Meet Our Staff
Pastor Steve King has been serving as the Senior Pastor at Cherrydale since October 2 of 1983. Entering his third decade of ministry, the challenges and opportunities are as inspiring to him today as they were more than 30 years ago. Pastor King has watched God accomplish marvelous things in the lives of His people, and under his leadership at Cherrydale, the church family reaches out to all areas of the Northern Virginia/Metropolitan DC region and throughout the world.
Pastor King loves people and communicates biblical truths with an extraordinary balance of truth and love. God has used Pastor King and the leadership of Cherrydale to embrace a vision to “spread a passion to love God and people above all else.” Through his weekly sermons, his compassionate counseling, and visionary leadership skills, the congregation of Cherrydale pictures a bright future as they move forward in this new millennium to reach the lost and broken community in their midst.
Matt is an Arlington native who grew up just down the road from Cherrydale; he even played basketball with his friends in our gym as a teenager! Matt first placed his trust in Christ as high school senior while attending the Cornerstone youth group at The Falls Church.
After graduating from William & Mary and Indiana University with degrees in biology, Matt taught science for five years at Langley High School in nearby McLean. Sensing God’s call to pastoral ministry, he moved to Texas where he served on staff at Fellowship Bible Church Dallas while completing his Th.M. at Dallas Theological Seminary. In 2010, Matt returned to his hometown to become the Young Adults Pastor at Cherrydale. His passion is to help others understand and embrace God’s radical and abundant love as expressed through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Matt loves to teach God’s Word and he is committed to building biblical community, developing shared leadership, and encouraging and equipping others to love and follow Jesus unto God’s glory. He spends his free time reading, drinking coffee, running, swimming, and suffering in support of his beleaguered Redskins and Hoosiers.
Pastor Bob grew up in Falls Church and was led to faith in Christ by a classmate in High School. God has blessed Bob and his wife, Tannie, with four chldren, Kate and Rob, who are grown, and Alisha and Keenan, who are in middle school. Bob served with the missions program since he joined the Cherrydale staff in 1988. His responsiblities now include overseeing staff and church operations. Bob loves boating and camping. His prayer is Psalm 67, that those of every nation may praise the God of their salvation.
Ed grew up in Cleveland, Ohio and came to faith when he was 18 years old. Shortly after getting married, God began to work in the hearts of both Ed and Kathy, instilling a deep desire to see the nations reached with the good news of salvation. They served for 14 years in cross-cultural ministry, most of the time in Turkey, along with their two children Philip and Amy. Ed's ministry focus at Cherrydale is to help those who are Knowing and Growing to find practical ministry outlets to Go and share the good news, particularly to those who have never had a chance to hear.
Ed jogs, mostly because he is middle-aged, but he loves to play basketball, play board games with his wife and children, and eat mint chocolate chip ice cream.
Since his teens, Kendall has served in churches from several widely diverse denominations. As Cherrydale’s Worship Pastor, he brings that considerable experience to his ministry here. An accomplished keyboardist, Kendall oversees all of our worship-related ministries. Aware of our tendency to focus on “what we like” in worship, Kendall reminds us that worship is not about what delights us, but rather what delights the heart of God.
Pastor Greg O’Dell joined our staff August 1, 2010. Greg was lead to Christ by his mom and considers the legacy of parents and grandparents to be the greatest influence for Christ on his life. Greg and his wife Becky both attended Cedarville University but they never met until Greg’s sister married Becky’s brother. A year and a half later, in 1989, Greg and Becky tied the knot.
The first year of their marriage Becky completed her Master’s degree in elementary education at the State University of New York in Cortland. The next five year’s they lived in Dallas Texas where Greg attended Dallas Theological Seminary and received a ThM degree. He is fond of saying that he crammed the four year program into five while Becky taught school and he ran a swimming pool maintenance business, all while they both were live-in night managers at a retirement complex and involved in local church ministry.
Jerusha, their oldest child, attends Liberty University and their other two teens Mesha and Stefan are big youth ministry fans. Speaking of fans, the whole family loves the Dallas Cowboys. Greg likes to play with his model trains and Becky reads books like they are going out of style. PG, as the teens like to call him, has a heart for a lifetime ministry to teens and their parents. He came to us from Evangel Baptist Church in Youngstown OH, where he served as Youth Pastor for 15 years.
Herb Owen was born in Richmond, Virginia where he attended Varina High School. He received the B.A. degree from Bob Jones University with a major in Bible and a minor in New Testament Greek. Then he received his M.A. with a major in Bible. He was ordained to the ministry in 1972.
He has served as children’s pastor at Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia, Church of the Saviour in Wayne, Pennsylvania in suburban Philadelphia before going to Shades Mountain Independent Church in Birmingham, Alabama, where he was Children’s Pastor for almost six years. During this time he also taught Children’s Ministry courses at Southeastern Bible College. He joined the staff of The Chapel in Akron, Ohio in 2002 as Pastor of Kids ministry. He concluded his ministry at The Chapel December 31, 2008 in order to serve as Children and Family Pastor at Cherrydale.
He is married to the former Marilyn Morrison (the daughter of a pastor) who is fifth grade teacher. He’s the father of Timothy and Jonathan.
