Richard Lindman

 

 

Pastor Dick is in his 13th year of ministry at Community Church, moving here from San Jose, CA, in 1996. As the associate pastor of pastoral care, Dick majors on building relationships and support systems, especially for folks going through times of transition. He also shares in the preaching and teaching, and has responsibility for overseeing and supporting the Stephen Ministry and ChristCare programs. Dick’s wife, Carol, has been in education for many years, and has recently retired as the principal of Thomas Jefferson Elementary in Bentonville.

 

Dick came to Community Church from the Evangelical Covenant Church, after serving as the senior pastor of Covenant churches in Massachusetts, Florida and California. He graduated from North Park College in Chicago, with a B.A. in economics, and North Park Theological Seminary, where he received a Master of Divinity degree. After Dick and Carol were married, they spent a year abroad while Dick was studying at the Faculty of Divinity at the University of Edinburgh, in Scotland.

 

Carol and Dick have a son Brian, who is a cardiologist, on the faculty of Washington University School of Medicine, in St. Louis, MO. Brian is married to JennyLark who served in the United States Air Force as a captain for seven years in the U.S. and Middle East. Brian is an elder in his church, and he and JennyLark have three little girls, Manna, Eden and Haven. Dick and Carol also have a daughter, Heather, who is married to Steve Woolbert, and they have three sons and one daughter, Ethan, Drew, Matthew and Linnea. They live in Trumbull, CT. Steve is a Market Research Specialist with Bridgewater Associates in Westport, CT, and he and Heather are lay leaders in their church.

 

Dick sees the description of the early church in Acts 2:46-47, as an important model for our own day. There was corporate worship and celebration as a large group in the temple, and then there was regular, intimate fellowship in the homes, as they ate together and shared their lives with one another. So, today, corporate worship is our chance to celebrate, to hear God’s Word, and to remember who we are as God’s children. “And my passion,” Dick says, “is to create a structure and to train leaders who can help build community in more intimate settings, where we can grow together and share our lives with each other, and discover that we are being molded after the likeness of Christ.”

 

Anna Teel

 

 

Anna Teel was born in Memphis, Tennessee, near her home of Mount Pleasant, Mississippi. She is the eldest of four siblings, and graduated from Marshall Academy in 1996. Anna earned a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in Bible and a minor in Spanish at Blue Mountain College in Blue Mountain, MS, in 2000. She earned a Master of Divinity degree from Beeson Divinity School at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama, in 2003. She was called to ministry at the age of fifteen and shared her calling with her home church, First Baptist Church of Holly Springs, MS. She was ordained to ministry in July of 2006 at Bella Vista Community Church. Anna has served in various ministry settings, as youth director for 7th-12th grade students, chaplain resident at a university hospital, and minister to 7th and 8th grade students, before joining the staff of Bella Vista Community Church as associate pastor for young families and students. Anna enjoys walking outdoors, going to the movies, and traveling.

 

In John 13:34-35 Jesus says, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” Anna believes that once we have experienced God’s love and forgiveness, we will share God’s love with other people. Understanding how God loves us and creating opportunities to share God’s love with people is important to Anna as a pastor. When we are sensitive to God’s leading in our lives, we will see that loving God and loving people can be a lifestyle and is how others come to know Christ and to be more like Christ.