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Meet
Our Staff
119
W Broad Street
P.O. Box 277
Linden, MI 48451
(810) 735-5755
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Pastor
Seth Normington
PastorSeth@LindenPres.com
 Watch
for bio coming soon
Director
of Music
Dr. Rob
DrRob@LindenPres.com
 Originally
from London, Ontario, Dr. Robert W. Sopo started playing the
piano at age 4. He won his first music scholarship competition
at age 6, and 12 years later earned a degree in music from the
Western Ontario Conservatory of Music with a major in keyboard
performance and a minor in pedagogy. His piano and pipe organ
teachers have included Howard Munn, Antonio Mazan and Barrie
Cabena.
Dr.
Rob brings 30+ years of experience as a church Director of
Music & Organist in both Canada and the United States,
and comes to Linden Presbyterian Church (LPC) after a 5-year
tenure at another Presbyterian church in Michigan. He feels
it an honor and privilege to be part of the leadership team
at LPC as its Director of Music & Organist/Accompanist.
His responsibilities include directing the Chancel Choir and
the Celebration Ringers, accompanying the Praise Team on keyboard
synth, playing the organ, and working with community and church
soloists and musical groups.
There
are a number of chapters in Dr. Rob's musical career. For
example, Rob was the "classical music dee-jay" for
the University of Western Ontario's campus radio station.
Besides spinning records, he conducted live interviews with
internationally known classical music artists; and in addition
to his church music activities, played keyboard in a five
piece 70's rock band. He also played violin for nine years,
and is currently transferring those skills to the classical
guitar. By invitation, Rob has made several harpsichord and
organ recordings in the United States. His live radio broadcast
of a Canadian Christmas Cantata service with mass choir of
choristers from several churches was a high-profile Christmas
Eve feature for many years on a London radio station.
In
addition to Rob's musical activities, he has an active consulting
practice as an Industrial-Organizational Psychologist. He
resides in South Lyon, Michigan with his American-born wife,
Deb, who is an Administrative Pharmacist. Together they enjoy
camping, cycling, cross-country skiing and photography. As
a relaxing and often humorous avocation, Rob "practices"
a little 'pet psychology' attempting to train their two mischievous
cats, Mickey and Minnie.
Sunday
School Superintendent
Kim Herbert
KHerbert@LindenPres.com
Hi.
I'm Kim Herbert and I have been Sunday School Superintendent
since 1997.
My husband Fred and I married in 1997. We have three children,
Audrey is 25, Christina is 22 and Shawn is 20. We also have
a grandson, Joey, who is 2. Our family also includes two dogs,
Avro and RJ, and three cats, Boomer, Willie and Jack.
Some of my favorite hobbies and interests are Scrapbooking,
card making, paper crafting, reading, movies, traveling and
photography. I am also a huge U of M football fan and a Red
Wigs fan.
I have an associates degree from Baker College and am employed
at Creative Foam Corporation in Fenton.
With Sunday school, I've been teaching the elementary children
since 1995 and have been the superintendent since 1997. I love
being able to work with the children and help them learn about
Jesus and to watch them grow spiritually. The children are currently
memorizing the books of the Bible, it's amazing to watch them
come in each week telling me the new books they have learned.
I have also served as a Deacon am currently an Elder on the
Session. I also play softball on the church league.
I've been attending LPC since I was 5 years old (my parents
choose LPC because I wanted to go to the church with the donuts).
Belonging to the church family for over 30 years is very meaning
to me, they are my extended family. I look so forward to every
Sunday morning being with the children and worshiping with them
and then with my husband and friends during second service.
Church
Secretary
Linda Lewis
LLewis@LindenPres.com
Praise
Team
Melissa Dugan
Melissa has been
singing since, well…almost since she was born! Her recollection
of her first public performance takes us back to when she was
5 years old. She was in a kindergarten music class just before
Christmas. The music teacher asked the children what was their
favorite Christmas Carol. Melissa raised her hand and said her
favorite carol was - “I Saw Mommy Kissin’ Santa Claus”!
The teacher, Christine Kuntz, asked if Melissa would sing it
because some the children might not know that carol. Melissa
raised her cherub voice in song, and immediately Ms. Kuntz recognized
a vocal talent she rarely saw in a 5 year old.
As the years progressed, Melissa
took voice lessons and kept on singing - in the Holly Middle
School choir, then onto Holly High School where she sang in
the choir ensemble, as well as being involved in solo and duet
voice projects. Graduating from high school, Melissa attended
the University of Michigan-Flint for two years, where, in a
search for the “right” career changed her major several
times, but none held long-term interest…and none of the
options included music. Nevertheless, Melissa kept on singing,
started a career in the insurance industry, joining a firm in
Novi where 6 months later became a licensed agent, a license
she maintained for more than 10 years as she progressed to becoming
a commercial lines insurance agent with a firm in Fenton, before
“retiring” to start a family.
Along with the insurance career,
Melissa worked part-time at the Pike Street Restaurant in Pontiac.
Her stepmom worked there, and Melissa became employed as a Lounge
singer as she wondered about getting into the music business
full-time. At about the same time that she met Jonathan (1998),
and started taking guitar lessons because it was “a pain”
trying to find someone to accompany her when needed.
One thing led to another, and she and Jonathan started dating.
She continued with the guitar lessons but quickly found that
she had a passion for singing, not for playing the guitar, and
definitely not for playing the guitar and singing (a challenge
in itself in reading both words and notes at the same time).
So Melissa focused her time and talent on singing, as Jonathan
took over her guitar lessons - which evolved over time into
accompanying her on the guitar.
Melissa and Jonathan were married
in 2001, and their individual music talents were on parallel
tracks – Jonathan played in a rock ‘n roll band and
Melissa continued her singing “for fun”. In 2003,
they joined the LPC Praise Band with Melissa quickly rising
to lead singer.
As Melissa looks back at her life,
she believes that she was led by the invisible hand to do what
she is doing today singing Christian contemporary music. She
reflects “I believe God’s purpose for me is to use
my music skills to reach others for Him”.
Johnathan
Dugan
A native of Rochester, Michigan,
Jonathan graduated from Clarkston High School in 1995. While
there he was voted most likely to be an actor, and was very
involved in musical activities such as singing tenor in the
madrigal choir, and singing in a barber shop quartet. Music
was part of his life both at school and at home - he grew
up listening to music his mom appreciated, music of the late
70’s and 80’s, mostly “pop and rock”.
Music and Fine Arts was in Jonathan’s
blood. After high school he attended Michigan State University,
where he enrolled in the Theatre Arts program. After a year
in the program, Jonathan needed to refill the “tuition
money well”. To this end, he started at Harmony House
(a well-known SE Michigan Music-CD chain) in Waterford, MI
store and quickly became store manager while continuing an
educational program at Oakland County Community College.
After the Harmony House chain
folded, Jonathan moved on to work as a general contractor
for his dad for 6 years. It was during this time that he met
a young lady by the name of Melissa at a social event. Melissa
was taking guitar lessons at the time at a friend’s studio,
and as things would happen, he took over Melissa’s lesson
time with the guitar teacher – this was some 11 years
ago. Jonathan took guitar lessons for 5 years, and played
with a couple of bands and in various music projects. He also
added to his experience by doing some accompanying of singers
in local entertainment venues. Music was a large focus of
Jonathan’s life - he practiced for hours each week. He
also taught himself the bass guitar.
Music was good to Jonathan,
and as his relationship with Melissa grew, he began a faith
journey which led him to a closer relationship with God, leading
both he and Melissa to Linden Presbyterian Church, where Melissa’s
mom and grandma attended. It was here that he was baptized
and accepted Jesus as his personal savior, was married to
Melissa by Rev. Parker Smith in 2003, and became involved
in playing in the Praise Band which Parker started in the
fall of that year. He started by playing drums and singing,
then moved to bass guitar, and now, for the past 4 years,
sings and plays rhythm-lead guitar.
Today, Jonathan is happily married
to Melissa, who is the lead singer in the Praise Band –
more about her next month! They have two children, Morgan
age 6 and Christina age 3. In 2007 Jonathan joined Developer
Diversified Reality, where, as a Commercial Property Manager,
he manages 3.2 million square feet of commercial space in
19 shopping centers in Michigan. Despite all the responsibilities
of work and family, we are indeed blessed to have Jonathan
share his love for God, and his music talent, as rhythm-lead
guitarist in the LPC Praise Band, as an elder of the church,
and as a member of the Session.
Jarrod
Montegue
Jarrod
started taking private piano lessons when he was 5 years old.
He dropped piano in middle school to learn to play cornet,
but returned to taking private piano lessons throughout high
school. This music foundation served him well when his friend
acquired a drum set when Jarrod was in the 8th grade. Jarrod
took easily to the drums, picking up the rhythms and counting
from his music education at the piano. He listened to groups
like The Eagles and other classic rock groups, and emulated
their drummer's renditions and "rips". When he was
a Junior at Linden High School, Jarrod acquired his first
drum set. He then joined a rock band at the school called
"No Passing Zone", and they played at dances, parties,
etc. whenever possible.
After graduation from high school
(where Jarrod was class valedictorian), he continued his education
at the University of Michigan, where he earned two bachelor's
degrees - a B.A. in Biology, and another in Bio-Psychology,
graduating in 1998. During his undergraduate years (94-98),
he was able to continue polishing his drumming skills on a
drum set in the living room of the fraternity house where
he was living. Music attracts
music, and soon he was "jamming" with a couple of
other roommates who played guitar. In his Junior year (1997),
Jarrod and the three others decided to pool their aggregate
talent and form a rock band called "Taproot". Nevertheless,
Jerrod's academic goal was to become a physician, so at the
same time "Taproot" was on a meteoric rise, Jarrod
was applying to medical schools, writing entrance exams, and
enrolling at Michigan State University in the Master
in Epidemiology program which he wanted to complete before
entering medical school. He was at MSU for one academic year
(1998-99) before "the call of the band" and the
demands on his time were so great that he took a leave of
absence from MSU to devote himself full-time to "Taproot"
as their drummer. The next 10 years (1998 - 2008) saw the
rock band realize phenomenal fame and fortune, touring the
United States and Europe, releasing 4 CD albums, with the
album "Welcome" almost achieving gold status in
2002. Their 4th and latest album release "Our Long 2
month stretches while on the road on a band tour, or at the
recording studio to all hours of the night making another
album."
As the saying goes, you can
take the man out of music, but you can't take music out of
the man. Today, Jarrod contributes his music talent to the
Praise Band at Linden Presbyterian, which he joined in January,
2009. In January, 2010 he was ordained an elder at Linden
Presbyterian (following in the footsteps of his father), and
is a Session member. He holds a responsible position as Facilities
Manager for a property management company, where he is responsible
for overseeing maintenance, housekeeping and security at 3
GM plants.
Finance
Secretary Coming
soon
Marilyn Fisher
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