Pastor Richard Ferguson - Senior Pastor
“Many years ago, when I was still a student at adopted a verse from the book of Acts chapter 20 verse 24 which is the apostle Paul speaking, “However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me – the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace. I still work hard at fulfilling this and I am more convinced than ever of the calling for ministry.”
Pastor Rick has a Bachelor’s degree in Biblical Studies (1995) from Bethel University in Indiana. He also holds a Master’s degree in Ministry (1998) from Bethel College. He was licensed in 1995 and ordained by the Missionary Church in 1999.
He has enjoyed serving churches in both Indiana and Michigan for over 25 years. In 2014 He and his family answered the call and moved to Yale MI. where he currently serves as Senior Pastor.
“I was completely transformed in my ministry mindset as the Lord made it clear to me that the church is not about building a larger more impressive ministry full of programs. The church is must be about making disciples who make disciples! My heart is stirred in seeing people transformed in Christ through discipleship. Along the path of discipleship we are to meet people where they are at. Sometimes to meet the person’s spiritual need we must first address their physical situation. This is how Jesus modeled his ministry for us.”
He married his wife Robyn in December of 1994. They have three children, Christian, McKenna and Caleb.
Pastor Jeff Pohlman - Associate Pastor
Jeff Pohlman has studied at Pastoral Leadership Institute (PLI) since 2009 and became a licensed pastor in 2014. Previously he spent 2 years with the missions organization Operation Mobilization on board their ship MV Logos II where he was in charge of the audio and visual systems for all of the programs. During this time, he met his wife Silvie, she is from the Czech Republic and they were married in 2003.
Jeff joined the ministry team at Bethel in 2012 as an intern. He now heads up the discipleship development and is working to create a discipleship culture at Bethel. He is also involved in organic discipleship and evangelism outside the church.
Jeff is also involved in many other areas at Bethel such as counseling, teaching, audio visual and technology, Technical Director, food distribution, missions, and filling the gap where ever the need is.
In his off time Jeff enjoys getting out of doors. He spends time fishing, hunting, and hiking especially with his 2 boys Honza and Elijah. He also loves to take people out and teach them the skills of fishing, ice fishing and bushcraft.