Our Pastors

Pastor Ryan was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and grew up all over Western Canada. Throughout his teen years he looked to political causes to make him feel righteous and drugs and sex to make him feel happy. Thankfully, by the time he was 21 he found his righteousness was a joke and his happiness had turned sour. Then, through the simple and intelligent witness of his step-mom he came to trust Jesus Christ late in the evening just before Good Friday in 1995. Following that Ryan began to grow, to tell people about Jesus, and to study his Bible. Shortly after his conversion he studied for a year at Prairie Bible College, in Three Hills Alberta, and then for two years at Tyndale College in Toronto, Ontario. In Toronto, Ryan had two life shaping experiences. First, he got to work in a downtown urban Church under the leadership of Dr. Stephen Beck. Second, he got invited to be in a ‘study group’ by the godliest and the prettiest girl in the college. A week after graduation the lovely Christy Joy Teal became Christy Joy Fullerton. The next eight years have been a whirlwind including drilling for oil, pastoring a Church in a town of 311, finding out he was naturally a bad husband, God giving miraculous and happy grace in his marriage, having four children (Jordana, Luke, James, and Christopher), starting Seminary, stopping Seminary, and becoming (somewhere in there) the Pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church.

Since 2002 Ryan has been the Pastor of Immanuel. In that time God has blessed him with many trials, incredible Co-Pastors, and an amazingly loving Church. On top of all this he has had the privilege of seeing Immanuel Baptist Church take some small steps towards bringing the heartbeat of the Cross to the Streets of our city and the ends of the earth.

Right now at Immanuel Ryan has the primary responsible for preaching the Word of God Sunday Mornings, equipping others to preach God’s Word on Wednesday Nights, shaping our Sunday Morning ‘Discipleship Classes’, and leading our public services. He is also beginning to spearhead evangelism, and to cultivate and articulate the vision of the Church.

Mark is a native of New Zealand and only arrived in Louisville in July 2006 to attend seminary. Mark and his family, wife, Tania, and four children, Anna-Marie, Rachel, Joel, and Matthew fell in love with Immanuel Baptist Church and became members in December, 06.

Mark was not raised in a Christian home and his passions as a boy and young man were sports. He enjoyed especially playing rugby and cricket. At the age of 18 Mark met some Christians who spoke to him about Christ “It was good listening to them, and they were fun to hang out with, but I wasn’t that interested in their religion.” Mark became interested when he finally understood his sinfulness before a Holy God, “When God finally enabled me to see my sin, I despised it, it was like this monster controlling my life and I couldn’t do anything about it. I finally saw, and fully appreciated the need to be freed from sin, Praise God for Jesus Christ, the Savior of sinners.”

Since this all happened in the spring of 1986 Mark has got married to a wonderful woman, had four delightful children, been involved in church planting and youth ministry. He has worked in the swimming pool industry and toyed with plumbing. Mark’s greatest joy is to see the glory of Christ lived out powerfully through individual families and the greatest of families, the Church.

Born in Memphis, Tennessee but raised mostly in Kansas, Ben is one of Jim and Lee Ann Hedrick's three children. The Lord blessed Ben with faithful Christian parents who were continually modeling for him pastoral, cross-bearing Church service. The Lord drew nine-year old Ben to himself through the witness of his parents, and Ben considers it a great honor to have had his father baptize him in a Kansas creek. His father's congregation was the only Baptist church in the county, and as such there were as many cattle in attendance at the baptism as people! Homeschooling took up most of Ben's K-12 education: as a result he is very close to his parents and sisters and is thankful for the the way the Lord used them to make him more like Jesus.

Ben continued his education at Missouri Baptist University in St. Louis, where he graduated with a BA in Religion in 2003 . He came to Immanuel in 2004, and soon after met and married his wife Sarah, a gifted pianist and graduate of the University of Louisville School of Music. Together, Ben and Sarah have three children: Karis, Frank Jackson, and Daniel Evan. Ben enjoys spending time outdoors with his family , watching St. Louis Cardinal baseball, roasting his own coffee, and plans on becoming a hobby beekeeper someday. Working full time in sales for a local family-owned commercial refrigeration company takes up most of his time, but Ben also longs to see local churches founded firmly on deep and rich theology that works itself out in believers doing good to all men, especially the household of faith.

Pastor Jeff King grew up in a suburb just outside of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida called Coral Springs. He is the son of two wonderful Christian parents. While in High School, he began courting Christy, whom he somehow persuaded to marry him halfway through his college years. Jeff attended Samford University where he obtained a BA in Religion. Jeff and Christy moved to Louisville in 1998, and joined IBC in January of 2002. He became a volunteer pastor in 03. He graduated from Southern Seminary in May ’04, and was hired in May of 07 to be the second staff pastor at IBC.

Jeff oversees discipleship counseling, membership, missionary support, IBC staff, and care group ministries. Jeff and Christy have two daughters, Alexis and Rachel. Jeff recently “delivered” a spleen weighing more than either daughter weighed at their birth. Alexis attends pre-school at Dorothy Sayers and is learning that the letter “A” makes four sounds. Rachel has learned that she can aggravate her sister by making one of those sounds four times. Jeff enjoys being with his family, reading, playing sports, gardening, and watching Gator football. Jeff desires to lead a people to fight for joy, and sees every experience as a Divine call to joy—a shameless, unmitigated challenge to throw off all worries and complaints and to “enter into the joy of our Master.” (Matt. 25:21). Jeff’s happiest thought is that Christ shed His blood for sinners.

Andy McClurg grew up in the Chicago area. From his high school years and into young adulthood, he was interested in finding truth. This led him into experimenting with psychedelic drugs, playing music and exploring Eastern religion, including yoga and meditation. He eventually decided that he wanted to disconnect himself as much as possible from the destructive patterns of the industrial world, and to that end, he enrolled in a college program in Olympia, Washington, to learn how to live self-sufficiently off the land. At the same time, as part of his religious activities, he was reading the Bible along with other "sacred" literature. During this period, he often would become troubled and fearful for no apparent reason, and came to realize that he needed a Savior and not just religious exercises or philosophies. Jesus said, "I am the way and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me" John 14:6. That truth became a reality to him. He realized that the truth he had been seeking for several years was found in a person Jesus Christ.

This encounter with God in Christ radically changed Andy's life. After working with a drug rehabilitation program for several years in Washington, Andy returned to the Chicago area and earned a computer science degree at the University of Illinois at Chicago. For more than ten years he worked in telecommunications as a software developer and systems engineer, serving much of that time as a deacon in a local Baptist church. During the last years of this period, he traveled all over the world for his job, including multiple trips to Europe, China and India. This helped to open his eyes to the amazing diversity of cultures, languages and religious beliefs around the world and made him realize more fully the need for gospel witness to every tongue, tribe, and nation.

While in Illinois, he met Janet Faye Higbee, who had come to Illinois to work as a software developer. Prior to this she had been a professional musician in her home town of Buffalo, NY. After she moved to the Chicago area, two important things happened. First, she met the living Lord Jesus Christ. Second, she met and eventually married Andy. Together, they ministered at a local Baptist church in the Western Suburbs of Chicago, and later were part of a church plant in Chicagoland’s North Shore area.

In 2002, Andy and Janet moved to Kansas City so that Andy could pursue seminary studies at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. While finishing his Master of Divinity of degree, Andy began ministering at an inner city mission, preaching weekly and being involved with providing food and clothes to homeless people and others living nearby. Eventually with the help of a church planting team they started Set Free Church of Kansas City with a focus of reaching out to people in the inner city; some homeless, some from the neighborhood, some with addictions, and all without hope apart from God.

In 2006, Andy began to pursue a PhD degree in Old Testament at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY. While there, Andy and Janet began attending Immanuel Baptist Church, located in an inner city neighborhood southeast of downtown. It has been a great joy to both Andy and Janet to be a part of this congregation. Andy has had the privilege and added joy of serving as one of the pastors there since 2007. His long term goals involve both teaching and pastoring. He desires to see God’s people grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ.

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