Alisha | SCT Chair

ALISHA (she/her) is a musician and orchestra teacher. She is married to her best friend and fellow musician Tim, and together they have two beautiful daughters. As far as hobbies go, Alisha loves to cook, practice yoga, and lift weights. Lately, Alisha has been pondering the nature of God, and seeing God in the places where people come together to work hard at synchronizing their efforts and skills to produce beauty for the world. 

Wendi

WENDI (she/her/hers) is married to her best friend and forever love Chris, and shares with him a love of adventure, the outdoors, and the Chicago Cubs. She’s also a mom to two (big) kids and a kitty. Most weekends you can find Wendi somewhere with a camera, sketchbook, or notebook, being a track mom, hiking, cycling, or all of the above. She aspires to live at the intersection of contemplation and compassion and is passionate about the influence of diversity in thought, theology, experience, and power, within both the classroom and our wider communities. 

Wendi is forever searching for places and spaces in which she and every person is able to feel safe and supported as we all become and live as the whole beautiful human beings we were all made to be. She tries really hard to sit with the peace she feels with God and the world at the Big Red Barn, and believes that the world is a better place just because Galileo exists.

Deanne

DEANNE (she/her) is attending Brite Divinity School to earn the remaining credits of a Masters of Divinity Equivalency and is pursuing her call to chaplaincy ministry. As an LGBTQ person of faith, she knows the crucial and important work the church and its people do for the LGBTQ community and the world around them. Having been on the receiving end of this work, she feels a call to take part in it. 

As her own faith has grown, shifted and developed over the years, she has grown passionate about walking alongside others as they do the hard work of sorting out their own journeys of faith. She is grateful for Galileo’s sponsorship for ordination with Disciples of Christ and proud to be a part of this community.

Josh

JOSH (he/him) is a hospital chaplain. He graduated from Brite Divinity School in May 2020, and completed his chaplain residency in August of 2022. That same month, he began the ordination process with the Disciples of Christ, with Galileo’s sponsorship. He has served on both Galileo’s Missional Logistics Team and Spiritual Care Team, and occasionally fills in as preacher. 

It was at Galileo that he learned the defining refrain of his ministry: “You are so loved.” It is a phrase he goes back to again and again in his work as he helps people reckon with some of the most difficult moments of their lives, and it grounds him as he remembers his own belovedness. He resides in Charlotte, North Carolina with his husband, the Gelatinous Cube (a.k.a. Ethan) and their cat, Nebula.

Jean

JEAN (she/her) a sociable introvert, is at her happiest in a forest looking up at the treetops, by the water, with her nose in a book or discovering something new. Awe and wonder are her favorite emotions. She has been married forever to Don. They have been blessed with five children who joined their family through adoption, two foster kids and six grandchildren.  When Jean is not playing with her dogs or grandchildren or reading or camping, she is a therapist for individuals and couples. She loves the depth and intensity of the work and is deeply honored that people trust her with their stories. 

Jean grew up in San Diego, then headed north to Oregon for college. The green and the trees (and even the rain) agreed with her and Oregon became home. She gratefully attends Galileo through Inside Out, and treasures the friendships built through G-Group participation. It has taken a lifetime, but Jean has finally come to believe, not only in her head but in her core, that God loves her unconditionally. She serves on the SCT with the desire to encourage others to live in that peaceful place of compassion for others and self. Hey- let her know if you find a great book!

DAVID

DAVID (he/him) Married to my best friend Leyna with whom I have raised three boys, and now have the privilege of being grandparents to 4 wonderful young people.  I was born near Manchester in England but have lived in the Netherlands and the Middle East before arriving in the US in 2000.  I worked in the IT industry for many years, have a law degree and am currently studying at Brite Divinity School for a master’s in theological studies.  Leyna and I love to go for walks together and usually spend a few weeks of the summer back in Europe visiting family and old friends, whilst also avoiding the Texas heat!

After being raised as a child in the Anglican church, I spent most of my middle years in charismatic non-denominational church settings and was responsible for planting churches in the UK and here later in the US, serving as the team leader of those churches before mounting questions around my beliefs began to cause me to take stock.  At the same time, I began to imagine a vision for community situated around coffee, and particularly modeled on the European coffee houses of old.  This turned into reality in 2006 when we opened our first coffee house and Roasterie in Grapevine.  18-hour days meant leaving the ministry behind and ultimately fifteen years of deconstructing my faith until it became clear that Leyna and I could benefit from a new spiritual family to call home.  We found that home in Galileo Church and are grateful for the friends we have made and the opportunity to serve God in a context that matters to us.

Phil

PHIL (he/him) married a college friend in 1972, Janet, who became his sweetheart and confident for life. They came to Galileo as Spiritual Refugees at the time the church returned to in-person services, post pandemic. They have 4 children - Caleb, Steven, Maria and Asa, and they also now have 6 grandchildren. Their oldest son, Caleb, departed this world at age 19 following a lifetime of profound health challenges that included the inability to sit, stand, walk or speak. Caleb’s life and death presented soft theological challenges that gradually exposed the shallowness and limitations of Phil’s fundamentalist beliefs and practice. Phil embarked on an adventure that enabled him to let go of beliefs that valued, primarily, certainty and absolute truth. Little by little he has discovered that love and inclusiveness allow a flow of transcendence and wonder. These changes in perspective now function as core values fueled by doubt and ambiguity that enable his faith to grow larger and more inclusive. Phil says it is nice to be a part of the Galileo family where he is able to practice common core values written by other Spiritual Refugees years before he arrived. The Tao Te Chang, chapter 43, summarizes well his spiritual adventure:

“The softest thing in the universe overcomes the hardest thing in the universe. That without substance can enter where there is no room. Hence I know the value of non-action. Teaching without words and work without doing are understood by few.”

Marilyn

MARILYN (she/her) is a volunteer puppy raiser for Canine Companions and an AP Literature teacher in a local school district.  She adopted and raised her Bulgarian daughter Millie who is now an independent adult living in Connecticut.  After being raised in a conservative evangelical church, and even taking the role of a pastor’s wife for a while, her church tradition didn’t fit her evolving faith.  She found Galileo in 2016 and has had the privilege of serving on the SCT previously.   Her fiancé Kate is a co-Barn Boss at Galileo, and their fifth service puppy in training will start attending Galileo soon.  Marilyn is an introvert and finds God outside with trees and mountains.  She considers it an honor to listen to other’s stories and be a safe place to talk.

Janice

JANICE (she/her) I have been totally blind since birth. I have been married for nearly 22 years, and we have 2 cats; Kona and Loki. I am a therapist in private practice, as well as a member of Lone Star Chorus. I love helping and caring for people. I am compassionate and enjoy helping others find strategies/solutions to issues that may be going on in their lives. My Galileo fam is important, and being on the SCT is a huge way that I can give of myself to others.