Our Elder Team

Ken grew up in Richvale, Ca. a small farming community. He met Nancy at UCD and they married in 1977. Farm boy met city girl!

After a year in Davis, Ken graduated and was recruited to IVCF ( InterVarsity Christian Fellowship Staff) at Sonoma State campus. Ken and Nancy were there working with students for 6 years, then moved to Chico where Ken joined the family rice farming operation with his Dad. Ken had a 35 year farming career and along the way earned a MA in leadership and a Doctorate in Missiology. Always wearing two hats he and Nancy were in involved in cross cultural ministry in Russia, Nepal and China.

Nancy spent most of her time raising 4 children but as the children grew, worked part time as an RD and Lecturer in Foods and Nutrition at Butte Community College and Chico State University.

Ken and Nancy have 4 adult children and 9 grandchildren and although retired from farming and CSU, they continue their cross cultural missions involvement and serving the local church.

Though I tasted some of God's goodness during my youth, Jesus did not fully capture my heart until I was 20 years old. I was an experiential learner, having to learn many hard lessons during my teen years. This culminated in a DUI at the age of 19, allowing me the opportunity to see the natural outflow of my self-centered and destructive lifestyle.

In God's mercy, he used my parents, the Fleming family, and Wilson family to open my eyes to his love and forgiveness, revealing to me the freedom that he offered me in Jesus. My parents exhibited a tough love that forced me to consider the consequences of my choices. The Fleming family provided a place to meet college students who were followers of Christ. Will Wilson graciously presented the gospel to me, while teaching me the spiritual disciplines that would help me to grow in the grace and knowledge of my Lord, Jesus Christ. During this transitional season, I was able to walk this journey with my lifelong best friend, Ryan Gulbrandsen.

For the past 15 years, the Holy Spirit has been transforming me through regular exposure to the Bible and fellowship in the local church. God has gifted me with an amazing wife, Carolyn. We have been blessed with five wonderful children (David, Jonathan, Joshua, Ella, and Caleb). We are fortunate to have our extended family in town, including both sets of parents, our siblings and their families, including eight nieces and nephews. By God's grace, all 27 members of our combined extended families worship together at Firm Family Church.

I have worked as a financial advisor for the last 13 years, while Carolyn is educating our five children at home. We are both involved in teaching capacities in the local Classical Conversations homeschool program.

At an early age, I recognized my need and desire to follow Jesus. That need and desire has continued throughout my life. One of my passions has been to work together with other individuals and/or groups to increase our understanding and knowledge of God and seek to deepen our relationship with Him.

I grew up in Richvale (15 miles south of Chico) and have been involved in the Evangelical Free Churches there and in Chico for most of my life. After college (Trinity, UC Davis, UC Berkeley, Whitworth) I began farming rice and my involvement in the California rice industry.

From January 2013 through December 2018, I was a member of the elder board at Chico Evangelical Free. During our time at EFCC, my wife, Vivie, and I have been involved in teaching Sunday school, several small groups, Upward basketball, Women's basketball, men's and women's groups, and leadership teams. We were also a part of the very first meeting of “Firm Family” (then “Firm Foundations”).

I have been married to Vivie since 1981. We have four children; Katie (married to Kevin Cook), Peter (married to Carissa), Lena (married to Kevin Dumler), and Polly (married to Brandon Ertis). I'm excited about seeing how God will use Firm Family for His glory into the future!

In eighth grade, at a church summer camp, I responded to an altar call to “accept Jesus into my life”. In high school I attended church, went to youth group, and generally tried to behave myself and assumed this was the full extent of being a Christian. In college I stopped going to church and, while not specifically rejecting Christ, I actively engaged in a sinful lifestyle that reflected how far I had strayed from Him.

Through an invitation from a friend I attended a college church service called The Edge at the Neighborhood Church here in Chico. It was there that I soon realized how rich and full life could be through an earnest pursuit of Jesus, learning how to read and understand the Bible for myself, and actively engaging my faith by putting it into action by serving others. What a powerful difference it was for me! Jesus wasn't something to “accept”, but a King to serve, whose commands are for His glory and our good. I eventually met my beautiful wife Megan as we served together in a Welcome Team ministry. We have now been married 18 years and have three sons, Obie, Jack and Eddie.

My prayer life and interest is often drawn to the struggles, hopes, disappointments, and dreams of missionaries who are serving Jesus all over the world. My desire is to minister to the ministers. I love Firm Family Church's ethos of “every member a minister” and I prayerfully look forward seeing the great good that God is doing through and to our group.

Hello! What a privilege and honor it is to serve you and Him here at Firm Family Church. So you might know a bit about myself and the other elders, we are giving you a brief bio on each of us.

I have been married to my wife, Lindy, since 1978 and God has blessed us with 4 children, 3 “sons by choice” who married our three daughters, and one “daughter by choice” who married our son. He has also blessed us with 15 grandchildren. I came to understand God's love for me, my need for a savior and His provision of Jesus as my savior while in Japan on a wrestling team the summer before my senior year of high school.

My undergraduate studies were done at Cal Poly, SLO and my Master's was earned at Biola University. While at Cal Poly I was involved in the Navigators and discipled by some men who helped me grow to love Jesus and understand Him and His ways more and more. I was involved in Christian Education for grades 7-12 for the first 19 years of my career and then I served as an Associate Pastor at the Evangelical Free Church of Chico for close to 20 years.

My passion is to know Christ and make Him known and to raise my children to know Him, love Him and serve Him. One of my life verses is Ezra 7:10: “For Ezra had set in his heart to study the law of the Lord and to practice it and to teach His statutes and ordinances in Israel.”

By God's grace, Taryn and I were married in 2016 and since then God has blessed us with 4 daughters, Grace, Scout, Kit and Marley. We got married just as I finished school at Chico State and then about 2 years later we moved to Central America to serve the Lord with an organization called Students International. After 3 years overseas, we moved back to Chico and have been on staff serving the Lord through Firm Family Church.

I grew up in Chico, blessed to be raised in a Christ-centered home with 2 parents who loved each other and loved God more. Following my father's example from a young age, I started to read God's Word regularly on my own and throughout high school, college, early marriage to now, I can confidently say there has been no other way in which Christ has so greatly transformed me as through His Word. In that book I have learned that true, lasting joy is found only in Jesus; He is our only hope in life and death. I exist to treasure and trust Him above all else and to lead others to do the same.

I love being outside in whatever capacity (walking with my daughters, backpacking, gardening), I love reading (applied theology, sci-fi, fantasy, historical fiction), and I love the band twenty-one pilots.