The Team: Brad Vermurlen
Sep 14, 2009 The Team
I thought I’d bring back my old Monday tradition (at least for this week) of highlighting a Riv team member. Today’s victim is Brad Vermurlen.
Brad started coming around Riv when he was a high school student. He since defected to the University of Michigan where he graduated with high honors. Now he is a Grad Student working toward his PhD in Sociology at Notre Dame. In his spare time, he works as a Research Team Captain at Docent Research Group. The bottom line is Brad is an uber talented, wicked smart, incredibly busy dude.
And yet he finds time to volunteer as my Research Assistant. I bounce my message ideas off of him, often sending him my first drafts and then he goes to work like a rabid research monkey. After a day or so (sometimes literally within hours), I open my inbox to find a research paper that contains all kinds of sources, statistics, analysis, and other assorted goodies to enhance my message. He also challenges my direction or take on different topics if he feels like I am in error or am misstating the facts.
I can’t begin to tell you how valuable Brad is to the team. Actually, I think I just began to do so. Sorry…I felt like I needed to clear that up otherwise Brad would rebuke me for misstating the facts. It’s just how he rolls.
The Team: Shelley Hrapkiewicz
Jun 22, 2009 The Team
It’s been a few weeks since I have heaped praise on a Riv team member, so I thought I’d do so again today.
This week’s victim is Shelley Hrapkiewicz. Go ahead…try to pronounce her last name. Want some help? “Rap-KEV-Ech” Try saying that ten times fast. Or even worse, try spelling it one time slowly. I’m just delighted there is someone at Riv with a harder to work with last name than me!
Shelley has other redeeming qualities besides her last name. Namely, that she is our Operations Genius around these parts. She is an accountant by trade and that’s what we initially hired her to do. To our benefit, she quickly outgrew that position and she now helps keep all of Riv’s expanding Operations aimed in the right direction. Here are some interesting facts about Shelley:
- She once had to fight to keep from giggling while telling our staff we were cutting the budget.
- Her idea of leisure reading is the “2009 Clergy Tax and Compensation Guide”
- If you want candy, just wander into her office sometime.
- Kids wander into her office all the time.
- She is really really really into good food. Did I mention “really?”
- She makes me cowboy coffee.
- She once turned a two-page food policy document into a better 3 two-sentence food policy document.
- She is always down for a good practical joke, usually done from a human-resources angle.
- She laughs a lot.
- She’s like the mom around here.
The Team: Gary Darling
May 11, 2009 The Team
It’s Monday and that means it’s time for me to brag on our of our team at Riv.
Today’s target? Gary Darling.
Gary is a great example of someone from one generation pouring into other generations. Gary is a retiree (and I don’t even know what he did for a career…shame on me) who volunteers tons of time around here.
He and his wife faithfully teaching in our RivKids program. But it doesn’t stop there, they watch little kids for our MOPS program as well, which is a blast to watch. He is on the floor with the kids, playing and eating crazy kid snacks, and generally loving on the kids.
He also “babysits” our website. He keeps it updated each week, uploading the messages and constantly searching for the elusive broken link. Gary is even overseeing our team that is working on our bi-annual website overhaul. On top of all this, he runs his own site called Project405.
If there is one word I would use to describe Gary it would be “faithful.” He epitomizes Jesus’ admonition:
Matthew 5:37 Just say a simple, ‘Yes, I will,’ or ‘No, I won’t.’ Anything beyond this is from the evil one.
When Gary says he will do it, then he will, period. We need more Garys.
The Team: Nate Klan
Apr 13, 2009 The Team
It’s Monday, and that means it’s time to highlight another Riv team member. Today, I want to introduce you to Nate Klan.
I have literally known Nate his entire life. His big brother was my best friend and Nate arrived on the scene when we were in High School. You can ask him about ways we tortured him, but suffice it to say we were cruel.
Years later, when Nate was in High School, I ended up serving as his Youth Pastor. He became instrumental in putting together sets and staging on a none existent budget for us. But oh man, was it a mess. We’d have extension cords mazed all over the place, work lights hooked up to dimmers (bad idea) which Nate himself had wired (even worse idea).
Fast forward a decade and now Nate is doing the very same things for Riv, but at a much higher level. He does all the set design and lighting schemes for our weekend services. He actually has a budget now and while it’s not a lot of money, he can always create something cool with it.
I’m honestly not sure how Nate holds down a full-time job, takes care of his wife and kid, and volunteers so much time to the church, but he does it. And he doesn’t complain…his attitude is consistently spectacular, even when I throw him a last minute curve ball (which is often).
Check out Nate’s blog to see what he’s up to and see a behind the scenes look at the set design at Riv. You can also find him on Flickr.
The Team: Gary and Kim Rudnicki
Apr 6, 2009 The Team
It’s been a few weeks since I highlighted a Riv team member, so I thought I’d take some time today to highlight another couple that kicks butt around here: Gary and Kim Rudnicki. And since they are vacationing in Italy right now (jerks) they won’t see this. Bwa ha.
I remember the first time I met Gary and Kim. We bumped into each other in Detroit Metro as I was flying out to a conference and they were flying out to vacation (they love their vacations). It was a quick, “Hi, we go to Riverview, nice to meet you” kind of moment that I have a lot. A few weeks later, Gary heard I was installing hardwood floors at my house and volunteered to help me out. My first reaction was, “I hope this guy’s not a nutjob stalker type.”
He was quite the opposite. Gary is one of those guys who loves to serve in any way he can and since he knew how to do hardwood floors, he wanted to help. He worked his tail off and told me his story about how he and his fam ended up at Riv while we measured and cut and hammered away.
Long story short, again and again Gary showed himself to be an amazing leader with the greatest servant’s heart. Eventually, he ended up taking over our Welcome Team and has taken that ministry through the roof! They now have over 120 volunteers serving every single week at both of our locations.
And Gary always seems to get time on my calendar whenever he wants it. That’s probably because his wife Kim is now my assistant.
For the last year, she has worked with Dan and I to keep our lives in order. She manages my schedule, sorts through my email (which is a monumental project), and generally keeps me on task. I have heard it said that a good assistant can actually double your effectiveness and it is absolutely true. Even as a part-timer (with two bosses), she works tirelessly to make sure I am spending my time in the areas I need to me spending it.
Of course this week, all bets are off. She’s out of town and I am already feeling the pressure. Her taking vacation is actually a form of job security: I realize how valuable she is when she’s gone.
The Team: The Riv Pastors
Mar 9, 2009 The Team
I have the honor of working with one of the best church staff teams in the known universe (although I may be a tad biased). Today, I want to highlight the guys that lead this crazy staff team: The Riv Pastors.
When I think of these guys, I am reminded of William Shakespeare’s words in Henry V:
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.
At Riverview, we have a team-model to leadership. That means that the five pastors serve together to lead the church. We have different roles, but equal responsibility for the church. This can sometimes be a cumbersome structure, but it gives each of us the freedom to work in our “sweet spots.” Here are a few thoughts on each of these guys:
Mark Brett
Mark serves as a “bi-vocational pastor” at Riv. That means he works his butt off and we don’t pay him anything. He has a day job that is super demanding and he still finds time to serve on our team. Mark is an operations master and uses that gift to oversee our East Lansing Venue and EPIC (our ministry at MSU). He also gives me tons of counsel on big-picture issues and has a great ability to see the forest instead of the trees.
Paul DenHerder
I can honestly say I wouldn’t be a pastor if it wasn’t for Paul. He is a shepherd at heart and spent years and years pouring his life into mine. When I was a young punk, he bought me lunch 300 weeks in a row. He would listen (a lot), advise, and pray with me. Paul writes the Message Notes we email out each week, which allows him to use his shepherd’s gift on a big scale. He also works with a lot of our different counseling deals going on and oversees a lot of day to day ministry.
Dan Price
Dan and I first met at a conference where he was leading the music and I was teaching. We clicked then and the rest is history. When we hired Dan, we knew he was a phenomenal musician but had no idea what a great leader he is. In addition to overseeing our 7 bands (which includes writing and arranging a lot of music, recorded albums, etc), he is an intuitive discipler and socratic teacher. He works with an amazing number of ministries around Riv and is my primary sounding board for crazy ideas.
Steve Sommerlot
Steve is our elder statesman around here. I’m contractually limited from disclosing his age, but let’s just say he’s been bald most of his life (you do the math). Steve teaches a lot at our Holt Venue both on the main stage and in classes. He is a self-taught theologian and he works hard to keep us from going off the deep end with our doctrine. He oversees our RivU classes and generally makes sure I’m reigned in and heading in the right direction.
The Team: Eddie and Renee Cloutier
Mar 2, 2009 The Team
Today I continue my little Monday tradition highlighting someone from Riv’s team that rocks my socks off.
This post highlights 2 people who are 1 in the flesh: Eddie and Renee Cloutier
Eddie and Renee have been part of our team at Riv since…well…since I wasn’t even a teenager yet. Let’s just say it was a long time ago.
I remember the first time I met them. A bunch of us were heading to a conference and when we boarded an airport shuttle, there weren’t enough seats. So I sat on this dude’s lap. He looked vaguely familiar to me, but little did I know how much…
The first time I visited their home, Renee made me whole wheat cinnamon rolls from scratch. Oh man. They are still one of my favorite things ever.
At the time, Eddie was co-pastoring one of Riv’s daughter churches in the Detroit area. Over time, they ended up moving back to the Lansing area and that’s where I got to know them better and better.
Eddie serves around here as a volunteer extraordinaire. I seriously don’t know how he has time to run his business with all he does for us. He has overseen many projects at Riv; from our finances, to our operations, to our facility. Eddie is a “trend genius.” He can predict where our finances are going with the most subtle of changes and can spot building problems before anyone sees them. Eddie is singlehandedly the reason our building is in as good of shape as it is. His most recent project was getting our building expansion built. He kept everything going smoothly and on budget.
Renee is a part-time staffer around here in the office. She works with our financial gifts, doing all the grunt work of entering data and producing my favorite piece of paper of the week: the weekend report on attendance and giving. She also keeps her eye on our Own It. campaign. But one of Renee’s most valuable roles for me personally is cheerleader. She constantly shoots me encouraging emails about what’s happening around Riv and when necessary challenges me to get my butt in line. Awesome.
Eddie and Renee are uniquely gifted to help make other people successful. I owe a large measure of my personal growth to them and Riv owes them more than anyone will ever realize.
The Team: Kristie Henry
Feb 23, 2009 The Team
At Riv, we have the best (and most overworked) team. We only have 4 full-time staff that are fully paid by the church. Everyone else is volunteer, part-time or raises their support through GCM.
And since we can’t pay them what they are worth with actual money, I thought of something even better. I’ll start to pay them with an all coveted NoelHeikkinen.com Blog Post! Over the next several weeks (and who knows how much longer), I am going to use my Monday posts to highlight / embarrass / praise someone from our team.
To start this off, I have to talk about our Creative Director, Kristie Henry.
Kristie started out at Riv as an unpaid intern. She spent a summer cleaning up all of our graphic design (she was a design student at NC State). A few years later, she fell into our trap by falling in love with our web-guru Eric. They married and she moved to town to become our part-time graphic artist.
Over the years, her influence has spread greatly. She is part of the benevolent dictatorship (along with Dan and I) of the Black Shirt Club, which is a group of artistic weirdos that do a lot of the weekend service madness around here. She has become the primary architect of Riv’s artistic style, from the weekend services, to the signage, to the building’s aesthetic, to the Corridor Gallery, to the monthly newsletter. Riv would not be nearly as “cool” without Kristie. We wouldn’t be able to help the Right Brained people in the church track with the teachings quite as well without her artistic ability. I have no idea how many hours she tirelessly works, but I do know that she never complains, always looks for things to tweek, and is seriously one of the MVPs around here.
And of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t quote Steve Sommerlot:
“This water tastes like Kristie smells.”
True words.
