Pastor Keith, his wife Hannah and their son Asher

Background Stuff:

My wife (Hannah) and I moved to Chicago to attend Moody Bible Institute (MBI) back in 1999 and 2000. My wife and I are from Jewish backgrounds. By God's sovereign grace He called us to faith in our Messiah God and King Jesus! As a young married couple we were looking for affordable housing in Chicago and stumbled onto a gem, Rogers Park! I fell in love with the neighborhood right away (it reminded me of my birth place Brooklyn N.Y) and Hannah slowly fell head over heels a year or two into living here.

While still at MBI I was a full time student and was working at a church on staff in the far north suburbs. There I was living in Rogers Park-- the most diverse neighborhood in the nation and working in a pretty much all white church in the suburbs. Hannah and I were praying at that time about possibly doing a church plant in Rogers Park. God heard our prayers and connected us with a young pastor who was already in the process of church planting in Rogers Park. So we tagged along for the ride. Slowly the Lord began to tug at my heart to leave the church I had been working at and get a job in the city. I felt the Lord wanted me to make Rogers Park Community Church my home church, and provide myself as a volunteer to my church and community, so that's what I did.

That was in 2003, I have been a part of the church since day one. In the Spring of 2007 Tim Beavis (the founding Pastor of Rogers Park Community Church) and I sat down and prayed together about the possibility of the Lord directing me to take over leadership of the church. God indeed was leading His church this way. So here I am today as the Pastor of RPCC and loving every day of it!

So here's some extra information about me:

Birthday: July 30, 1976 (by the way, gift cards to Amazon.com always work for me)

Interests and Favorites:

• People: My two children Asher & Athalyah and wife Hannah
• Places: Rocky Mountains, any body of water
• What's on my iPod: Billy Joel (old stuff and new stuff), Fernando Ortego, tons of theological and leadership podcasts
• Books: The Bible, John Piper, most anything on leadership (esp. Charles Spurgeon, Martin Llhoyd Jones, and Jonathon Edwards), books on Holocaust History
• Hobbies: Reading, reading, and reading some more, shooting photography
• Stuff I Hate: When people devalue another person because of the way they look.
• Odd Facts: I used to want to be a chef, so yes on a good day I can cook
• Stuff that Shocks Me: That I am a Pastor (growing up Jewish not believing in Jesus, if you told me, "Keith you are going to be pastoring a Christian church"  I would have thought you are out of your mind!) God is truly in the business of making Trophies of His Mercy and Grace.

Favorite Scripture:
"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."    
                                                                                    - John 15:5