Chris Jessen
Senior High Youth Pastor
Chris loves hanging out with students and volunteer leaders and spending time with his wife, Katie. He also enjoys reading, playing guitar and frisbee golf, working in the yard, making random videos, and most of all, watching UT football!
Chris is a Knoxville native and graduate from the University of Tennessee. While at UT, Chris volunteered in the youth ministry department at a local church, then went on staff as a full-time intern following his graduation with a degree in Business and English.
After that year of full-time ministry, Chris felt the call to seminary, so he headed to Charlotte, North Carolina to Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. It was in Charlotte that Chris met his beautiful wife, Katie.
Katie went to the University of South Carolina where she got a BA in Sociology, then went on to complete a Master's of Social Work.
Upon Chris' completion of his Master's of Divinity at Gordon-Conwell, Chris excitedly accepted the position of High School Pastor at Two Rivers and painted his whole body orange to celebrate. Shortly thereafter, Chris and Katie were wed in Charlotte, then immediately moved to Knoxville where they now serve together at Two Rivers.
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You can contact Chris on Facebook, by phone at 865-777-2121 or email at chris.jessen@tworiverschurch.org. |
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Paula Howell
Student Ministries Adminstrative Assistant
Paula is a native of East Tennessee. She was born and raised here; a graduate of Bearden High School, a Phys Ed major at UT of Knoxville. Paula comes to us most recently from Bechtel Jacobs in Oak Ridge in the engineering dept for almost three years.
Paula and her husband Brent were married in 1991 and settled in Lenoir City. They have two beautiful children, Chelsea (1985), who lives in Knoxville and Corey (1993), a student Lenoir City High School. Paula has been involved and passionate in the youth ministry for over fourteen years. When they came to Two Rivers…they did not just want to Wade In — they wanted to jump in! Paula is the High School Freshman Girl’s Leader at FUEL and plans to walk with them through their senior year. She also has helped build C3 Youth Leadership Team this past year consisting of 12 core students.
Paula now serves on the staff at Two Rivers as Student Ministries Administrative Assistant, helping to develop the Student Ministries program. She is pursuing and has started building education in Christian Counseling as part of her role in Student Ministries. She believes that God pursued, He prepared and He placed her right in the heart of Two Rivers and she looks forward to expanding His Kingdom!
| You can contact Paula at 865-777-2121 or paula.howell@tworiverschurch.org. |
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High School Pastor Intern
From there, her journey took her to Baylor where she spent the next four years in the heart of Central Texas. While at Baylor she became plugged in with her local church’s youth group, where she volunteered as a youth leader. When she wasn’t at church, she was giving tours of campus in big buses with her fancy commercial truck driving license or planning events around campus. In May she graduated with a B.A. in Public Relations and a minor in Religion.
After graduation Lara was determined to get out of Texas and back to the real south, which led her to Two Rivers.
Lara loves social media, loves planning events, and is a self-proclaimed Master of photography, able to boost anyone’s Facebook photo count in a matter of minutes. She has been known to throw some of the best surprise parties and has a fatal attraction to funfetti cupcakes and cake balls.
You can contact Lara at 865-777-2121 or lara.lazenby@tworiverschurch.org.
I grew up in Davis, California, known for its university and always smelling like cows .Growing up I wanted nothing more than to be playing sports and hanging out with friends. A big part of my life was my church family. I saw this as my community to help me stay on the right path and they looked out for me and where I was headed. As I moved into high school I continued that love for sports by competing in snowboarding and spending all my winter weekends up in Lake Tahoe. And every other free time doing anything with my youth group.
As I moved on to college I attended the University of Utah with
plans to become a weather man and snowboard every day before and after
class. But I soon
found that God had different plans for me. Upon the middle of my first semester
I realized that I was not meant to sit in a cubicle and then get in front of a
camera and tell people if it was going to rain or not. Over the next few years I changed majors and have been blessed
to be in a position of running a youth group with awesome students. Along with my passion for youth ministry I have been able to be
a part of a leadership team that is in charge of our student sections for
sporting events and has allowed me to be very involved in our athletics and I
enjoy nothing more than showing my ridiculous amount of school spirit at as
many sporting events as possible.
I am a huge sports fan and will partake in watching or playing
any sport you could possibly imagine (as I write this I am watching The Masters
and the SF Giants game). Also if you ever are unsure of where I am, odds are I
am reading or working at Starbucks getting my coffee fix and free wifi. And of
course I think that the Pac12 is far superior than the SEC, but might have to
keep that to myself for my own safety.
I look forward to the next step and what God has for me coming
to Two Rivers. I never thought I would move to Tennessee, actually never
thought I would move past East of the Rockies, but I know God doesn’t have a
line drawn for where I can serve him. I can’t wait to dive into the lives of
the high schoolers and be able to share the love of Christ with them and help
them to grow in Him.
