Church Staff
Bill Coleman Senior Pastor
Pastor’s Bill’s Facebook Profile
Bill was born in the United States and raised in both Tennessee with his Dad’s family and Delaware with his mom’s family, depending on the season.
He and his wife Nancy have been married more than 40 years, have three married children, and three grand-children, all of whom make their home in St. Thomas.
Pastor Bill became a Christian while as a University student. Immediately he sensed God’s call to the pastorate and transferred to Philadelphia Biblical University where he graduated with a B.S. degree in Pastoral Studies. From there he completed his Masters of Religious Education and Doctor of Religious Education degrees from Temple Baptist Theological Seminary.
Formerly Bill has served as a university and seminary professor, youth pastor, and the founding pastor of a church in the inner-city of Winnipeg. He and Nancy have been at Faith since 1992.
His hobbies are bass guitar, art photography, and golf.
“When people ask me what Faith is all about, my answer is we are all about wanting to know Jesus as our Saviour and becoming like Him. We don’t just want to study about Him or promote some religious institution. We want to touch our community in life-giving ways. This is why Faith has so many community projects that we sponsor. I love to hear the stories of how God’s people are serving Christ by serving each other and their community, not only here in Elgin County, but around the world. We encourage spiritual seekers to come and check us out and investigate the claims of Jesus Christ for themselves.”
Nancy Coleman, Pastor, Women’s Ministry
Pastor Nancy’s Facebook profile
In this picture Nancy is with some of the children Faith Church supports in Juarez, Mexico.
Nancy was born and raised in the U.S. in Delaware where she was the oldest of five children and the first in her family to give her heart to Christ. She and Bill met in high school and were married in 1967.
Nancy studied Accounting at the University of Delaware, as well as Christian Education at Philadelphia Biblical University and Tennessee Temple University. She has completed most of Providence Seminary’s Pastoral Counseling program and is a graduate of Crisis Intervention program at Fanshawe College.
Nancy has served with Bill in many capacities over the years including serving as a school Principal for an inner-city Christian school in Winnipeg and as manager of the Caring Cupboard Food Bank in St. Thomas for 8 years. Currently, Nancy is a member of the Pastoral Team at Faith. She is responsible for the Pastoral Care and our Women’s Ministry.
“I serve with the other pastors in helping as many hurting people as I can. I spend a lot of time on the phone encouraging people and praying for them. One of my personal ministry passions is leading woman’s Bible study groups. Bill and I do most of our pastoral counseling and pastoral visitation as a team. Faith has a wonderful referral program for counseling, which I direct; with our professionally trained counselors plus with our lay helpers we are able to help many people. One of biggest joys is managing what we call the H.O.P.E Fund. This stands for ‘Helping Others Practically and Evangelistically.’ We literally bless the community and several world projects with thousands of dollars every year providing food, medical care, transportation, counseling, sponsorships, and housing.
Steve Brown, Pastor, Adult Ministry.
Steve has been married to Ruth since he was 19. They, with their four children, Naomi, Hannah, Joshua, and Rebecca, live in St. Thomas.
Steve’s Irish brogue makes for an interesting discussion and many here at Faith ask for translations of his Irish-Canadian vocabulary.
Steve has been pastoring at Faith since 2001 and in his current role, he is responsible for developing, supporting, and equipping the volunteer Adult ministry leadership teams as well as for Pastoral care.
Jeremy Best, Pastor, Student Ministry
Originally from Sarnia, Jeremy has been in youth ministry since 2002, ministering in both Mississauga and Hamilton before coming to St Thomas in 2008.
He graduated from Heritage College in 2004 with a Bachelors of Religious Education and was ordained in 2007.
Jeremy loves traveling, sports, and even politics, but more than those things, he loves spending time with, teaching, and leading youth. Jeremy is married to his school sweetheart, Angela.
Arthur Cairncross, Pastor of Men’s Ministry
artbeth.cairncross@sympatico.ca
Arthur Cairncross, originally from London, Ontario, has lived in St. Thomas for many years.
A pharmacist by profession, he owned and operated Burns Pharmacy, was Pharmacist Manager at the St. Thomas-Elgin General Hospital and worked part-time at Shoppers Drug Mart.
Before beginning at the hospital, Arthur graduated with honours from London Baptist Seminary with his Masters of Divinity and was the development representative for London Baptist Bible College and Seminary.
Arthur began his personal relationship with Jesus Christ at 19 years of age and has served God faithfully at Faith as deacon, elder, lay pastor, and teacher.
He and his wife, Beth, have been married 47 years and have four children and 11 grandchildren.
Lisa McIntosh, Pastor, Children’s Ministry
Lisa joined the staff on September 5, 2006. She is a graduate of Briercrest Bible College in Moosejaw, Saskatchewan, where she received a Diploma in Bible Theology.
In 1987, Lisa attended The Regional School for Nursing and began her career as a nurse.
Lisa’s 20 years of experience working with various children’s programs and her passion to see children reach their full potential for the Lord led her to this position.
Lisa is married to Mark and together they have three children: Naomi, Hannah, and Benjamin.
Angela Faris, Pastor, Worship Arts
Angela grew up on a farm outside St. Thomas and attended Faith from an early age. She has always loved music and participated in many musical forms, taking Royal Conservatory of Music examinations in piano, voice, theory, and harmony, as well as playing contemporary music.
Angela has also studied ballet, competed as a synchronized swimmer at the Ontario level, and enjoys playing various sports. She loves the outdoors and grows a large garden each summer.
Angela has been a regular soloist and worship leader at Faith, a soloist at weddings, and has sung for many years in the Faith choir and the Fanshawe Singers.
Angela teaches music and gives instruction in keyboard, drums, guitar, bass guitar and voice.
Lynne Houghton, Office Administrator
Lynne and her husband, Bill, live on a farm west of Shedden. She grew up in a Christian family between Belmont and Dorchester and as a result of her family’s and church’s teaching, became a Christian when she was 5 years of age.
Lynne was a nurse and held various positions at the St. Thomas Elgin General Hospital until her children were born. She then stayed home to raise them until September 2000 when she joined the staff at Faith full-time.
Bill and Lynne have 3 children – Cheri, Julia and her husband Nathan, and Mike.
Martha Moore, Director of Facilities and Grounds
A small town girl at heart, Martha was the eldest of 7 children and highly esteems her parents for developing a tenacious spirit in her at an early age. She developed a great love for God in her youth.
Martha raised three sons Jeremy, Rick, and Chad, as a single parent. Martha is also blessed with 2 daughters-in-law – Melanie and Melisa, 4 granddaughters – Leyla, Natalie, Casey and Sophie and 1 grandson, Caleb.
Martha loves to kayak, hike, read, restore furniture, and write poetry and short stories about her grand kids.
Martha has a deep passion to speak at events as well as small groups in the church and local organizations.
Her life verse is Psalm 31: 3 – “Since you are my rock and my fortress, for the sake of your name lead and guide me”.
Cindy Graves, Director of Finance
Cindy is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario with a BSc in Mathematics and Statistics. She has over 20 years of experience in the banking industry and 4 years working part-time as a bookkeeper.
Cindy had volunteered at Faith for 3 years recording and receipting the donations when God opened the door for her as Administrator of Finance. She enjoys living in Aylmer with her husband Wendell and their two daughters, Andrea and Rebecca.
On Monday nights you’ll find her playing her flute in the Aylmer Area Community Band.