Resurrection Park Slope
Staff & Leaders
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Marc Choi
Assistant PastorMarc, a native of Queens, graduated from Dartmouth College in 1998. After spending time abroad in Germany and working as a consultant in Boston, Marc ended up in Washington D.C. He spent 5 years there on staff with FOCUS, a para-church youth ministry for independent school students. Once he had his fill of paintballing, adolescent drama and summer camps, Marc heeded his growing desires to return home and to serve the churches of NYC. His first step towards that end was enrolling at Princeton Theological Seminary in 2007. Being close to New York City made Princeton a perfect vantage point to both study and take bites out of the Big Apple. It was during his time at seminary that he first learned of Resurrection Brooklyn and its church planting internship. Marc graduated from seminary in May 2010, and shortly thereafter Marc and his wife, Balem, became residents of Park Slope. Marc joined the staff of Resurrection Park Slope as an intern in September 2010 and was ordained in June 2012.
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Ryan Van Horn
Assistant PastorRyan is a native of Seattle Washington, but spent half of his life in St. Louis. Erin was born and raised in St. Louis, which makes her a huge Cardinal’s fan, a team that she holds dear to her heart. They met in the fall of 2007 and were married in the summer of 2008 and shortly after that they both started attending Covenant Seminary. Ryan graduated with a Masters of Divinity in 2014 and was ordained in May of 2016. Ryan and Erin have two awesome little boys: Seth and Isaac. They’re all settling into Brooklyn and happy to know the water is drinkable and the secret to great bagels and pizza. Church planting has been a large part of Ryan’s ministry experience. He helped start and pastor churches in St. Louis, MO and Seattle, WA. Ryan’s desires to receive more training in urban church planting and pursue ordination coincided with a call from Resurrection Park Slope to be its latest church planting resident. He started at RPS in February 2015.
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Gerald Menke
Music DirectorGerald’s first contact with the church was in 2007 when he subbed for then-music director/guitarist Steve Elliot. He began playing pedal steel in the church regularly shortly thereafter, became a member, and in fall 2012, was named music director. A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, he lives in Clinton Hill with his wife Genevieve and their two children Ilse and Paul. He is delighted to program and perform the music for worship every week and counts his involvement in the church among the greatest of his many, many blessings. Gerald has played pedal steel on hundreds of indie albums, played on national and international tours, composed music for major ad campaigns, composed music for radio dramas and played pedal steel on dozens of indie movie soundtracks. He is bilingual English-German, a musical omnivore and loves spending time exploring NYC with his wife and children, and reading biographies.
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Meggie Simmons
Children's Ministry DirectorMeggie Simmons grew up in Darien, Connecticut and went to Furman University in South Carolina, where she graduated with a degree in Communications and Religion. After marrying her husband Josh in 2009, they returned to the north and settled in Brooklyn. Meggie worked at an online auction company in Manhattan until 2011, when she and Josh welcomed their first son, Grayson. In the spring of 2013, Meggie was given the reigns to take charge of Children’s Ministry, a humbling and exciting opportunity to teach the children of Resurrection Brooklyn about God and his love from an early age. She’s relying on God’s grace, wonderful parent volunteers, wetnaps and a lot of Cheerios to see her through.
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Matt Brown
Lead PastorMatt Brown is the senior pastor of Resurrection Brooklyn and the lead pastor of the Park Slope congregation. He and his wife, Deb, met while attending college in New York and doing youth ministry together in Brooklyn. After Matt graduated from Reformed Theological Seminary in 1996, they were married and moved back to New York where Matt served as Associate Pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church in Rye, NY for seven years. They returned to Brooklyn in 2003 and live in Park Slope with their three children: Flannery, Charlotte and Walker. Matt is an avid sports fan and will root for the Boston Red Sox until the Dodgers return to Brooklyn.