Rev. Dr. Steve Breedlove,  Rector

Steve oversees the overall mission and vision of the church, shepherds the worship services, and preaches at most services. Additionally he spends much of his time with current and future leaders of our ministries.

I was born in Tyler, Texas, the youngest of 4 siblings and part of a large extended family of nurserymen, farmers, and entrepreneurs from East Texas.  My entire family became followers of Christ during my early teen years and I personally trusted him as my Lord and Savior at age 13.  In high school I was active in Young Life but marginally involved in church.  After graduation, I trekked halfway across the U.S. to attend Washington and Lee University in Lexington, VA.  It was a God-orchestrated move: I grew significantly in my faith while there, felt a clear call to pastoral ministry, was bitten with the “East-coast bug,” and met my future wife, Sally.  We both transferred to SMU in Dallas (long story, believe me) and after graduation, we married and I started my studies at Dallas Theological Seminary.

Our ministry story is long and complicated, but in a nutshell I was a senior pastor in nondenominational churches from 1982 till 2001.  During a four-year ministry as missionaries to pastors in Europe (2001–2005), we began attending Church of the Apostles (AMiA) in Raleigh.  Rivulets of Anglican faith and life that had been gathering for years became a river in our souls. I was powerfully called by God back into pastoral ministry, was re-ordained as an Anglican priest in February 2005, and joined All Saints Church in June 2005.

During my season as a missionary, I wanted help examining the sense of “re-calling” to pastoral work; so Sally and I met with a group of highly trained ministry consultants. In that extended conversation, the sense of joy and convergence around pastoral ministry was so overwhelming to us that I could hardly wait to return to pastoral life. Now on the other side of that process, I consider this opportunity to serve as an Anglican rector, in this particular church, like a restoration of life. God has graciously given me ministries of preaching, teaching, leadership, vision, and team building to serve the church. I am growing in every area. I am also growing rapidly in my prayer life, as a shepherd of the flock of God and as a “man with a mission” in this region. In addition to local-church pastoring, I love next-generation leadership development and networking people together.

Sally is my best friend, my ministry partner and a great and gifted woman in her own right.  She’s also a wonderful mother, grandmother, and friend.  Her website, sallybreedlove.com, tells about her growing ministry of spiritual direction and writing. Our five children, four in-laws and eight grandkids are a constant delight and an understandably central part of our life: we just wish we had more time! Beyond that, we love to hike, garden, host dinner parties and events in our home, travel, read, and generally live and love together. We just bought new road bikes together. In addition, I love music—playing the piano, singing, and playing CDs (I have a big collection)—and Sally writes books, poetry, and Bible studies like crazy. 

Contact Steve at steveb@allsaints-chd.org

Rev. Thomas Kortus, Associate Rector

Thomas oversees 242 Groups, spiritual formation, and local mission. Thomas is regularly involved in leading our worship services and preaching as well as in pastoral care. 

I grew up in Seattle in the shadow of Mount Rainier. Baptized and raised in the Roman Catholic Church, I never knew a day apart from the love of God, but the Holy Spirit encountered me powerfully in elementary school when our family began worshipping in the Lutheran tradition. Throughout adolescence many people discipled me in the Christian faith and encouraged me to pursue God and pursue the call on my life to serve the Lord in pastoral ministry. I graduated from Wheaton College in 2003 and then eventually attended Regent College.

While in college I endured a particularly dry spiritual season. In the midst of my disillusionment with the church and my own wrestling with doubt, I attended an Anglican worship service and, for the first time in months, found spiritual nourishment. The church was a homecoming to the liturgical and sacramental worship of my childhood, and I was given words to pray at a time in my life when I didn’t have my own words. My wife and I were confirmed Anglican in 2002, and I began seminary the next fall at Regent College in Vancouver, BC.  In 2008, after graduating from Regent with an M.Div., I moved with my wife and two children to Durham, NC, to serve at All Saints Church and begin the ordination process.

I am passionate about the church being formed into the image and likeness of Jesus and about the church being about the work of Jesus. Therefore, discipleship and mission are key elements of my life and ministry at All Saints Church. It is my deep conviction that the people of God are to live lives that are shaped by Jesus and his Spirit and that proclaim, embody, and demonstrate the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I am thankful that my role at All Saints Church allows me to explore and engage these passions.

My wife Amy and I have been married for ten years and have three energetic children: Hudson (7 yrs) Audrey (5 yrs) and Evelyn (2 yrs) and we are expecting our fourth (and final) child in October of 2011. Amy is an accomplished harpist and enjoys teaching lessons and playing music for concerts, weddings, parties, and other social gatherings. Our family enjoys the outdoors, music, playing board games, building with Legos, and having fires in the backyard.

Contact Thomas at thomas@allsaints-chd.org

Ben Bowman, Minister of Music and Worship Arts

Ben oversees the worship arts ministry of All Saints Church, including the support systems for our worship services. In addition, Ben is the Church Administrator, serving in many areas to create and manage administrative policies and systems.

I grew up as a missionary kid in Barcelona, Spain, until my college years. I graduated from Wheaton College in 2003, where I majored in music and minored in Bible/Theology. During college I met, dated and married Kristin. Since college I’ve been in full-time worship/arts ministry in several different churches, finally answering God’s call to come to All Saints Church in April 2008.

My parents' ministry in Spain has always been in worship, music, and the arts, so I have always been immersed in that world, learning, growing, and eventually leading. As a result, when I reached the age where I began to ask myself what I wanted to do with my life, full-time worship ministry was always a viable option for me. As soon as I graduated from college, God immediately flung open the doors for me to step into that very role, and he has confirmed my calling time after time. I am very passionate about seeing the church worship God in spirit and in truth, and encounter him through the arts in transformational ways.

During my free time I enjoy engaging in life-giving activities that refresh my soul. Some of them include playing with my kids, playing the piano, writing music, and playing basketball. I also love hanging out with good friends and laughing hard!

My beautiful wife, Kristin, is an amazing woman whom I admire and cherish. She is deeply compassionate, intelligent, and hard working, a wonderful mother, and an excellent cook! I literally don’t know what I’d do without her—she is my hero!

God has blessed us with three beautiful children. Eliana Grace is 4 years old and we call her Elli. She's smarter than my wife and I put together, and quite possibly the cutest little girl imaginable. Anna Joy is 2 years old, and we call her Annie. Also ridiculously cute, to say that Annie isn’t shy would be a gross understatement, and her most notable feature is that she’s HUGE! At just three months old, David Benjamin is our youngest, and it is a delight and joy to see him growing and discovering himself, his family, and this great big world.  God has gifted us with three precious children, and we are so grateful for them. They are each unique and beautiful, and we couldn’t imagine our life without them.

Contact Ben at ben@allsaints-chd.org

Brad Acton, Youth Minister

Brad oversees the ministries to the middle school and high school youth in the church. He also serves in various other capacities, ranging from worship to outreach.

Born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, my wife, Emily, and I did not come to Durham until after we both completed our undergraduate studies at Auburn University in 2008. We came to Durham so that I could attend seminary at Duke Divinity School. I graduated in May 2011 and began serving here at All Saints Church in June.

My wife and I were both baptized and lifelong members in the Southern Baptist Church, but our years at college and the resulting growth led us into a season of searching. My three years of seminary and the people I met there introduced my wife and myself to what eventually became our ecclesial home, the Anglican Church.

Although I did not know it at the time, I had been yearning for a historical context in which to view my faith. The Anglican awareness of church tradition and its sacramental theology offered a lens into the incarnational mystery of God, a God who took on flesh for our sake. He lived and died as one of us so that we might one day inherit the life and peace we cannot find on this earth. Seeing these themes represented week after week in the Eucharist and in the liturgy confirmed in me a calling to serve Christ’s church at All Saints.

Emily and I have been married for four years. In that time I have come to see the grace of God lived out daily through my wife. She demonstrates a powerful kindness and unswerving charity that inspires me to love others in ways I never did beforehand. In my relationship with her I have come to know the faithfulness of God as we have struggled through life together. The mystery of Christ’s love for his church is truly evident in the sacramental gift of marriage.

As for interests, I love to read and write (mostly poetry), and I love all manner of epic, multi-hour board games when played with close friends. Emily is a chef par excellence. Whether baking or cooking she is truly a master. She also loves to read, and even occasionally has been known to graciously play board games with her husband.

Cyndi Whisnant, Office Administrator

Cyndi is the keeper of general information about the church and its activities. She coordinates the church calendar and oversees the bulk of administrative support for all ministries of the church. In addition, she produces many of the publications for the church including the bulletin, newsletter, and website.

I am a North Carolina native from Charlotte and graduated with a degree in English and Journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I have owned several  businesses and worked as a Communications Director for a number of companies, Over the past 10 years, I served as the Director of Communications for the Chapel Hill Bible Church and last year I went to school to get a Real Estate License so that I could also assist my husband, Tom in his sales in Chapel Hill with Mill House Properties.

Tom and I met at Carolina and we have been married since 1988. We live in Carrboro and we have two wonderful teenagers. Our oldest, Raven, is in her senior year at Chapel Hill High School and loves acting. Our son, Rex, is 13 and in his last year of middle school and he loves to play the trumpet. They keep us very busy with all of their activities.

My favorite Bible verse is,  “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!" (Matthew 7:7-11)

Something interesting: My husband and I were in a swing band for about 10 years. We occasionally play or sing for a special occasion, but life just got too busy once we had kids to keep it up.

Contact Cyndi at admin@allsaints-chd.org

Daniele Jackson, Children's Minister

I grew up in Syracuse, New York and graduated from nearby Hamilton College in 2000.  I worked as the writing specialist at Durham Technical Community College until my son Luke was born in 2003, at which point I began the amazing adventure of being a full-time mom. When my daughter Eliza was born in 2006, I added full-time nurse to my list of responsibilities, as she was terminally ill and had many medical needs. She passed from my arms to her Heavenly Father’s in December 2008. My daughter Anastasia was born in 2011 and is very busy reminding me daily of the joy of everyday miracles.

I have learned far and away more about God from my children than from anyone else. I have learned about childlike faith as I have watched Luke grow, about delight in Creation, joy in simple gifts, and unquestioning trust and love. I began to understand God’s strength made perfect in weakness as I cared for Eliza, and I experienced just a little bit of what our Father’s unconditional, selfless love is really about. In Anastasia’s joy-filled life, I learn over and over again that every good and perfect gift is from above, and I am freshly grateful for that reminder every day. I am delighted to be called to ministry with the children at All Saints Church, to be given the opportunity to learn from them even as I come alongside their families in inviting them into the richness of our faith.

When I am not hanging out with kids—mine and others’—I am a writer and an editor. I delight in a carefully-turned phrase or a cautiously crafted paragraph. I also dabble in photography and love reading, swimming, and singing. As a former writing teacher, I am a firm believer in the never-final draft; I am perpetually grateful that I, too, am always a work in progress. “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6).

Contact Daniele at daniele@allsaints-chd.org

Zac Koons, Duke Divinity School Intern 

I’m from Arkansas, which I generally think is a pretty good place to be from, although I haven’t always felt that way. I like it because I’ve found that being from Arkansas doesn’t come with a lot of cultural assumptions. And, it turns out, not a whole lot of other people are from there. I am the oldest child in a big, complicated, ever-expanding family, which is made up of exclusively awesome people.

I mostly think about four things: the church, my wife, Arsenal Football Club, and Ryan Adams. I will tell you a little about each. The church: I was born into the Plymouth Brethren tradition, migrated to the nondenominational Bible-church world, and have now, since college, found a happy home in Anglicanism. I have wanted to be a pastor since I was 18 (I'm now 24), and that call has brought me through four years of theological study in undergrad, to where I am now, Duke Divinity School, where I am in my third (and last!) year. Over those six years, I have become increasingly convinced that the church is the reason God has put me on this earth, and I am now joyfully discerning this call to priestly ordination in the Anglican Mission in America.

As of May 14, 2011, I am a very happily married man. Anna and I met during our senior year at Wheaton College, and have pretty much been best friends ever since. We really enjoy cooking together, and although Anna is definitely the Master Chef of the two of us, I like to think that I’m coachable. We love reading, and have a strict rule about only being addicted to one TV series at a time (currently, Mad Men). Anna works as a research assistant at the Duke Center for Health Policy and Inequalities Research, and she enjoys it very much.

Arsenal Football Club is my favorite soccer team. They are based in north London and have an international reputation not simply for winning, but for playing beautifully. They remind me that life is not worth winning at unless you can smile and laugh as you live it. And Ryan Adams is my favorite singer/songwriter, and he is at his best with an acoustic guitar and harmonica, singing about North Carolina. He is a poet of the first class. Ryan reminds me that all of life is poetic, if only you slow down enough to notice it.

Contact Zac at zac.koons@duke.edu

Erik Meckley, Duke Divinity School Intern 

I am a third-year M.Div. student and came to Duke after two years of working for Reformed University Fellowship at Northwestern University. My wife LeAnn and I got married during my first semester here and welcomed our first child, Jonah, into the world this past March. In May we bought a house in Durham near the intersection of Chapel Hill and Buchanan, and we have been attending All Saints Church since the early summer. This school year I will be working as the 242 Groups intern. 

LeAnn and I both have roots in Western Pennsylvania, although I also spent time in Northern Indiana and Chicago. We are loving North Carolina and the mild winters, but still get nostalgic for a few feet of snow every now and again, especially when we can't get the Steelers or Penguins game on TV. We love Pittsburgh sports, and we've adopted the Durham Bulls into our hearts, in part because they could probably beat the Pirates on any given day. We have a rambunctious two-year-old puppy named Matilda who is super sweet and super smart and constantly being chased by Jonah.

I spend the vast majority of my time loving my wife and son, reading, fretting over Pittsburgh sports, and cooking. I love literature and hope to do a Ph.D. in English at Duke or UNC and spend my days teaching classes on Religion in American Literature. I love good food, good beer, good conversations, and good friends, and am happiest with a combination of them all. LeAnn is a Licensed Professional Counselor and works for a mental health managed care company in RTP. She taught dance for 7 years and loves the outdoors (especially rock climbing—she's climbed 7 of Colorado's "14-ers"). She's looking forward to getting to know some moms with little friends for Jonah to play with. Let me know if you'd like to talk about Calvin's theology, rare jazz LPs, or the writings of Hunter S. Thompson. We've got a great front porch for pipes and pints. Jonah loves music—especially Ella Fitzgerald, mewithoutYou, and any and all beatboxing—climbing on everything, swinging on his porch swing, meeting new people, and kisses from his puppy.

LeAnn and I are so glad to be a part of All Saints Church and look forward to becoming more involved with the community here! We look forward to getting to know all of you!

Contact Eric at eric.meckley@gmail.com