All about Generation Church
Pastors & staff
Below are the bios of the GC staff and pastors.
Pastor Judah Smith
Generation Church Pastor
At 11 years old, Pastor Judah first heard God's voice calling him to minister to the youth of his generation. He preached his first message at age 13 then went on to see hundreds of people saved on his high school campus. After completing the generation interns program, Judah married Chelsea, the only girl he ever held hands with and became Pastor Jude Fouquier's associate youth pastor. Pastor Judah has had the honor of traveling around the world preaching to hundreds of thousands of people, but his true passion is to build the church and see an entire region transformed. Since becoming the youth pastor in 2002 he has seen Generation Church grow from 500 to over 1300 students in four different locations. On a sunny day you can find him on the golf course or taking his wife and son on a hike.
Pastor Chelsea Smith
Associate Generation Church Pastor
Pastor Chelsea first fell in love with young people while working at City Bible Church for Pastors Doug and Donna Lasit in Portland, Oregon, where she also graduated from Warner Pacific College with a degree in Human Development. After marrying Judah in November 1999 she moved to Seattle and fell even more in love with the youth of Seattle. She has a passion to see a generation transformed through a personal encounter with Christ and consistent discipleship. Her two favorite hobbies are dating her husband and tickling her son Zion until he laughs so hard he can't take it anymore!
Zion Hugh Smith
Honorary GC Staff Member, son of Pastors Judah & Chelsea
Zion was so excited to meet his mom and dad he decided to come six weeks premature on June 30th, 2004. He's been making his mommy and daddy smile every day since! He loves people, veggie bootie, books and balls. His two first words were Judah and Daddy (not kidding) and he's been saying them non-stop ever since!
Christy Adams
Generation Church Administrator
Growing up in the church and giving her life to Jesus at an early age, Christy lives to see Jesus become famous in her generation. After graduating from the Generation Intern program, Christy came to work for The City Church in 2000 and serves Pastors Judah and Chelsea as the Generation Church Administrator. As one of the original 5 in Generation Church she has seen it grow to over 1000 young people. Administration is one of her chief gifts and she loves to organize! Christy has a passion for evangelism and intercession. She also enjoys long walks on the beach and virgin pina coladas.
Wes Dunn
GC Executive Manager
Along with being the Junior High Cadre Director for Generation Church, Wes works as the Assistant Interns Director for Generation Interns. He was asked to come on staff to help pilot the campus evangelist program shortly after graduating from Northwest Bible College in the spring of 2004. When he was 16 he had a radical encounter with God that dramatically transformed his life. Since that time Wes has sought to show everyone, everywhere that God is a real God who desires to meet with real, everyday people. He also digs spicy food, Ford Trucks, smoothies, and telling funny stories.
Jason Michalski
GC Evangelism Director
Jason was born in Kirkland, Washington but spent most of his childhood traveling with his parents who are missionary evangelists to Russia and Eastern Europe. He graduated from Redmond High School where he saw many of his fellow students changed by the power of God. He believes in the power of God being released into this generation with healings, signs and wonders following. On a blessed day you can find him cruising down to the water for some wakeboarding and volleyball in his Turquoise Ford Contour blasting holy music with a sushi roll in hand ...wishing he had a mullet.
Mark Venti
GC Creative Director
Mark grew up in the Seattle area in a strong Christian family. Starting in High School, Mark was used by God to reach his campus and lived a consistent example of how to fervently serve God in the public schools. Mark's heart is to build the church and communicate a message of passion, power, and the presence of God. He is currently pursuing his Bachelor's in Ministry Leadership through the LEAP program of Northwest University. Mark is our current reigning "GC Open" ping-pong champion and will challenge anyone to a duel!
Vanessa Larkin
Assistant University Cadre Director
After being born and raised in Spokane, Washington, Vanessa moved to Seattle to attend college. She graduated from the University of Washington with a Bachelors of Arts in Social Work and from Seattle University with a Bachelors of Science in Nursing, and has great faith for supernatural provision for private school debt repayment! AMEN. She is currently a pediatric nurse at the Children's Hospital working with transplants and cardiac children. I absolutely love any and all sports activities, cooking (organic of course), and I could not live life to it's fullest without Fat Free Sour Cream and FROZEN YOGURT!!
Crystal Venti
Assistant High School Cadre Director
Crystal's life was incredibly impacted by the ministry of Generation Church while attending college. Since then, it has been Crystal's passion to see the lives of others transformed by the power of Jesus' love and miracles. Crystal's heart is dedicated to drawing out the gifts of God in young individuals and raising them into leaders in order to reach this generation with the reality of Christ. Crystal graduated with a degree in Communication from Seattle Pacific University, and is currently working as the Executive Director of Recruiting and Human Resources for Pure Fitness. She also serves as the resident trainer and nutritionist for the GC staff!
Breanna Giberson
Assistant Junior High Cadre Director
As a junior in high school Breanna met a GC cadre leader, began attending her cadre, and as a result, surrendered her life to Jesus Christ and has been following Him ever since. She has been involved in GC cadres for six years and loves it! Breanna is currently an administrative assistant to three pastors at The City Church, administrates The City Church's database and administrates GC cadres. She intends to attend Bible College next year and finish her degree in Biblical studies. Breanna loves to do anything athletic and enjoys hanging out with her sister.
Jared & Angie Hughes
Generation Center Directors
Jared and Angie Hughes have been in youth ministry for 8 years, serving Bethel Temple as youth pastors in the inner-city of Seattle before coming to The City Church in the summer of 1999. Jared and Angie bring a unique quality to the GC team. After being teen parents, high school dropouts and gang members, they experienced the transforming power of God and gave their lives wholeheartedly to His purposes. If you ever come over to the Hughes' house you may catch Jared out in the garage training both of their boys, Anthony & Niko in wrestling. Sometimes you may catch Angie out there too! One of their favorite things to do as a couple ... sitting at Redmond Town Center drinking lattes and talking for their date night!
Aaron Bird
GC Representative/Plateau High School Director
Aaron's life was transformed during a Generation Church service his junior year of High School. He immediately started evangelizing his friends and saw dozens of people come to the Lord from his high school. He now raises support do continue seeing students saved! He spends his time on school campuses discipling students, raising up student leaders, and facilitating house parties. Now all he wants to do is build the kingdom of God. Aaron is currently working toward a degree in Biblical Literature. One of his favorite hobbies is surfing, so if you ever know the current wave height at Westport, be sure to let him know!
Megan Giberson
GC Representative/Plateau High School Director
Megan Giberson began serving God at the age of 15, and has since become driven by the desire to see young men and women encounter the same love and forgiveness that she experienced through Jesus Christ. After completing two years of the Generation Intern program at the City Church in 2005, she was asked to come on staff as a Startline Representative, working on high school campuses and reaching young people in the Sammamish/Issaquah area. She also enjoys playing basketball, drinking Starbucks and hanging out with her sister.
The GC 2006-2007 second-year interns
From clockwise from bottom left: Meghan, Caitlin, Paige, Drew, Tony, David
The GC 2005-2006 second-year interns
From left to right: Julianna, Mike, Lauren, Drew, Alanah, Dominic, Jery, Joe
(not shown is: Gianina)