Sequim Community Church brings in familiar faces to lead ministries

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, October 26, 2016

One of Sequim’s biggest churches is going in new directions with some new and familiar faces.

In recent months, Sequim Community Church hired three new people to fill outgoing positions.

Nathan Funston, a Sequim native, took over for Joel Rosenauer, as director of worship, music, and arts, and Jennifer Lancheros, another Sequim native, moved from interim youth director to director of children’s ministries, taking over for recently retired Peggy McKellar.

Last week, Maryland native Keith Sandell started as the church’s youth director, too, following the departure of Tony Toth.

Senior pastor Dr. Scott Koenigsaecker said the new hires fit with the church’s strategic plan over the next 10 years.

“We started to bring some transitions to the table already and with changes in staff it was a great opportunity to make some of the changes we wanted to make,” he said.

“Some of them we made instantaneously.”

One of the big changes was to the church’s music covering its three Sunday services.

“We’ve had contemporary music for about 18 years and contemporary music has changed pretty significantly over that time period,” Koenigsaecker said.

“We’re not insensitive to that but we needed a little re-calibration.”

For the traditional service, at 10 a.m. where hymns and chorus books were used, the church hired Viletta Skillman to lead it and they’ve made it more of a blended service over the summer incorporating more contemporary music, instruments and a video screen projector for lyrics.

Funston, who leads the 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. Sunday music, said his team has worked to add more lights- environmental projection, and make it a little louder stylistically while remaining relevant particularly in the 11 a.m. modern worship service.

“We want to present music with good theology in it that sounds a lot like music people are listening to already,” he said.

Koenigsaecker said the center of what they do is worship and that his team feels good about being innovative if it helps bring people to God.

Funston has been volunteering in the community as a worship leader for about 20 years, and worked as a real estate appraiser while pursuing music as a career releasing an EP album in 2002, playing gigs, and competing in Star Search Seattle.

Funston said he had the chance to travel and possibly do music full-time but making his family travel was not appealing.

“God has blessed me with the opportunity to do what what I love for him with his people in my hometown,” he said.

He’s been married 23 years to his wife Melanie and they have two children, Emily, 18, and Adrian, 14.

Children’s ministry

Along with reworking the church’s music, Koenigsaecker said they’ve been able to move in a way that remains attractive to all age groups. He says some of the strategic plans are cosmetic but they’re also looking at what is the modern family in Sequim today.

“That’s a little different than 20 years ago,” he said. “Our children’s and youth ministry will both invite and meet the needs of those families and students today. Jennifer is rebranding what we have been doing.”

Lancheros said there are about 100 children between all of the church’s children’s programs and about 60 middle and high school students attending programs.

She and others have re-worked some children’s ministries, including Epic, the after-school program from 3-5:30 p.m. Tuesdays, and Kidex, a program for fourth and fifth graders on the first Friday of each month.

Lancheros grew up attending Sequim Community Church and participated in similar programs to what she now leads.

“That doesn’t happen very often in ministry,” Koenigsaecker said. “The other side of that is she understands the culture of the community, children, as well as the sense of what the church is all about here.”

Lancheros’ daughter, Eva, 6, now attends the church’s programs too.

Keith Sandell of Pittsburgh follows Lancheros’ lead in youth ministries after finishing his Master of Divinity from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. He grew up in Boonsboro, Maryland, and in and around the church since his dad is a pastor. Sandell came to Sequim on Oct. 15, the night of the predicted big storm, and said he really likes the opportunity he has at the church.

He’ll lead the church’s high school program Crossroads at 6 p.m. Sundays, the middle school program The Edge at 6 p.m. Wednesdays, and various other special events and activities.

Sandell will soon visit an orphanage in Mexico to help survey a building project for the church to do next year.

Small groups

Another continuing movement in the church is encouraging attendees to participate in small groups.

Rev. Rick Dietzman, associate pastor to adults, said one effort to grow groups is participating in disaster preparations and being a resource in a time of need.

As part of the planning, emergency teams broke Sequim into 20 areas, which Dietzman said they’ll use as a church to launch groups focused on disaster prep and Bible studies. He said more than half the church is already in small groups but if the planning unfolds correctly then he anticipates more than 70 percent of the church congregation could be in small groups.

Dietzman said at least 10 people in 10 of the areas are already interested in hosting a group.

The groups serve many purposes and Dietzman said church leaders want attendees to find something to feel useful.

“We have a lot of ways they can serve,” he said. “We’re making an effort to connect them in a way that would satisfy them in a way to serve God. We make it a big priority.”

With Sequim Community Church hosting a large congregation, Dietzman said leaders’ goal is to make things feel smaller.

“The nice thing about a larger congregation is you have a lot of options,” he said. “You can almost always find something your talent base fits really well.”

Koenigsaecker agreed saying, “we want a vertical connection with Christ and we also want to share that with one another.”

Dietzman said there isn’t a rush for people.

“People can come hang out for a year, and they can be as anonymous as you want but you can also become as involved as you want,” he said.

For more information on Sequim Community Church, 950 N. Fifth Ave., call 683-4194, or visit them online at sequimcommunitychurch.org or on Facebook to see Koenigsaecker’s weekly sermons.