Our Leaders
High-level Elder Qualifications
All of our elders have had extensive experience in house church planting, and have proven records of raising up other leaders through their personal discipleship ministries. Our elders have a highly active role and significant time commitment as part of their responsibilities.
What Our Elders Do
Xenos elders (i.e., Board of Trustees) set the doctrinal and spiritual standards and the strategic vision for the church. They also assist in tactical implementation of key policies and programs for Xenos.
All Xenos elders are responsible to attend two board meetings each month to set church direction and strategic vision. In addition, the elders invest three weeks each year in retreats, sometimes traveling to other churches and ministries in the U.S., to seek out best (and sometimes questionable) church practices while setting concrete vision for Xenos’ future.
Current Xenos Elders - Personal Information
Gary DeLashmutt - Lead Pastor
Gary is the Senior Sphere Leader and primary teacher of our Sunday morning adult 4th Street Central Teaching. An author, he also teaches a Homiletics Workshop and other training courses in Xenos. He and his wife, Bev, lead a post-college home group near The Ohio State University, and have raised up leaders and planted several home churches over the years. Gary holds a B.A. in history from Ohio State and an M.A. from Ashland Theological Seminary. They have two grown daughters.
Dennis McCallum - Lead Pastor
Dennis is a lecturer, an author of several books, a teacher of leadership classes, a leader and teacher at the Campus Bible Study near Ohio State. As college home group leaders, he and his wife, Holly, have raised up leaders and planted several college home churches. Dennis holds a B.A. in history from Ohio State and an M.A. from Ashland Theological Seminary. They have three grown children and two grandchildren.
Scott Arnold -
Senior Sphere Leader Scott is the primary teacher for the Xenos’ Franklinton (or West side) Central Teaching. He also is the executive director of Central Ohio Youth for Christ, a partner with Xenos in urban youth work. Scott serves on the national YFC/USA board and on the advisory team of Mission Columbus. Scott received a psychology degree from Ohio State and masters of biblical studies from Ashland Seminary. He and his wife, Annette, have been Xenos home group leaders and teachers for more than two decades. They have two children.
Dr. Jeff Gordon - Senior Sphere Leader
Jeff leads our Sunday Morning Cafe’ Central Teaching and oversees the sphere of adult home churches attending that meeting. He also teaches in the equipping program and leads an adult home group. Jeff is also a physician in internal medicine and trains family practice residents in his spare time. Jeff has three children.
Dr. Jody Kear -
Jody has taught various Xenos classes and leads an adult home group. Since 1983, he and his wife, Sue, have led home groups, raised up new leaders and planted more than eight home churches. He graduated with a B.A. from Case Western Reserve University and pursued a masters from Ashland Theological Seminary. Jody received his DDS from Ohio State and owns a dental practice. They have three children.
Jim Leffel - Senior Sphere Leader
Jim leads our Sunday evening Main Campus Central Teaching where he oversees a sphere of adult home churches. He and his wife, Linda, have raised up leaders and planted several home churches since 1990. He also serves at the church’s director of theological education and teaches Xenos adult education classes. Jim received a B.A. in philosophy at Ohio State, and an M.A. in philosophy of religion from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Jim is an author and former college lecturer. They have two children.
Ryan Lowery - Senior Sphere Leader Ryan grew up in Columbus, graduated with a B.A. in history from Ohio State, and received a masters from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Ryan came to Christ through Xenos' Highschool ministry in 1994, and has been learning about God and trying to grow with Him ever since. Ryan spends most of his time working with his sphere's home group leaders, preparing classes and teaching at our Main Campus Cafe. He and his wife Jess have two children and live in Westerville where they lead a home group.
John McKewen -
John leads the GIFT (Generous Investments in Future Treasures) ministry team and serves as primary leader of our financial stewardship workshops. He is a registered investment advisor, and owns a local investment management firm. John led adult home groups with his wife, Jayne Ann (a key director in our children’s program) for many years. They now lead home groups for college students in our Campus ministry. They have three children.
Scott Risley - Senior Sphere Leader Scott has been part of the college ministry for since 1996 and has led and planted home churches for over a decade. Scott earned a BS and MS in computer science engineering at OSU and worked for several years in software consulting. He recently earned an MA from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Scott teaches one of the college CT's and has taught college training classes. A number of of his disciples are now leading their own groups. He and his wife Chris have been married for six years, and have two young children.
Ruth Welsh - Senior Sphere Leader Ruth leads a College-High School Central Teaching sphere and has served in Student Ministries for more than 10 years. She has a B.A. in philosophy and will complete her masters degree in May 2009. She and her husband, John, serve as leaders in a college and a high school home group.
Division Coordinators
John Rue
Adult Ministries
John oversees the post-college home group ministry of Xenos. He also serves as a consultant to home group leaders. He and his wife,Connie, also lead an adult home group.
Mike
Sullivan
Equipping Ministries
Mike oversees the Equipping Division, which includes our Adult Education Classes, Study Center (our church resource center and library), and our Master's Degree program. Mike also leads an adult home group and teaches Christian Ministry, one of our core courses at Xenos.
Joe
Botti
Student Ministries
Joe oversees qualified directors of our children's program (Oasis) through the Junior High and High School ministries and into College. He also oversees Xenos Christian Schools. Still, he's not just in the office. In addition to coaching leaders of student home groups, Joe also leads a junior high boys' study group.
Dave
Glover
Missions
Dave oversees World Missions and Urban Concern, our church-based ministry to the poor. He also is superintendent of Xenos Christian Schools. Dave is active in leading an adult home group and a junior-high boys’ study group.
Phil
Franck
Support Services
Phil oversees Evangelism Impact Ministries and Servant Team administration. He shares responsibilities in the Departments of Pastoral Counseling, External Relations and Communications. As a sphere leader, Phil also oversees many home groups and leads one.
Steve
Bauer
Operations & Administration
Steve leads the largest division in Xenos, from the standpoint of cost. He oversees our innovative budgetary and stewardship programs as well as finance & accounting, facilities and grounds across all our Columbus locations, information services, technical and food services for meetings and our office service staff. Steve also serves as corporate treasurer and secretary for Xenos and Urban Concern, and secretary of the Management Team. He is senior leader of a diverse adult home group.
Electing New Xenos Elders
The process for electing an elder to the Board of Trustees begins with an announcement of the new candidate to the members of our Servant Team (i.e.,deacons). For a period of at least three months' nomination; the candidate, existing elders and deacons provide feedback on the candidate's fit for office. At a scheduled meeting of the Xenos Servant Team, all deacons in attendance vote on the inclusion of the new candidate as an elder for an established term.
Considerations for Candidacy as Xenos Church Elders
Not all factors relating to readiness for each elder candidate are public information. The following criteria should address most questions regarding the suitability of key leaders in the church for eldership.
First, no current or emerging sphere leader fails to be nominated because of questionable character issues or lack of maturity. They are all fully qualified from that standpoint, since they already meet the biblical character prerequisites for serving in that role. (See Titus 1:5-9 and 1 Timothy 3:1-7.) These character requirements also apply to our division coordinators – but they are precluded from serving as elders due to conflicts-of-interest, regarding budget allocation and prioritization of resources performed by elders that would directly affect their divisions.
Second, to be nominated as an elder, several factors need to converge at the same time. In addition to the essential biblical character requirements:
- The eldership of Xenos consists of individuals on staff, and also not on church staff. We will continue to seek the best candidates for the role of elder. When staff are considered for eldership, they will come from the pool of sphere leadership already serving in critical church roles.
- The candidate must have been leading a Central Teaching “sphere” for at least one year and their current sphere must be flourishing.
- The candidate must be comfortable in their leadership role and have the intention of continuing as a sphere leader for the foreseeable future.
- The candidate must yield to open dialogue between sphere leaders and the elders who will make the call about these “readiness” issues. Candidates often need to wait because they are either:
- too new in the role;
- not leading fully developed spheres;
- not yet comfortable in the role;
- lead a sphere that might not be flourishing;
- actively considering a possible calling to different work.
Third, in all cases, we carefully deliberate about candidates so the church can rest assured that everyone has been considered carefully. Any current leaders could make good elders except for one or more of these factors. Of course, it would be improper to disclose the details of these deliberations publicly. We appreciate the trust the church extends to the current elders in making these complicated judgment calls.
Fourth, in addition to these objective factors, some sphere leaders may (in the future) have schedule, geographical, health, or family issues that might lead them (and the elders) to feel that this is not the time for adding another duty to their lives. Since eldership is not a paid position and requires additional hours of volunteer work, this may not be right or best for everyone's situation. We do not pay elders for elder-related work because they serve as trustees of our corporation. Under Ohio law, an elder would be personally liable for any lawsuit against Xenos if they were paid. (We do pay some elders for other duties they perform for the church, but not for their work as elders.)
The motivation for having such extensive criteria is the well-being of the leaders involved as well as the church. It is upsetting to be elected as an elder by the church and then have to step down. Even when the reasons for stepping down are perfectly legitimate, people don't like this experience and wonder what people are thinking. It also takes time to become familiar with all of the issues elders manage and eldership is not the kind of role that is performed well on a short-term basis. We try to avoid asking anyone to become an elder unless we are fairly certain they will be able to serve for some time.
This leads us to be conservative and as sure as possible before nominating someone to eldership. We would rather wait if we are in any doubt about the timing of the nomination. We will almost certainly nominate other elders in the near future – and for each nomination we engage in careful deliberation and prayer trying to sense God's will for the leadership of our church.