CGS - Key Persons
Abigail Grebe joined the office staff in May of 2012. She is the first one to greet you with a smile as you walk into the office. Abby assists the Music Ministry, Children's Ministry, and Young Adults Ministry and on Sundays she enjoys being a lead vocalist with the CGS praise team and working in the Nursery. You'll often see her flitting around the hallways on Sunday mornings seeing how she can help you! She and her husband, Ryan, reside in Mebane with their son, Lucas, and have been members of CGS since 2009.
A Chapel Hill native, Allyson Wieland has a background in the unlikely combination of Home Economics and Law, graduating from Georgetown in 1987. After two judicial clerkships, she became an associate at the Washington DC firm of Steptoe & Johnson, working in the regulatory affairs division. Wanting to use her skills and training to enhance local church ministry, Allyson enrolled at Philadelphia College of Bible (now Cairn University) in 1994. After completing the program, she found herself coming full circle when she and her husband, Charles, moved back to Chapel Hill. In 2017, Allyson received the designation "Certified Church Administrator" from The Church Network. She has been at CGS since 2002. Off the clock, Allyson enjoys theatre, sewing and reading. She considers her library card to be her most prized possession.
Job Titles:
- Spiritual Formation Pastor
Bob Burns came to faith in Jesus as a seventh grader, and from that time through college, his life was deeply impacted by mentors who shaped his understanding of faith, ministry, and the church. After graduate school Bob married Janet, who is his best friend and partner. Over the years he has been involved in a wide variety of ministries ranging from youth and singles, worship and arts, and various pastoral roles. He loves designing initiatives on how the gospel impacts issues of life and culture. Bob and Janet have two married sons and eight grandchildren.
Job Titles:
- Congregational Care Pastor
Chris Garrett is from St. Louis, but attended UNC before joining the college ministry staff of Campus Crusade for Christ (CRU) for five years after college. He attended Gordon-Conwell Seminary in Boston. He and his wife Jenny both received their degrees there, and they returned to serve at CGS when Chris accepted the position of Youth Pastor. Following a missions call, Chris and Jenny served with MTW in the Philippines for 4 years, and then returned to States where Chris was the founding director of the Samaritan Health Center in Durham. Since 2012, Chris has been serving as a pastor at CGS and focuses on the areas of local outreach, global outreach and congregational care.
Jenny hails from Houston, Texas where she learned early on to love all things outdoors. Following college at Sewanee and teaching middle school, she started a youth ministry program in Atlanta. Jenny met Chris when they were both at Gordon-Conwell in Boston studying for their Masters of Divinity. She currently serves the Lord by teaching 6th grade at a local school.
Job Titles:
- Administrative Assistant
- Senior Pastor
A native of Silicon Valley in California, Pastor Chuck Jacob received a B.A. in economics from Stanford University (Palo Alto, CA) after spending his first two years at Westmont College (Santa Barbara, CA). He then worked in Washington, D.C. for nine years, first at the Federal Reserve and then as a lobbyist for Apple, Inc. After he received a Master of Divinity degree in 1998 from Reformed Theological Seminary, Orlando, FL, Chuck's pastoral ministry began as Teaching Pastor at Second Presbyterian Church (EPC), Memphis, TN. In December 2003, He moved north to become Senior Pastor of Knox Presbyterian Church (EPC), Ann Arbor, MI. In July 2015, he moved back south to become Senior Pastor of Church of the Good Shepherd. He preaches most Sundays and oversees all matters relating to the worship service. He leads the church's governing body of elders (The Session) and staff in matters of vision, future direction, and ministry.
Chuck and his wife Diane have three teenage children: Hannah Grace, Noah, and Abigail.
If asked what his hobbies are, he says they are all athletics (except curling) and whatever his children are doing at the present moment. He hates dandelions, loves old growth Sequoias, and is asking God for a home on the Big Sur coastline in the New Heavens and New Earth promised by Jesus. His favorite movies are typically older (e.g. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, It's a Wonderful Life, Fiddler on the Roof, etc.) and character studies (e.g. Rocky, A Beautiful Mind, Chariots of Fire). He loves movie scores and classical music. Despite the best efforts of his fashionable friends, he's committed to tucking in his shirts, including T-shirts. And he calls himself "old school" at every opportunity.
One friend said he has the soul of a Russian poet who spent 20 years in a Gulag. If asked his personal vision of manhood, he says it's some kind of combination between Tevye (Fiddler on the Roof) and Forest Gump.
Job Titles:
- Children 's Ministry Director
Felix Sung grew up in South Central Pennsylvania, in the shadow of Gettysburg, Antietem, South Mountain, and Harpers Ferry battlefields, where his earliest ambition was to become a Civil War historian. As a high school sophomore, life-in the form of an Apple II computer-intervened, diverting his energies into pulling off stupid and annoying computer tricks, thereby laying the foundation for his current role at CGS. When not engaged in stupid computer tricks, Felix enjoys playing euphonium, arranging choral and wind ensemble music, cooking, and playing disc golf.
Job Titles:
- Chief of Staff
- Chief Operating Officer
Dr. Glenn Jordan has long-standing roots in the southeast in general, and the Triangle area in particular. He and his wife Beth met while in high school in Norfolk, Virginia. Glenn migrated to Durham to earn his undergraduate degree in biomedical engineering at Duke University, while Beth was concurrently pursuing a degree in accounting from the University of Richmond.
After a stint in Charlottesville (medical school at UVA), opportunities for post-graduate training and subsequent clinical practice (neonatology) resulted in "transplantation" to the Seattle area for over three decades. It was there, in the small community of Gig Harbor, WA, that Glenn and Beth established and raised their family.
Symmetrically, their three young adult children all elected to return to the southeast to pursue university experiences of their own (in Richmond, Charlottesville, and Durham!), which prompted Glenn and Beth to permanently relocate to the Durham-Chapel Hill area in 2015. Faithful pulpit proclamation coupled with warm, friendly outreach from members of the CGS "church family" have drawn Glenn and Beth firmly into the worshipping-serving community at Church of the Good Shepherd.
Job Titles:
- Communications Coordinator
Liz Stoioff grew up in central North Carolina, then headed to Greenville, South Carolina to study at Furman University. After a brief stint back in North Carolina to get her master's degree at UNC Chapel Hill, she headed back to the Palmetto State for her first few years in the "real world." Liz eventually found her way back to the Tar Heel State, and has been working at CGS since early 2014. As Communications Coordinator, Liz compiles the weekly bulletin, e-newsletter, and prayer sheet, and other miscellaneous churchwide communications. She also manages content on the CGS website, coordinates facility use reservations, and provides general administrative support. Learning how to use InDesign software has been Liz's greatest accomplishment during her time at CGS so far. Liz's favorite aspect of working at CGS is the wonderful team she gets to be part of everyday. When she's not working at CGS, Liz loves spending time with friends, going to the beach, creating content for her fashion & lifestyle blog, and watching college football and basketball. She is a lifelong UNC Tar Heels fan, and her time in South Carolina made her an avid Clemson Tigers fan as well. Liz believes that fall Saturdays are best spent in Clemson's Death Valley stadium. If anyone in the office needs to know the latest college sports news, they know to ask Liz!
Job Titles:
- Community Formation Pastor
Mark Whipple was born and raised in Sudbury, MA and therefore is a lifelong Boston sports fanatic. He first arrived in Durham to attend Duke University, then served as Youth Ministry Director at CGS for two years, during which time he met and married his wife, Jen. After attending Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia (and after consuming many cheesesteaks), the Whipples landed in Asheville, NC-first doing youth ministry at Trinity Presbyterian Church, and ultimately planting Westside Church. Mark and Jen and their four children (Mercy, Micah, Luke and Sophia) returned to Durham and CGS in 2018.
Job Titles:
- Children 's Ministry Director
Job Titles:
- Director of Music Ministry
Matt McClure's first foray into church musicianship was in his 4th grade year on the stage of a little Presbyterian church in Knoxville, TN. Even then, he knew he was made to play music, and he focused his studies on that pursuit. In 2003, the McClures moved to the Triangle for Matt to work at UNC-Chapel Hill as one of the band directors and the saxophone teacher. In 2013, he started working part-time in the music ministry of Church of the Good Shepherd; in 2016, the Lord called him to the idea of serving full-time as the Music Director at CGS. In addition to this role, he continues to teach saxophone at UNC and enjoys performing on his saxophone. He is married to his high school sweetheart, Mary Joan, and together they have the greatest job on Earth in raising two elementary-aged children, Sara and Eli, who make them smile and laugh everyday.
Job Titles:
- Community Formation Pastor
At the center of the graphic above is our "white-hot core" - a white circle representing the Real Jesus. Someone has said, "God created us in His image and we keep trying to return the favor." So it is that Americans conceive of an American Jesus. Conservatives conceive of a conservative Jesus. Liberals conceive of a liberal Jesus. And so on. At CGS, we confess our own tendencies to imagine Jesus after our own biases. But we're committed to pursuing and enjoying the real Jesus together, as He is revealed in all of the Bible. To the extent we get this right, Jesus will alternatively disturb and comfort us; offend and thrill us; deconstruct and reconstruct us; humble and grace us.
Our goal is for Jesus to be at the center of everything we are and do. We take the whole Bible seriously because it takes the whole book to reveal the whole Jesus. At the center of our church is a Person, not merely a set of beliefs. Our lifelong aim is to delve deeper and deeper into relationship with this Jesus. That involves devoting ourselves to the Word of God and to prayer. It also means yielding to Jesus as King over every aspect of life. If Jesus has truly broken into our world, died and risen from the dead, this reality changes everything. That is why, in the graphic above, the Real Jesus is the "white hot core" in the center.
Richard Mayes is a North Carolina native, married, with three adult children, and a member of The Church of the Good Shepherd since 1996. Moving his family to one of his wife's family homes in Durham in 1994, he settled into life in the county near a thriving city and continued working in manufacturing, commuting daily to Virginia. After retiring from product development, he offered to fill in the gap for a short time as a handyman while the church searched for a new Facility Manager. That was in June 2013 and today you may find him fixing a toilet, welding a cart, meeting with administrators, or working with contractors.