Darrell Jones
Lead Pastor

Darrell made his decision to become a Christ-follower in August of 1979 and was baptized that same day in the Kiamichi Mountains of Oklahoma.  Desiring to immediately begin serving the Lord, he started his ministry preparation two weeks later at Dallas Christian College and later finished his education at St. Louis Christian College.

Before going into vocational ministry, Darrell and his wife Ellen operated their own business called Paint Saint Louis. His years of learning different aspects of physical work have been helpful in ministry and the number of ‘do-it-yourself’ projects through which he has led his congregation.  During the "painting years", Darrell and Ellen seriously considered moving Paint Saint Louis to Columbia IL, seeing a need for a church to be planted there. Little did they know that in a few years they would be called back to Columbia for exactly that purpose.

In 1990, they were invited to join a team that had just planted a new Church in Winthrop Harbor, IL, a suburb north of Chicago.  As an Associate Minister, Darrell helped with everything from speaking to music to childcare.  Working under the mentorship of Dennis Corley, Darrell received a phone call in 1993 that would validate his previous calling to Columbia, IL.  An offer was proposed that Darrell and Ellen move back to Columbia, IL to help plant what is now Hope Christian Church.  The Jones' have made Columbia  their home since the summer of 1993.

Darrell is passionate about the Lord, his family, evangelism, and the occasional cup of coffee.  His beautiful wife, Ellen, has supported his drive to evangelize and cultivate the community of believers at Hope.  They have three children: Jess, Lee and Lyndee.

Darrell loves to communicate the big picture God's love, both from the pulpit as well as one-on-one.  Darrell strives to be a real, honest, and humble servant of God, and he focuses daily on leading the entire staff at Hope to pursue those same ideals.

The aim of his ministry has always been the Simplicity of the Gospel.  He knows that God is not concerned with how cool the church appears to the community or how much money is in the bank accounts of either the church or its congregants; rather, God is concerned with the heart.  This is the simple message of Hope, and the simple framework by which Darrell functions as a Christ follower.

Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (NIV)

Dennis Jones
Associate Pastor

Dennis joined Hope Christian Church as the Associate Pastor in May of 2004.  He serves alongside the Lead Pastor.  His duties include overseeing the Care Ministries which cares for the needs of the people who come to Hope Christian Church.  This includes hospital teams, nursing home visitation, meals for the sick/injured, prayer for all, providing fellowship opportunities, Cancer Care Ministry, and Card Ministry.  Dennis is also responsible for the sixty-plus mature group and he enjoys this ministry very much.  Dennis has attended the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University and has become a Financial Coach.

   Josh Boyer
   Youth Pastor

   Josh is super excited to be the new Youth Pastor here at Hope.  Josh will be serving
   here along with his wife Kayla, their precious daughter Lydia, and their son who still
   needs a name (baby on the way!!). They will be working specifically with Jr. and Sr. High
   students (6^th-12^th) and their parents. Josh has been attending Hope for over seven
   years now and truly consider everyone here family.  Josh was born and raised in
   Waterloo, and recently purchased a home in Columbia.  God allowed Josh to go to
   school and finish his Associate in Arts degree from Southwestern Illinois College
   and a Bachelor of Science degree in Organizational Leadership from Greenville
   Christian College.  Josh has been serving on the praise team, and along with his wife
   have been the 20s ABF Coordinators for the last few years. It was here that God placed
   a call on his life to something else!  Josh has always had a heart for youth, especially
   for the broken and misguided, because of his own experiences growing up.  Josh dealt
with life in a super rebellious way and had a strong distaste for authority, that is until Jesus came into his life and literally changed him from the inside out. The chance to work with young adults and to be an influence for Christ to them is what excites Josh the most.  In Josh's spare time he enjoys spending time with his family, reading, playing pool, watching movies and playing guitar.  Josh prays that the Hope Student Ministries can develop a fellowship that teaches teens to take ownership of their faith. Josh's goals for the students are:  to grow them in knowledge and spiritual understanding, to also equip them to take the message of the cross to their schools and neighborhoods, and to encourage them to take a stand for their faith and to trust Jesus for all things.  Hope Student Ministries will be strategic and purpose-filled and will aim to disciple students to be life-long followers of Jesus Christ.  Josh, Kayla, Lydia, and baby boy look forward to loving on your teens and can’t wait to see it all unfold.

  Jeremy Montgomery
  Worship Pastor/Director of Programming

  Jeremy has been leading worship for the past 12 years. He recently relocated to
  Columbia to serve on staff as the worship pastor. His passion is that God's people,
  through God’s grace, empowered by the truth in His word, would experience Christ as
  they worship in community. He and his wife Candice are currently expecting and
  looking forward to being new parents. In addition to leading worship he enjoys creative
  media, fantasy baseball, Hershey’s chocolate milk, and watching the St. Louis
  Cardinals dominate.

   Greg Malcom
   Elder

   Greg and his family have been attending Hope since 2003, and he has served
   as an elder since 2006.  He is a regular teacher of Hope’s Adult Bible Fellowship
   classes and is the primary teacher for our Discovering Hope and New Beginnings
   courses.  Greg also oversees Hope’s Spiritual Development efforts.   He has a
   great passion for wanting our visitors to feel welcome in our church and can often
   be found in the entry lobby greeting families as they arrive.  Greg works in a senior
   level position for a market research company and has a degrees in Economics and
   Business Administration.  He and his wife Pam have three sons—Wyatt, Brock, and
   Dawson.

Nancy Cassens
Executive Assistant/Director of Administration

Nancy began her ministry at Hope in 2005 when she moved to the St. Louis area from New Jersey with her husband, Jeff.  She graduated from Milligan College, a Christian Liberal Arts College, in 1978 and has been involved in numerous volunteer capacities in the church over the years.  She enjoys leadership and has a heart for people being involved in ministry in and through the local church. She currently serves as our Executive Assistant where she assists Darrell, the staff, and other leaders in carrying out the mission of Hope.  In her free time, Nancy enjoys reading, biking, and spending time with her family--Jeff, her three grown sons, their wives, and their grandson Toby and new granddaughter Lucy.

Dawn McLean
Director of Children’s Ministry

Dawn and her husband Tim, along with their son Ben, have been coming to Hope since 2003. God called Dawn to serve in Kidz Ministry very soon after. She had no experience working with kidz other than her own and extended family since she went to school to be a Greenhouse Manager. Dawn realized that God was probably even calling her then. But instead of sowing flower seeds into fertile soil, nurturing them and fostering an environment that produces deep, healthy roots, God called her to sow His seeds in the hearts of kidz.  Dawn started teaching 4 and 5 year olds and directing VBS. Since that time, she has served in almost every role within Kidz Ministry at one time or another. Dawn came on staff as part time Equipping Director for Kidz in July of 2008 and became the Director of Children’s Ministry in May of 2009.

   Terry Beatty
   Children's Minister

   Soon after Terry made a decision to follow Jesus, God placed a passion in her heart
   for sharing His love and His Word with children and youth in the church and in the
   community.  Terry has served as a coordinator, teacher and various other roles with
   Kids Community Bible Study, an afterschool ministry similar to a VBS in various public
   schools for the past 6 years.  Terry's husband, Mike and their youngest son Joe came
   to Hope in 2008 where she started serving in Children’s ministry. She was hired as
   a part-time Children’s Minister in January 2012.  Terry enjoys teaching and letting the
   kids here at Hope know that God has created each of them for His special purpose.
   It has truly been a blessing to get to know the children and their families.  Mike and
  Terry have been married for 32 years and in addition to Joe, they have 2 grown sons.
  They are very blessed to be part of the Hope Family.

Sharon Eiskant
Director of Missions/Visitor Coordinator

Sharon has been at Hope Christian Church for 8 years, and has been a part of the Children’s Ministry teaching in 10:45 IROC (children’s church) and also helping with VBS and Awana.  Sharon also volunteers at the Food Pantry and after retiring from her day job she started volunteering in the office and came on staff serving as Visitor Coordinator part-time in January 2010. Currently, she is full-time serving as Director of Missions and Visitor Coordinator.  Sharon loves meeting new visitors and sharing the love of Jesus and the Hope family with them. She also has a passion for the missionary outreach at Washington Park and has been there for almost 2 years teaching Bible study to the women and loving and holding the children and babies.  Sharon and her husband Richard, have 5 children and ten awesome grandchildren. She likes walking and going to the mountains in Colorado.

Tanna Schablowsky
Administrative Assistant

Tanna and her family started going to Hope in 2003. She has worked in various administrative roles over her 25+ years of experience. She is the Administrative Assistant at Hope and her main focus is trying to keep up with Pastor Darrell’s calendar and his numerous appointments, maintaining the website, and communicating with the congregation.  She also plans/coordinates various events/projects.

Tanna has been married to Don for 22 years and have 2 great kids, Hailey (18) and Nicholas (14). Tanna loves Cardinal baseball, scrapbooking and golf.

  Missy Lenga
  Custodian

  Missy has been at Hope for five years and is our full-time custodian.  She
  lives in Waterloo with her husband Tom and has three granddaughters in
  the area.  Missy is originally from California and has worked in our
  community in numerous capacities since 1993.  Missy’s heart is for people,
  and she gives of herself tirelessly as she reaches out to them in many ways.

   John Lato
   Custodian

   John has been at Hope for four years and serves as a part-time custodian.
   John and his wife Terry live in Cahokia.  John enjoys his work and helping
   out wherever needed.