Caleb Wagner

I came to Blacknall in September 2022, three months before I married Julie Leyva. Wen Reagan was the worship leader at my previous church for several years, so I immediately began playing cello with the Blacknall worship team, where you see me about once a month. I also have been a member of the men's ministry steering committee since last fall. I am a licensed CPA and work in tax for a firm in Raleigh. When I am not computing taxes (don’t ask me to compute yours), I love to run, play cello, watch Carolina basketball, and cook something in our Instant Pot (send recipes!).

I love building deep relationships with and serving fellow believers, and serving as a deacon will give me opportunities to hear more of your stories and be an active part of the work the Lord is doing in our midst. I am so grateful for the way this congregation has embraced me the past year and a half, and I want to repay your generosity and kindness as best I can. God bless you all!

George Olaru

I am joyful and grateful to come in front of you and stand for election as a deacon. Growing up under a communist regime in Romania, my relationship with Jesus Christ was silent and personal. The body of the church was the inner family circle, yet my parents sowed the seeds of faith in me from a young age.

I rediscovered the beauty of community in 2017 at the corner of Perry and Iredell when Jenny invited me to attend her childhood church. The sound of Sunday morning hymns and the teaching from the pulpit led me to becoming a member. I had the privilege of participating in several programs such as the Alpha marriage course and men’s mentoring. Blacknall was where Jenny and I were married in September 2018 and the place where we baptized our daughter, Olivia, in August 2022. I continued to give back to the community by leading the marriage class and serving in the nursery.

My professional background is in business and technology, and I am currently a Vice President of Solution Engineering for an enterprise software company. I pray that given the opportunity to serve as deacon, I can apply some of the management and people skills I gathered to programs and events that will enrich our Blacknall life together.

Sandra Hagood

I grew up in Greensboro and met my husband, Jimmy Hagood, in Chapel Hill when he was in medical school and I was in graduate school. We married in 1986 and have since lived in Nashville, Birmingham, and San Diego. We moved back to Chapel Hill in 2018 and came to Blacknall in 2021. I work as an attorney representing indigent criminal defendants on appeal. We have two adult children. Our son, Johnson, lives in Waco, Texas, and our daughter, Isabel, and her husband Mark live in DC. (But Isabel and Mark are moving to the Triangle this fall!)

We’re in our second year of helping teach middle school Sunday School (non-stop action fun) and leading a Chapel Hill small group (wonderful growth and fellowship).

I became a Christian in high school through the ministry of Young Life. Since I first understood the gospel, I am continually finding out that the bad news is even worse than I thought (i.e., I and the world are even more broken than I imagined), and the good news is better and more insanely wonderful than I could ever have dreamed in my wildest imagining (i.e., there is no beginning and no end to the ridiculous love of God for us, His passion and longing for fellowship with us, and His eagerness to forgive us and bless us). If I am chosen to be an elder, I would love to focus on Blacknall’s ministry to our youth.

Rachel Stine

My connection to Blacknall began in 2020, when I was invited to join a women’s small group. Though I was not yet attending the church, this weekly gathering became a huge gift to me and greatly encouraged my faith. Two years later, and as the needs of my family changed, it became clear that Blacknall was a church where we could both serve and grow in our faith.

My husband, Nat, our two young adult sons, Caleb and Levi, and I have been attending Blacknall since July of 2022. I continue to participate with my small group, have assisted with summer Sunday School, and this past year joined the wonderful teaching team for the Bugs class. I love teaching these brilliant four- and five-year-olds and experiencing the truths of our faith along with them.

I look forward to serving Blacknall as a deacon. I am eager to help visitors and new members find places of connection in our church body and support members during times of struggle and difficulty. I find great joy in being the hands and feet of Jesus and believe that how we take care of each other as a congregation reflects His heart to our city and our world.

Will Brewbaker

My name is Will Brewbaker. My wife, Sara, and I have been members of Blacknall for two years, and our daughter, Lucy, has been a regular attender for two months. (She's only four months old!) I’m currently a Ph.D. student at Duke, where I study poetry & Christian theology.

More than 30 years ago, my parents spent an impactful season at Blacknall before moving to Alabama, where I was born. In many ways, then, Blacknall was a part of me before I was a part of it. Since moving to Durham, Sara and I have been warmly welcomed into the Blacknall community. With Lucy’s birth, we’ve been overwhelmed by the care and love that we’ve received from our Blacknall family.

I first got involved at Blacknall by co-leading a Sunday School class, Literature & the Christian Life. In many ways, this title tells my own story as a Christian. Over the years, poems — whether the Psalms, the Magnificat, or the poetry of T.S. Eliot — have supplied me with words for my own questions, doubts, worries, and wonderings. But they’ve also supplied me with a way to understand God’s goodness. “Christ plays,” writes Hopkins, “in ten thousand places.” Indeed, He does. As a deacon, I would hope to serve our community with the same joy and generosity of spirit with which Sara, Lucy, and I have been served thus far — which is, of course, the same joy in which Christ continues to live.

Bill Shively

Originally from Shreveport, Louisiana, I moved to the Triangle area for the physics graduate program at UNC. After graduating in 2006, I’ve worked for Duke Medical Center as a database programmer/data analyst. I’m married to Liz Shively, and we have a daughter, Vanessa.

I grew up Baptist. Since then I have been involved in a number of different denominations. While at UNC I was involved with Graduate Intervarsity (FOCUS) for 5 years and a number of small groups. I first attended Blacknall when Liz invited me to hear her sing in the Lessons & Carols service Christmas, 2005, and I have been attending ever since. Blacknall has served as a fantastic church family for us as life has taken all sorts of unexpected turns over the past several years.

I have served on the Diaconate for the past six years throughout the pandemic and the multitudinous transitions to help navigate the storms. I’ve primarily served on the Hospitality Committee, helping to organize the game nights, chili cookoff, and block party. I’ve also served on DMET and have been involved with several ministry partners. Since Vanessa has graduated to the Youth Group, I chaperoned on The Great Escape 2023, and I’ve enjoyed getting to know the next generation of Blacknall members. Music, physics, and theology have been lifelong passions of mine, and the three are woven together within my faith. I enjoy helping others to likewise integrate their passions within their faith. I also like to reach out to those who feel alienated or confused by the church. Gaming has been yet another way to both figuratively and literally bring people to the table, and 10 years ago, we along with several others started a gaming group that eventually evolved into a small group still going today.

Blacknall is such a unique and beautiful collection of people from a whole spectrum of backgrounds and political affiliations who nonetheless come together to fellowship under Jesus at a time when this is sorely lacking. I’m very concerned to help us hold together in unity as a church body and follow the Holy Spirit through this time of transition both within Blacknall and outside in greater society.

Cullen Rodgers-Gates

I was raised in Saudi Arabia and Augusta, Georgia. My wife, Mandy, and I met as undergrads at Wheaton College and have been married for 24 years. Our children are Hannah (22), Ethan (21), and Caleb (16). We’ve lived in Durham and attended Blacknall for 16 years. Since 2020, I have been on staff with the National Association of Evangelicals as Director of Development and Membership. Prior to that, I spent 20 years working in the international education and nonprofit sectors, including 12 years with Congo Initiative, one of Blacknall’s Deep Common Journey partners.

I love Blacknall because Scripture is taught with conviction here, and there is a concerted effort to live out the gospel tangibly in our corporate life together. I’ve been privileged to serve in a variety of roles at Blacknall over the years, including children’s ministry, men’s ministry, and as elder. I was raised in a home that cherished the Scriptures and taught me to seek after God from an early age. Growing up overseas in a multicultural and pluralistic environment laid the foundation for a life-long discovery of God’s kingdom through many personal encounters with the global church. As a result, integral mission is at the core of my understanding of the gospel and has shaped the trajectory of my life in profound ways. I am eager to offer my gifts of listening, discernment, and encouragement to build up the body of Christ at Blacknall and to continue supporting our men’s ministry, in particular.

Kaitlyn Schiess

I grew up as a military kid moving all over the country, in a family that loved Jesus and His church. My parents shared the gospel with me at a young age, and my faith deepened in college as I discerned God’s direction towards a seminary education. While attending Dallas Theological Seminary, I spent five years on staff at a church in Dallas, working in children’s ministry and then with young adults. When I moved to Durham in 2021 to begin my doctorate at Duke, I needed a soft place to land after a couple of challenging and heartbreaking years. Blacknall was that place, and God has used this community to heal me and cultivate in me a deeper love for His church.

One of my great joys is spending time with the children of Blacknall in children’s church, and I have served in the women’s ministry, taught in adult Sunday School, and belong to a young adult small group.

I study and write about theology and politics, and much of my professional work is in helping churches and communities think well about political life and address division in a healthy way. I’m thankful for the witness Blacknall has been to me of navigating disagreement with faithfulness, and I would be honored to serve this place I love as we continue to face challenges with grace and humility.

Lauren Holahan

I first came to Blacknall in the summer of 1986 as a freshman at Duke. During the 1990s, I moved several times but attended Blacknall when living in Durham, the city and the church being knit together in my heart. Return to Durham, return to Blacknall: Likely, this connection informs my current work with our Durham Ministries & Engagement Team. Then, in the great blizzard of January 2000, I came through the then thick wooden front doors and have attended steadily ever since. I was in the last new members’ class led by Ed Henegar.

Over these 20+ years, God has loved me lavishly through friendships and service at Blacknall. My son, Carl, now 25 and in his first year as a public defender in northern Virginia, was raised on the love and prayers of this congregation. And, in His mercy, the Lord has discipled me through adulthood to this season, wherein I work from home for a national technical assistance center supporting states managing their special education reporting, walk the Eno with Cortez (my Plott hound friend), and take enormous delight in popcorn, growing tomatoes, road trips, and splitting firewood.

My relationship with Jesus hums in the background of everything — it’s hard to put words to that love/conversation. I want to live in the world so mindful of my ransom and so consistent with the fiber of His love for me that there is no hiding, no fear, no danger, or opportunity for others to doubt His goodness.

Sara Patten

Shortly after we moved to Durham in 2007, we found Blacknall. The people were welcoming, and it was such a vibrant place. We were expecting Emma who is now 15! These past 15 years have been filled with educating our 5 children and raising a family with Aaron, my husband. Both of us were raised in families of faith. I became a Christian when I was 5 years old, so I believe even the youngest of our congregation can be major contributors and show us things we sometimes forget as adults. In 2010 we moved to East Durham. The neighborhood was rough, but God has shaped us through this experience more than any other. It's not really that all of our reactions were good, but that God used us even when we didn't measure up. God is continuing to shape me.

Warren Gould

I first attended Blacknall when dating Becky (now my wife), the daughter of former pastor Ed Henegar. I'm thankful that God brought me into that family and this congregation, and when Becky and I returned with our three sons to Durham in 2008, we were thrilled to resume our life at Blacknall. I continue to marvel how Jesus, my risen Savior, called me by name and has led me through times of joy and trial to an ever-deepening, prayerful walk with and desire for sanctification in Him.

I’m grateful for and encouraged by the fellowship of Blacknall brothers in Men’s Ministry, participating in Bible Study Fellowship, singing in the choir, and the rich insights and new relationships gained through co-teaching a currently paused Christian poetry Sunday school class. I feel the Lord’s call to kingdom work that weds sharing the gospel message of transformation possible only through Jesus and the care for all image-bearers’ flourishing. My main involvement in this regard is serving on the planning team and helping design book studies for the Mount Level Community Partnership for Racial Justice, a Blacknall ministry partner.

A long-time school administrator, I’m energized by and have a lot of experience designing processes for and participating in strategic planning, supporting personnel, and managing organizational growth and change. Beyond the blessing of returning to the Session generally, I’d be excited to engage with fellow elders in helping guide our church in this particular season of transition.

Michael Whisenhunt

My wife, Serena, and I first came to Blacknall in the mid-1980s, and we have called Blacknall our church family ever since. Although our Father has had His hand on me my whole life, I did make a commitment as a teenager to follow Jesus Christ and was helped by many people in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and InterVarsity Christian Fellowship in high school and college. The fellowship and worship at Blacknall, however, have taught me the most about His incredible love for us and the ways we are to love one another.

My terms serving on the Session have made me feel the most connected to my church family, and I take great joy in praying with and for people. I am looking forward to seeing how the Lord provides for our congregation in the years ahead.