OUR BOARD

Lisa Allgood
(she/her)

  • Lisa is the Executive Presbyter for the Presbytery of Cincinnati. A life-long Presbyterian and ordained Ruling Elder, Lisa served multiple churches as Clerk of Session before becoming commissioned to the Presbytery in 2019, after spending 36 years as an executive in the pharmaceutical industry. Lisa leads training and support for more than 60 churches and New Worshipping Communities in the greater Cincinnati area. Lisa is Vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees for the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, and serves the board of Sinapis, a global Christian non-profit based in Nairobi serving entrepreneurs in the emerging and frontier markets of the world, providing training and support in a Christian context. An avid traveler and photographer, she also serves the board of the Eddie Adams Workshop.

Sarah Bigwood
(she/her)

  • I currently serve as the Head of Staff and Pastor at First Presbyterian Church with sites in Fargo, ND and Baker, MN. I have been involved in ministry and church leadership for over 25 years, serving in various pastoral and leadership roles throughout the Presbyterian Church (USA). I’m part of the Northern Plains Presbytery, which spans North Dakota and parts of western Minnesota.

    One of the most unexpected and energizing ways I’ve seen growth is through the consolidation of two congregations into a multi-site church. When Baker-Downer merged with First Presbyterian Church of Fargo in 2024, it breathed new life into both communities. The Baker site now focuses exclusively on welcome and mission, and their joyful service has sparked new energy and excitement within the Fargo Mission Committee. We’ve deepened our involvement in ministries we already supported and have also invested in new efforts that Baker brought to our shared ministry. It’s been a beautiful reminder that sometimes, combining communities can multiply energy and passion for serving God’s people.

Greg Bolt
(he/him/his)

  • I am currently the pastor and head of staff at Salem First Presbyterian Church in Salem, OR. I have been serving the church in various capacities since volunteering to lead recreation at Vacation Bible School when I was 15. I have served in ordained and non-ordained roles, as well as roles in congregations and in camp settings within the Presbyterian Church (USA). I am part of the Presbytery of the Cascades, which serves Central and Western Oregon, Southern Washington, and Northern California. I also serve as a commissioner and chair of the Nominating Committee to the Synod of the Pacific encompassing Idaho, Nevada, Northern California, Oregon, and Washington.

    One of the most unexpected church growth moments for me was during the pandemic, in the midst of “George Floyd” summer, while serving in rural Minnesota. During that time the church I served began to show up to rallies, to speak into justice spaces, become more involved with mutual aid, and engage in a more public witness. While this was not fully embraced by the entire congregation, many people in the community began to seek us out as meeting spaces, as conversation partners, and as an organization in solidarity with the marginalized in our community. We gained many members, were invited into transformational opportunities not only for the church but also for the community. This work lead to more work on inclusion, more outreach to the community, and a larger voice for the marginalized in a small rural town. The Spirit was moving.

Paul Burns
(he/him/his)

  • I was ordained in 2007 and I'm currently serving as the pastor of Eastminster Presbyterian Church and St. Mark Presbyterian Church, two churches 8 minutes apart in east Dallas. We are part of the Grace Presbytery, 130 churches spanning North, Central, Eastern Texas.

    One of the most unexpected and energizing ways I’ve seen growth is at my first church, which had a gym that hadn't been used for anything but potluck suppers in years. They were also losing their youth. We began to ask the question: How can we use our gym for ministry? God's answer was a neighborhood youth basketball program which reinvigorated church youth programs. They grew in number. But these youth were unlike the youth that had been in the church before. The church grew in faith by learning to accept young people of different races and socio-economic contexts.

Josh Erickson
(he/him)

  • My current call is to serve as the senior pastor of Park Ridge Presbyterian Church (Park Ridge, IL). I have been in full-time ministry for the past 17 years. My focus in ministry has been congregational revitalization and youth and family ministries. I

Paul Moore

  • I currently serve as the pastor of Chain of Lakes Church, a Presbyterian congregation in Blaine, Minnesota, where I was the Organizing Pastor. We started in 2009 with seven families and today have about 100 families. We are known for ministries with homeless people and as LGBTQ advocates.

    I began ministry in 1993, serving Community Presbyterian Church in Plainview, Minnesota. While there, we doubled worship attendance, completed a million-dollar remodeling project, and started a community Youth Center and a Migrant Council for people from Texas who worked at the local canning factory.

    I care deeply about personal faith and community involvement. In my thirty years of ministry, the congregations I’ve served grew in worship attendance for twenty-eight of those years. I’m concerned about the decline of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and recently wrote about it on my blog.

    I’ve served my entire ministry in the Twin Cities Area Presbytery, including many years on the Church Development Team. In 2026, I’ll serve as Moderator.

    What matters most in growth is spiritual energy: a warm welcome, people who are happy to be there, a well-tended building, meaningful worship, and clear ways to live out faith during the week. When people consistently experience these things, a congregation grows.

Pepa Paniagua
(she/her)

  • I currently serve as the Coordinator for Innovation and New Ministry Development at Grace Presbytery. I have been in ministry and church leadership in a variety of forms over the past 20 years. As a lifelong Presbyterian, I was raised at Valley Presbyterian Church in Portola Valley, California in the bounds of San Francisco Presbytery. Having moved from California to Texas (with a small stint in Washington State for college), I have experienced the variety of expressions of faith and church and come to value the ways that each community gathers as a reflection of their own context and values.

    Since coming out in 2014, I have had the honor of being invited to spaces of deep pain and loss by people who have been cast out by church or institutional religion. It has been the joy of my career to walk along people as they rediscover their identity as beloved children of God, and to help them integrate their faith, their humanity, and the ways the express themselves as part of the Imago Dei. Part of that work as led me to help congregations embrace the work of broadening their welcome in authentic and intentional ways, and I have been thrilled to see congregations grow in faith and numbers over the years as they have become spaces of healing and hope.