Staff

Feel free to contact our staff by clicking their name and completing the 'Contact Us' form. Staff stories can be found below the contact links by clicking on each person's name. We are eager to hear what you have to say...

 


Pastor - Greg Meyer

greg@jacobs-well.net

 

Want to know what he's thinking about? Check his

blog at www.precariouspastor.net

 

 

 

 

 

Intern Pastor - Dawn Fuglestad

dawn@jacobs-well.net

 

She goes by many names - "the intern" at Jacob's Well, "Mom" in the presence of three brilliant children and "Can you help me, Ma'am?" at the front desk of Abbott. Any other names must go entirely unnamed at this time. Dawn is thrilled to be a part of Jacob's Well and is having a ball getting to know everyone.

 

 

 

 

 

Heidi dresses like this everydayHeidi dresses like this everyday

H2O Children's Ministry Leader - Heidi Esposito

heidi@jacobs-well.net

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Music/Band Leader - Nate Bergengren



This picture make you worry too?

Yeah, well he got married and so we think he'll make it.

If you'd like to take a deeper peek at Nate, check out MySpace

OR Facebook (Nate Bergengren)

 

 

 

Administration/Community - Melissa Lock

melissa@jacobs-well.net

No need to worry about Melissa. She's married to Wonder Joe!

 

 

 

 

Gina's story

Gina came to Jacob's Well from the corporate world.  She used to use her exceptional skills to launch stores and initiatives for Best Buy, but decided working just as hard to launch a church for God and not getting paid as much was a better option.  Crazy... like everyone God gets ahold of.

 

Gina and her husband James live in the neighborhood and are waiting their first child any day now.  

Greg's story

Greetings! I'm Greg Meyer. The one God started working on first to try to start a new kind of church. One that people wouldn't have, but that people were. Since then the vision has become the vision of hundreds of others.

 

I've lived in south Minneapolis for 17 years now, so my roots are deep enough to make me a little skeptical when someone new comes to town and tries to try to tell us who we ought to be. If you are wondering about Jacob's Well, and who I am to think we need another church in south Minneapolis when there is already one on nearly every block, well... read on.

 

First, who am I?

I grew up in Wisconsin (being next to WI is one of the best things that ever happened to MN, by the way!)

I am a St. Olaf ParaCollege grad in sociology, anthropology and religion.

Master of Divinty from Yale University.

Post-grad work at Luther Seminary in St. Paul.

 

I spent my early years as a pastor in Papua New Guinea (PNG) where my wife, Kris, and I started our family. I had been there in college doing research. Kris had lived and studied in France, so going overseas was a natural. In PNG I worked for the indigenous church supporting local leaders, helping with development projects, and generally encouraging them to put the brakes on 'western Christianity' so that they could figure out what Jesus looked like in Papua New Guinean clothing. I spent about 7 years there.

In recent years I've been Executive Pastor at Bethlehem Lutheran (41st & Lyndale). Read my blog "What is this new church?"

 

My passion is and always has been leading journeys of discovery. I believe discovering what God has to do with our lives is the greatest and most significant journey we ever get the privilege to be on. Leading journeys of discovery through Jacob's Well is a big risk. Afterall, I'm leaving a large, growing, established church to start from scratch, but I can't imagine anything more important, worthwhile or exciting.

What else... Kris and I have 4 kids who have grown up in the Mpls Public School system, we live in the Jacob's Well neighborhood.

I hate easy answers, or actually answers at all. I live for insights and better and better questions that move us - and God - out of the box. I think our job as followers of Christ is to spend our lives discovering just how big God really is. That's what Jesus did. That's who Jesus was.

I love to sail, play basketball, run around the lakes, spend time with Kris and my kids, read, write, drink really good coffee (it should always be too thick to stir but too thin to plow) and... why kid myself, I don't have time for half the stuff I listed already.

What I really look forward to is meeting you. I hope to talk to you and hear your story at Jacob's Well some day.

 

Peace,

Greg

 

Oh yes, why start a church in south Minneapolis when there are so many already? That's easy, we don't need another church, but we desperately need a new kind of church. I bet you agree.

Heidi's story

Heidi on Tuesdays and ThursdaysHeidi on Tuesdays and ThursdaysHeidi loves kids and knows how to lead them to love God. From work with youth to managing Club Kid to developing early childhood ministry at a large Minneapolis congregation, she too decided it was time for something new. Really new. Her passion to not only help kids grow in faith but for families to grow in faith together has shaped Jacob's Well as much as anything else. Just stop in for one week at H2O (the name of our children's ministry) and you'll agree that not only is this program as fun and effective as any in the city, but it is not just Sunday School, it is worship - kid style!

 


Heidi and her husband Bob are life long Minneapolis people. Their children are active in everything.

 

And no, she doesn't really wear the bee costume everyday [just Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays ;)]


Melissa's story

Melissa...is thrilled to be part of a church that keeps it so real. She works part time at Jacob's Well - supporting the many volunteers who make Jacob's Well happen and doing her best to keep up with administrative details! All of the time she is a mom of 3-year-old Andrew and wife of handsome Wonder Joe.

Nate's story

We are so glad to have Nate on staff with us. He is a joy...

Read his MySpace page and hear samples of his music here 

Nate grew up in two places: Chula Vista, CA (until he was 11) and Cambridge, MN (where his parents still live today). He graduated from Cambridge-Isanti high school in '99, then went to Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, MN, where he failed miserably in his biochemistry major, so he switched to religion the second semster of his Junior year and finished with a degree in religious studies in '03. He likes studying people, their context, and why they believe what they believe rather than the biological processes going on underneath their skin.

 

After Gustavus, Nate tried his hand at being a youth director at a church in Brooklyn Center, but was called out of that into worship leading after 2.5 years of youth ministry. He worked on a contract basis with a number of different churches, where he honed his skills and made many contacts that brought him to us, here at Jacob's Well. Nate has been involved with several different recording projects, has played with numerous bands, and has ridden a horse from Custer, SD to the boarder of Oregon.

 

Among many things, Nate enjoys singing/songwriting/performing, playing racquetball with his roommate, Eric (who also plays keyboard for the JW band), throwing a frisbee around, playing soccer, working out/running, watching Kung-Fu movies, having a glass of wine in the "blue room" at his house, eating Buffalo Wild Wings on Tuesday-Thursday nights (that is when the deals are).

 

Nate is married to Audrey Christine and they live in South Minneapolis. No kids, yet:)