Leadership & Staff

Ben Cornish has been an elder at Sojourn East since May 2018. Ben serves at Sojourn with Missions, Community Groups, Connect, and Prayer. Ben received a bachelor’s degree in History from the University of Minnesota, a Masters of Divinity from Southern Seminary, and is now working toward a Ph.D. in World Religions, also at Southern. After college, Ben and his wife Emily lived in Brisbane, Australia where they led a campus ministry with Cru, and since 2012, Ben has served as a missionary with Teaching Truth International. Ben and Emily have one daughter, Zoe.

Mark has been a member of Sojourn since 2007 and an elder since 2013. He is married to Tanya and they have 12 kids together: Cameron, Seth, Alethia, Autumn, Amaris, Gabriel, Heidi, Holly, Hadrian, Phoebe, Caspian, Sylvia. Mark enjoys building up people within organizations to help them exhibit the peaceful ambition that Jesus invites us into.

Simon Groce has been an elder at Sojourn since 2009. He serves at Sojourn East with the Care and Adoption ministries. Simon has his bachelors in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Florida and Masters in Counseling from Southern Seminary. Simon and his wife Mandy have 4 kids.

Kyle has served at Sojourn since 2001, working in the care and counseling ministry, children’s worship, community groups, worship team, missions and as an elder. He currently serves as an elder at Sojourn East, with a focus on the care ministry. He is also currently serving with our missionary care team. Kyle is also a local business owner, working in real estate, and owns a local coffee shop. He serves on various boards in the city. His hobbies are playing music, biking, running and fly fishing. His wife is Hilary Noltemeyer and they have three children: Willow, Mirable and Lincoln.

Pastor Jonathan is the Pastor of Spiritual Formation and one of the teaching pastors at Sojourn East. He is also the father of six kids, a New Testament professor at Southern Seminary, the author of many books, and an avid lover of soccer and Taylor Swift.

Rick Steinrock has been an elder at Sojourn East since May of 2018. Rick serves in the men’s ministry, the care ministry in marriage mentoring and leads the mens Saturday morning Bible study.