It is my great delight to introduce Teaching Elder Chris Vogel as the newly appointed MNA Church Planting and Vitality Coordinator. Chris will begin serving January 1, 2023. He was already serving as Ecosystems Development Director when I became Coordinator in 2021. I have experienced firsthand his passion and experience in church planting, developing pipelines for future planters, and cultivating pastoral health as a key facet of church vitality through NXTGEN. Chris is a servant leader who has a robust vision for kingdom advancement. He will lead MNA’s efforts to serve the PCA for Spirit empowered fruitful growth in church planting and vitality. Please join me in praying for Chris, the team of brothers and sisters he will help lead within MNA, and the flourishing of the PCA for the sake of Christ and his kingdom!
MNA Coordinator TE Irwyn Ince Jr
Chris Vogel is from Lancaster, PA, and settled in Wisconsin 35 years ago. After seminary (Columbia Graduate School, now CIU), he pursued a Ph.D. at Marquette University. While a graduate student, he assisted with a church plant on Milwaukee’s east side. In 1992, Chris set aside his dissertation and planted a church in Waukesha, a western suburb of Milwaukee. Chris served as the planter and senior pastor of Cornerstone Church in Waukesha (later moved to Delafield, WI) for 26 years. Through the years, Chris has been actively involved in church planting and credentialing in Northern Illinois Presbytery and, since 2005, in the Wisconsin Presbytery. He serves the Presbytery as the chair of the Pastoral Development Committee and on its MNA Committee. In 2017 Chris became the Director of the On Wisconsin Network, and then in 2018, he transitioned from his senior pastor role to launch NXTGEN Pastors. NXTGEN provides presbyteries and networks the mechanism to create mentored cohorts for soft skills development, which is vital for pastoral health. NXTGEN Pastors has trained over 150 mentors with 40 cohorts in North America, with others beginning overseas.
For the past three years, Chris has served Mission to North America as the Ecosystem Development Director. He is on the board of The Midwest Alliance, working with its director, Ted Powers, to see a greater planting movement among the 15 Midwest Presbyteries. He is also on the board of Flourish Coaching, serving the director, Matt Bohling. Chris and Janet have been married for 40 years, having met in the sixth grade. Chris and Janet are parents to three children. Jenny is married to Sam Brown (Associate Pastor at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Cleveland, TN), and they have three wonderful sons. Chris and Janet’s son, John, works in Houston, TX as a marketing manager for a curriculum company. Michael (married to Emma) is the pastor of Harvest Church of Madison (Wisconsin), and they welcomed their first daughter this past Wednesday.
It is with great joy and some trepidation to be called to serve MNA as the Church Planting and Vitality Coordinator. For most of my adult life, church planting has been at the forefront of my ministry as a church planter and a mentor. In my 35 years in Wisconsin, I witnessed the Lord’s hand through hard times of little growth and the joy of great expansion. There is a need to unite planting with pastoral health, as the vitality of pastors, churches, and presbyteries is foundational if we are to see the gospel growth we all pray for. I am thrilled about how the Lord has formed the current MNA team led by Irwyn Ince and Murray Lee, and I look forward to serving with them. Let us all continue to ask the Lord to use MNA to cultivate Kingdom advancement through the PCA in North America to the glory of his name!
MNA Church Planting and Vitality Coordinator TE Chris Vogel
What an outstanding leader the PCA is getting with Chris Vogel as MNA’s next Church Planting and Vitality Coordinator. The Lord has used Chris mightily to not only develop pipelines of church planters throughout the Midwest, but also to create cohorts for pastoral health through the ministry he founded called NXTGEN. Mission to North America is laser-focusing on church planting and church vitality, and to do so we need a leader. May God give Chris a measure of His Holy Spirit so that through his leadership, churches and presbyteries are strengthened and new works planted to reach the lost for the sake of Christ!
MNA Executive Coordinator TE Murray Lee