Leadership

Paul J. Murphy grew up in Southern California, where he came to a personal relationship of faith in Christ during his teen years. He met his wife during college (in Santa Barbara), attended Denver Seminary, and served as senior pastor in 21 churches — Calvary will be Paul’s 20th “intentional interim” pastorate. Paul serves churches in transition or crisis with Converge, Evangelical Free, Evangelical Covenant, and several other denominations and two nondenominational churches. He has served churches with Sunday attendance ranging from as large as 1300 to as small as 60, in urban, suburban, and rural settings - from Hollywood to Green Bay, to a town of 2,000 population in Iowa - and everything in between. Paul’s first interim was at the urging of Truett Lawson, who was Converge Executive Minister at that time.

Paul and Liz have three adult children and five delightful grandchildren. They live in Apple Valley.

In 1987 the Oettel family came to Calvary. Jon grew up as a Calvary Kid, served in Family Ministry, and has been on staff since 2012. Prior to full-time ministry, he was an elementary teacher for 7 years. When Jon was young his family was drawn to Calvary when they were invited into a home for dinner. That simple kindness made an impact on Jon and showed him what a healthy church family could look like.

Fast forward 30+ years and Jon is most excited about people growing in relationship with Jesus and each other. As Connections Pastor, he helps people get assimilated into the life of the church and leads community groups where healthy relationships begin, are fostered, and mature.

Jon likes watching the church body care for each other, welcoming new people in, meeting each other’s needs, and moving towards the outsider. He wants to have Calvary be known throughout St. Cloud as a place where people love Jesus and love others like Jesus, sharing each other’s burdens.

Jon likes to play. He enjoys games, movies, football, reading, hiking, music, and singing. Jon and his wife Lacey have two children, Ahna and Josiah.

Over the course of the last 14 years, Matt has served in full-time ministry at three different churches in various capacities. Since high school, he’s answered God’s call on his life to pastor in the local church. God has gifted him in the areas of creative arts, leadership, development, organization and administration. His desire has always been to utilize those gifts to the fullest for God’s glory. Matt's greatest passion is to lead others to become fully devoted followers of Jesus. He and his wife Cathy have two children, Sydney and Oliver, and a golden-doodle named Bailey.

As Executive Pastor, Matt leads the staff and lay leadership to champion and execute the mission and vision of Calvary - moving ministry forward by developing, tracking, and celebrating specific measurable goals for each individual and ministry area. Matt also works closely with Worship & Production, Communications and serves as a staff liaison to the Business Administration Commission.

Josh grew up attending Calvary. When he began volunteering with the youth group he never thought that God would call him into full-time ministry.  Josh considers it an incredible privilege to watch God work in the lives of the students at Calvary. After going through rough years in high school, he wants to make sure that students feel that they can put their trust in the promises of Jesus Christ, and that they can be part of a community that loves and encourages them. Josh enjoys golfing in the summer and pond hockey in the winter; he loves spending time with family and friends watching a good movie. Josh and his wife Rachel both enjoy working along side each other in student ministry. They have a daughter, Tatum, another girl on the way, and an overly hyper husky, Everest.

Before moving to St. Cloud in August of 2018, Jen and her family served as missionaries in Kigali, Rwanda for seven years. They visited Calvary and felt very welcomed as they transitioned to this new area. Jen works full-time as an Administrative Assistant and Ministry Coordinator, assisting the pastors in their areas of ministry and serving the Calvary Family as well. Jen enjoys cooking, knitting, reading, and spending time with friends and family. She is married to Lance and is the proud mother of three children, Grace, Adam, and Miles.

Laurie works as the Communications Coordinator at Calvary. She enjoys biking, reading, puzzles, games and hanging out with friends and family. She is married to Noel, is the proud mother of two married children, and is grandma to two precious granddaughters.

Laura is from Paynesville. She started attending MOMs when her kids were young, has served in the nursery, AWANA program and 18 years working at VBS! Laura enjoys traveling, WARM weather, sewing, reading, being active and spending time with family and friends. Laura and her husband Mark have 3 children and a son and daughter-in-law.

Greg Sr. is originally from Princeton, MN; after the Army, he moved with his family from there to St. Cloud to finish his schooling. Work transferred him around the state and to Wisconsin. He felt pulled to be closer to home and moved back here five years ago.

He and his wife, Sherre, will soon be married 44 years. They have one son, Greg, who has a beautiful and talented wife (yes, we are Shannon's in-laws) and four wonderful children: Abigail, Charlotte, Anthony, and Liam.

Greg has had a heart for serving others all his life and feels incredibly privileged to serve the Calvary family. While he and Sherre have only been here a short time, they immediately fell in love with the body of Christ here. He looks forward to helping the church fulfill its mission.

Greg enjoys being a grandfather, golfing, woodworking, fishing, hunting, and playing games.

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Laurie is the Worship & Production and Events Coordinator at Calvary. She is certified in event management and public relations, and enjoys helping plan/coordinate events and organizing teams. She also has created and oversees the Events Team and Wedding Team, making sure that events and weddings run smoothly and our renters are satisfied with their rental experience at Calvary.

Laurie is married to Jeff and has two grown children, Adrianna and Joshua. She has been involved in ministries in the church ever since she was a teen at her Grandmother’s church on the Iron Range. Jeff and Laurie moved to Saint Cloud in 1995, and the Bovitz family has been at Calvary since 2008. In Laurie’s spare time she loves to travel (especially cruising), spend time on the water, and being with her family whenever she can.

Growing up in a Christ-centered and musical home, Christy’s love of music began at a young age. She was classically trained in violin, piano, and voice, and was in ensembles throughout college. She stepped into the worship scene in college, and after moving to Central MN for children’s ministry, God provided open doors for music ministry to unfold. The Lord grew her desire for ushering others into his presence, and feels it is one of the most awesome, overwhelming privileges in life!

Christy came to Calvary to serve as an interim in 2014, fell in love with the Calvary family, and has been here ever since! In addition to leading worship at Calvary, Christy also serves as the elementary music teacher at Calvary Classical Academy. Her loves include creating music, time with friends and family, and being at the lake. She married her high school sweetheart, Chris, and they have three children: Caden, Clara, and Corin.

Michelle and her family have been attending Calvary for 17 years. She has been involved in Calvary Kids since the beginning, and she has been on staff as Calvary Kids Coordinator for 3 years.

Michelle loves to see the awe in children’s eyes as they hear stories about Jesus.

She is also a youth group leader for 12th grade girls. She held many of those girls in the nursery, taught them in Sunday School, and now leads a small group for them. For her to see where they are now in their faith and knowing that she helped plant the seeds for them, just makes her heart melt.

To see her own children now teaching and leading worship in Sunday School, Kids Club, and VBS is a blessing to her. Michelle lives in St. Cloud with her husband Jeremy, her mother-in-law, and 3 of their 4 children who are still at home. Michelle provides daycare out of her home and loves getting together with family and friends. She loves to read and enjoys scrapbooking.