Leadership

Prior to entering ministry full-time, Pastor Matthew worked in the corporate world for twelve years, mainly in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He spent his first few months of full-time ministry at Bethlehem Baptist Church, and then helped launch a church plant and training institute for church planters in Orlando. His life’s passion is to make more and maturing disciples of Jesus Christ, and he’s been involved doing that with the church family at Calvary since 2007. Pastor Matthew absolutely loves the Bible, preaching Jesus from all the Scriptures, serving as our resident theologian through his writing and teaching, developing and empowering leaders, setting the direction and values of our church culture with our leadership team, and loving and shepherding the people of Calvary and the St. Cloud metropolitan area. He also enjoys reading, running, biking, hanging out with others over a good meal, and watching movies. Matthew and his wife, Susan, live in St. Cloud and have four children, two of them married and living in Southern Minnesota.

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 12 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 Leadership and Development 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.

Cindy, a part of the Calvary staff since 2006, works full-time as an Admin Assistant and Care/Outreach/Connections Coordinator, assisting the pastors in making more and maturing disciples of Jesus Christ. She is the proud mom of Austin and Chloe and has been married to John for 25 years.

Laurie works full-time 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.

Tim spent his younger years in the St. Cloud area, and was even part of the first Cherub Preschool class here at Calvary. After returning to St. Cloud as an adult, Tim was hired at Calvary as Facility Manager. In November 2018 he celebrated 14 years in his current position. Tim is an avid biker who especially enjoys hitting the trails on his fat bike. He and his wife Kristin have 12 children - 6 boys and 6 girls - ranging from 20 years of age down to 3 months.

Blake came to Calvary in 2006 while attending school at St. Cloud State University. During his time at St. Cloud State he became a follower of Christ and started volunteering with the student ministries at Calvary, where he felt God calling him into ministry. Blake currently attends Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and is pursuing a Masters of Divinity with an emphasis in Biblical Counseling. He desires all believers to be cared for and mature in their faith. Blake enjoys the summer months in Minnesota and participating in outdoor activities. He also enjoys going out to eat and looking for the best burger place in town. He has been married to his wife, Kayleen, for 7 years. They enjoy working together in youth group, attending CrossFit, and traveling together.

Laurie has been helping in the Calvary office over the last four years as Facility Coordinator, and recently added Worship & Production Coordination to her title. She also leads a newly created Event Team at Calvary that hopes to bring more quality Christian concerts and events to the area. Laurie has found that serving in the church family is something she has been called to do, and she thanks God for all of the opportunities He’s given her to serve. Jeff and Laurie have two children, Adrianna and Joshua, two dogs (Ellie and Mickie), and a cat (Callie). Laurie loves to travel and crochet (sometimes at the same time!), spend time on the water, and be 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.