Staff
Lead Servant
Sam Sarkissian
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Samuel Sarkissian (sar-kiss-yen) is the Lead Servant (Pastor) and one of the founders of this church. Sam was raised in Fresno and moved to Los Angeles for several years after graduating from Bullard High School. Since High School, he has been involved in various kinds of ministries. Along the way he picked up some more diplomas, which you can ask him about if you want to know more. He lives in the Sunnyside area with his wife Annette, their tri-lingual daughter Nairi, their mumbling and tottering son Elijah and their new son, Arax. Sam and Annette met in seminary while they were taking a New Testament Greek class. |
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Education: Undergraduate, English Literature. Graduate, Christian Apologetics, Divinity. Favorite movies: The Mission, The Thin Red Line, The Last of the Mohican’s, Cinderella Man and Sea Biscuit.
Favorite mortal authors: Don Richardson, Ralph Ellison, Calvin Miller, and John Steinbeck.
Basketball teams: Fresno State and Los Angeles Lakers
Baseball team: San Francisco Giants
Football team: Minnesota Vikings
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Lead Children’s Servant/Pastoral Assistant
Melissa Bergen
Melissa directs the Children’s Programming and likes to keep Rick and Sam on their toes here in the office. . . with meeting agendas and random questions via text or email.Melissa Bergen enjoys sitting on her porch at night.She doesn’t like donuts.
Often, when she’s not in the mood for a movie, she’ll read magazines from the Sunnyside library- favorites include Time, Newsweek, Ebony and Smithsonian.
When it suits her schedule, Melissa likes to put on her walking shoes and wander down by Fancher Creek with her goofy dog, Gimli.
In the office Melissa likes to bounce around to her Lecrae (Christian hiphop) Pandora radio station.
She always enjoys standing in line at the post office.
On Sunday mornings, she likes watching kids walk on the footprints laid out on the ground to direct them to their classrooms.
When Melissa was younger she built tumbleweed forts with her sisters and neighbors. |
Pastoral Intern
Rick Moser
Rick and his wife Kathy came with Sam and Annette to help plant The Grove four years ago. Rick felt called to full time ministry in 2007 and began his internship in October of 2008.
