OUR TEAM

Darren grew up in a small town deep in Southern Illinois; his Boomer Sooner wife Kelli, in Oklahoma. They have been married since 1988 and have lived in the St. Louis area for that entire time. They have planted two churches together in St. Louis, one in the county and one in the south city neighborhood of Bevo Mill. Darren serves as the Executive Director of Plant Midwest and also partnered with Oasis International of Saint Louis to start the Good Neighbor Initiative. He has personally been involved in missions and church planting in ten different countries throughout the world. Kelli is a principal at Mullanphy Elementary (St. Louis Public Schools) in the Shaw Neighborhood. They have two sons, Jordan and Zac.

Darren is a graduate of Southwest Baptist University and Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Apart from his love for Christ, God’s church and his family, Darren enjoys college sports, golf, hunting and watching Indy Cars racing at 220+ mph.

In April 2013, Michael received the blessing and full support of his pastor to follow the leading of Holy Spirit to plant Faith Community Bible Church in North St. Louis City were they launched on September 11, 2016. Their mission is to make Christ known in the community. Pastor Byrd is married to the love of his life, Traci, who supports him and encourages him to do the will of God. He’s also had the blessed opportunity to father four wonderful children: Triniti, Makayla, Michael Jr. and Tyler.

Kale was born and raised in Marion, Illinois, and moved to St. Louis in 2005 to attend Saint Louis University. After graduating from SLU with a degree in Theological Studies and English Literature, he worked for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship for nine years, most recently serving as the Associate Area Director overseeing InterVarsity's ministry on campuses in St. Louis. He joined the St. Louis Metro team in July 2017 and currently serves as the Director of the George Liele Center, coordinating mission teams to share and demonstrate the love of Jesus in compassion ministry all over the metro area.

Kale married his best friend Emily in 2012 and the two of them are hard at work raising their three girls on the south side of St. Louis city. You can read more about Kale's life and ministry at his blog, Along the Way Home.

Martin Winslow is the Mission pastor at Canaan Baptist Church in South County. Martin is passionate about teaching the nations through international work both domestically and in St Louis. Martin was married to his high school sweetheart, Amy in 1998 and has five children, Noah, Anna, Emma, Laura, and Nati.

In addition to serving at Metro, Matt works at Waypoint Church as the Communications and Young Adults Director and is the founder of Ministry Mind Media. He holds Masters of Theological Studies from Midwestern Seminary. When he’s not working, Matt loves spending time with his 4 kids and wife at home and playing golf.

Rik is husband to Jen and dad to Brii, Hannah Grace, Cooper and Mia. He has lived in Ferguson since 1972. He has been the youth pastor at First Baptist Ferguson and he planted North Church in 2007. He has bi-vocational for the last 10 years.

Rik feels a calling from the Lord to serve, love and care for pastors. He has always had a passion to shepherd God’s people and believes in this cultural moment there is a pressing need for pastors to have a safe place to be heard, be vulnerable and be real. Rik’s passion to serve the church in by being that safe place.

In his free time Rik is probably playing golf with his friends or on a date with Jen.

Jen and her fabulous hubby, Rik, have four incredibly crazy kiddos: Briiana (the extremely talented and sassy child) and her awesome sons, Bear and Indy, Hannah Grace (the most beautiful and squirreliest child in all the land), Cooper (the dimpled, adorable gentleman) and Miss Mia (the cute, small and loving baby of the fam). Rik and Jen live in Ferguson and attend North Church which Rik planted in 2007. Their house is rarely quiet and often filled with people, and that is the way they love it. Jen's favorite things are Rik, her babies, her own chocolate chip cookies, cupcakes from The Cup, Chick-fil-A (she loves to eat!), Carnivore, Pi Pizzaria, LOST, the book of James, summer (especially at a beach) and rocking babies. Her dislikes are clutter (less is more), disorganization, poor grammar and travel visas. She started at St. Louis Metro in October of 2014 and has met some amazing people!