Gwen Cram
Pastor of Early Childhood Ministries

Born and raised in Wilmington, Delaware, Gwen was the oldest of four children. As a child she attended a Nazarene church in Newark and a Christian Missionary Alliance Church in Wilmington where God spoke to her heart. Like Samuel, it was at a tender age that Gwen felt a deep sense that God was calling her into His service. Although her...

Carol Kenyon
Interim Pastor of Preteen Ministries

Carol Kenyon has attended Lake Avenue Church with her husband since moving to California 20 years ago. A graduate of Rochester Institute of Technology, School of Art and Design, she coped with many years of raising young children by freelancing all over Pasadena. Now parents of 6 sons, the Kenyons have navigated...

Jeff Mattesich
Associate Pastor of Children's & Student Ministries

Jeff Mattesich is the Associate Pastor of Students at Lake Avenue Church in Pasadena, CA. As a 15-year youth ministry veteran, Jeff has served in several roles in both local church and Christian camping organizations. Prior to his role as Associate Pastor, Jeff served as High School Pastor at Lake Avenue and Junior High and College Director at Forest Home....

Annie McLaren
Pastor of Jr. High Ministries

Annie McLaren is the Pastor of Junior High Ministries here at Lake Avenue Church. Annie’s passion is for students to encounter the living God and to authentically walk with Jesus Christ in the life of the church. She is deeply committed to facilitating relationships between adults and junior high students, and believes that God’s love shines through...

Jeff Liou
Pastor of College Ministries

Jeff spent his first ten years in Cleveland, Oklahoma, a small town where there was no lack for hearing the good news of Jesus Christ. He gave his life to Christ one night during Vacation Bible School a local church just down the street from his home. The Sunday School lessons and children’s sermons Jeff received from...

John Secrest
Associate Pastor of Adult Ministries and Pastor of Young Adult Ministries

John and his wife Jessica just celebrated 20 years of marriage. They have three children: Hunter (15), Emma (11) and Sophia who is 8 years old. They come to Pasadena from Knoxville, Tennessee where John spent six years in real estate development and residential contracting. Prior to Knoxville, the Secrests spent 7 years in...

Bill Mead
Pastor of Middle Adult & Men's Ministries

Bill has the distinct privilege of having lived in several different areas of the United States. Life began in Connecticut where he attended grammar school. With his parents being transferred to Louisiana for business, Bill attended four years of high school in the Deep South during the height of the civil rights movement. Upon graduation from...

Walter Alexander
Pastor of Adult Ministries

Born in Singapore to a believing family, Walter trusted Christ at the age of 12. From an early age his giftedness in creative arts led him to serve Christ as a worship leader and drama director in his local church while he was still a student. A passion for justice and truth led him to law school after which he worked as a corporate litigator in a high profile law firm in Singapore...

Tsega Worku
Director of Counseling Ministries

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Roger Bosch
Associate Pastor of Mission & Evangelism and Pastor of Connecting Ministries

Roger grew up in Southern California, in an ethnically dutch neighborhood, where his parents were members of a Dutch Reformed Church (RCA). He completed his secondary schooling in Bellflower and received his B.S. in Business Administration from...

Mayra Nolan
Interim Director of Community Outreach Ministries

Born the daughter of an immigrant single mom, Mayra grew up in East Los Angeles public schools in a similar environment to that of Pasadena at-risk youth, bringing a unique understanding of the daily struggles of the children, youth and families of this community. Understanding the disparity between private and public education in our city...

Scott White
Pastor of Global Outreach

Scott White came to faith at Lake Avenue Church and has called it ‘home' for 34 years. During that time he served on the College Dept staff focused on discipleship ministry, was a founding member of an adult class community and co-teacher/discipler of the Twenty Something community. For over 20 years, he was in business in the....

Jorge Sanchez
Pastor of Comunidad de las Américas

Dr. Jorge O. Sanchez was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The first influence he received was that of a solid Christian home; thus, through his parents' ministry, he came to the saving knowledge of Christ Jesus in his early childhood. The second great influence was that of an inspiring youth pastor who got him involved in Christian ministry...

Alex Serrano
Assistant Pastor of Comunidad de las Américas

In 2007, Alex graduated from Rio Grande Bible Institute with a Bachelor in Theology. It was here that he met his wife Yusmari who graduated RGBI in 2008 with a degree in Children's Ministry. They were married in 2007 and have been blessed with two beautiful children, Rachel and Santiago...

Kohar Jarlekian
Director of LAC School

Koharik Jarlekian, Director of Lake Avenue Church Preschool, was born and raised in Lebanon to an Armenian family. Along with her sister and two brothers, Kohar attended the Armenian Evangelical Church in Bourj Hammoud. She then later attended and graduated from Evangelical High School, where Christian education was a major part of the curriculum...

Curt Gibson
Associate Director of Lake Avenue Community Foundation

Curt Gibson is passionate about helping students. Having been a youth pastor for 15 years in the Nazarene church, over time he became aware of two distinct paths available to students in the Pasadena area. Surprisingly, there are more private schools in Pasadena than public. The private schools are largely filled with students from...

Jeff Jones
Business Administrator

In July of 1999 Jeff came to the Business Administrator role at Lake Avenue Church with an extensive background in corporate management, consulting and representation, with over 17 years devoted to manufacturing and application of item processing systems for commercial and central banks. Jeff also brings ministry leadership experience...

Linda Neuenburg
Director of Finance

Linda began attending Lake Avenue while a student at Azusa Pacific University. She graduated with her degree in Accounting and worked at Ernst & Young, LLP while she earned her CPA. She then earned her MBA while working for ARCO...

Levi Heidelberg
Director of Operations & Campus Services

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Emil Tulcan
Director of Communications & Information Technology

Emil Tulcan has been at Lake Avenue Church since 2000. Prior to working at Lake, he was the director of communications at Bel Air Presbyterian Church in West Los Angeles from 1995 to 2000. Emil was born in Romania and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1975. Since then he has lived in Southern California...