executive editor of GROUP Magazine for 33 years (winner of the Folio Award for magazine excellence). For many years he led Group Publishing’s Youth Ministry Resourcing Team and served on its Adult Ministry Resourcing Team. He’s also an experienced researcher, conducting large-scale social science research projects in the ministry community. He creates and leads interactive learning experiences and trainings for church and cultural leaders, parents, and teenagers—both in-person and online. He’s host of the popular podcast Paying Ridiculous Attention to Jesus, now in its sixth year, and he leads a “home church” for young adults with a crazy-long name: Pursuing the Heart of Jesus, Not His Recipes. He’s married to Beverly Rose and has a 22-year-old daughter named Lucy Rose and a 18-year-old daughter named Emma Grace

Contact:
rlawrence@vibrantfaith.org

nancy-going-Director-of-Research-and-Resource-Development

Dr. Nancy Going

Director of Research & Resource Development

Dr. Nancy Going still loves working with kids as a volunteer in Children’s Chapel at her church. She has spent her career in ministry leadership with youth. Nancy came on board the Vibrant Faith team as Executive Director in 2014 after teaching and providing leadership at Luther Seminary in the Children Youth and Family Ministry Masters Degree Distributed Learning Program. She has authored articles, curriculum, and contributed to books.

Nancy lives in Durham, North Carolina with her husband Art, an Anglican priest, and they have launched two new families from their children. You can connect with Nancy on the Vibrant Faith blog, Facebook, or Twitter.

Contact:
ngoing@vibrantfaith.org | 877-239-2492 | 615-585-9076

Connect:
Facebook | LinkedIn | Twitter

jim-ladoux-Director-of-Coaching-and-Coaching-School

Jim Ladoux

Director of Coaching Services

With a breadth of experience coaching literally ALL kinds of congregations that flows out of his master’s degree in organizational development and strategic planning, Jim is masterful at helping leaders like you and organizations like yours. He’s also one of the most interested listeners you will ever meet. Jim cares deeply about helping your congregation move from the surface to Vibrant Faith. He is the author of Surface to Soul, a coaching workbook, and tends that movement on surfacetosoul.org, our coaching website.

For more than 20 years, Jim served congregations as a youth minister, and continues to be a faith shaper in the lives of young people through his local church in Burnsville, MN, where he currently serves on the “culture” task force. Jim is married with two teenaged boys.

Contact:
jladoux@vibrantfaith.org | 877-239-2492 | 952-405-7302

Connect:
Facebook | LinkedIn | Twitter

Fred Oduyoye

Founder: Reachable Reconciliation

Fred lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he launched Reachable Reconciliation—an organization and national movement designed to help people integrate into unfamiliar spaces of conversation and relationship. He has been working with and coaching leaders since 2007. He was a National Urban Training Director at Urban Youth Workers Institute for nine years. Fred has also worked as the National Director of Partnerships/Networking for Youth Specialities for four years and is an Advisory Committee Member of the National Network of Youth Ministries. A hobby that Fred enjoys is training and coaching soccer players. Fred and his wife Triniere have four daughters.

Contact:
foduyoye@vibrantfaith.org

Cris Alsum

Administrator

Cris has spent her career supporting leaders and teams in different administrative and operations roles. She has experience in a variety of organizations from Christian publishing and church staff to technology and manufacturing companies. She enjoys organizing information and spaces and has a special place in her heart (and on her desk) for paper planners! Cris is married to Will, and they have two young adult daughters. They live in Colorado and enjoy spending time exploring the beauty and history around them.

Charity Starchenko

Marketing & Communications

Charity Starchenko came to Vibrant Faith as Marketing Manager after working with small- to medium-sized churches, helping build sustainable growth environments that invite people to walk in the way of Jesus more fully. She enjoys lunch with friends, hiking and walking, and good conversation. Charity splits her time between Cary, NC, and Winter Harbor, Maine, and lives with her husband, two children, and a grumpy dog.

Contact:
cstarchenko@vibrantfaith.org

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