Our Church Planters

Peter and Naomi have served together on InterVarsity staff for 10 years in Tallahassee, Florida. They have been involved with Incarnation Tallahassee since it was planted and were grateful to experience all the stages of the church plant. Now Incarnation is their sending parish as they prepare to plant a church in Tampa, Florida. Peter loves raising up leaders, teaching scripture, and welcoming people into the sacramental life of the Church. He graduated from Gordon-Conwell Theological seminary in 2022. Peter enjoys fishing (especially in the surf) and playing drums. Naomi danced professionally at the Tallahassee ballet and loves to garden.

Dr. Bob and Kathy Ayres have been involved in Deaf ministry since the middle 1980s and in 2000, established Deaf Teen Quest (DTQ), now a national ministry model of Youth For Christ USA. They have six adult children who came to them through adoption (two of whom are Deaf) and a dozen delightful grandchildren!

God stirred up a vision in Fr. Bob’s heart for establishing DEAFCHURCH TOGETHER, a Deaf Liturgical Church movement, based on the model of multiple home and community congregations as part of a regional parish connected by online weekly liturgical services in American Sign Language. He is the founding pastor/priest of DEAFCHURCH TOGETHER and has published two books on Deaf ministry: Deaf Diaspora: The Third Wave of Deaf Ministry and DEAFCHURCH 21: Vision for a New Generation.

Prior to coming to Jacksonville in 2019, Paul spent 25 years in ministry with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship in OH, WV, and PA. Paul graduated from Ohio State University with a degree in Biology Education and later completed a Masters of Arts in Religion from Trinity School for Ministry. Paul co-planted Redeemer North Boroughs in Pittsburgh, PA. Paul and his wife, Kim, and five adult children.

Paul and Kim started a house church in Springfield where they live. Incarnation Jax, which is part of the Greenhouse church planting movement, meets Thursday evenings in the Hassells’ home. Paul is also the Outreach pastor, with an emphasis on cross-cultural ministry, at Mt. Sinai Missionary Baptist Church. Collaboration, prayer, and equipping God’s people for kingdom life and ministry are the Hassells’ passions. They are prayerfully working to grow a house church network of interconnected communities in Duval county that will be able to do much more together than any one could do alone.

Lenny and Caly Konschewitz, former missionaries and church planters in Europe, heard a call from the Lord to plant a church in Florida, in particular St. Johns County. Lenny writes, "Our desire is to reach more people with the Gospel, and planting new churches is a great way of doing so."

The name of the new church will be "The Table." They chose this name because their church will focus on Encountering God, Uniting Believers, and Inviting the World. These three dimensions of relationship are based on the conviction that the Kingdom of God is in relationships.

After serving for 6 years at Grace Anglican on Fleming Island, Dan and Carrie have been sent to plant church in Portland, Maine, the second most post-Christian city in America in cooperation with the Anglican Diocese of New England. Their desire is to join Jesus to plant a church-planting church there.

They are planting a church that exists to “invite all people to explore, follow, and join Jesus to bring life to the brokenness in ourselves, our city, and the world.”  Rather than launching with a service, they started by hosting Alphas throughout the city to give people a chance to explore Jesus in a conversational way. As people encounter Jesus, they will form missional communities that will disciple people to follow Jesus and establish Jesus-shaped rhythms of life in community.