Staff

Rev. Nate Dreesmann has been serving the church for more than twenty-three years. He has served on the staffs of small, medium, and large churches, from Berkeley, to Washington, to Idaho. Nate has also served on the sessions of small and large churches. Nate attended Fuller Seminary, where he received both a MDIV and MACCS. Nate is passionate about Jesus, living out the Great Commission, and helping ECO churches revitalize and plant new churches. Nate is married to Cari and they have four children – Gabrielle, Jackson, Charis, and Elise.

Sydney Wolfe was born in Santa Barbara, CA and grew up in Santa Maria, CA. She received her BA in English from University of California, Santa Barbara, but prior to that she found a passion for missions and ministry through completing a Discipleship Training School with Youth With A Mission. She loves being able to partner with and love people relationally and in discipleship with Jesus, and has a love of adventure, hiking, coffee, and nature. She currently lives in Santa Barbara, CA with her 8 other housemates who all love Jesus!

Rev. Dr. Gregory Wagenfuhr coordinates ECO’s two theology teams, having worked with its various teams since 2015. He is the author of Plundering Egypt: A Subversive Christian Ethic of Economy (Cascade, 2016), Unfortunate Words of the Bible (Cascade, 2019), and Plundering Eden: A Subversive Christian Theology of Creation (Cascade, 2020). He has a PhD in Theology and Religious Studies from the University of Bristol (UK). He has taught biblical languages at Trinity College, Bristol (UK), where he met his wife, Ainhoa. They have one little girl. Gregory is a church planter of The Embassy, a church-seminary-community pilot project. Greg and Ainoha live in Cañon City, CO where Ainhoa is a reintegration specialist with the New Horizons Ministries that fosters children of incarcerated women. She also works as an advocate for victims of domestic violence.

Rev. Andrea Messinger served for sixteen years as Head of Staff at First Presbyterian Church of Covina in Covina, CA. She has also served on staff at Gridley Presbyterian Church (Gridley, CA), Silverlake Community Church (Los Angeles, CA), First Presbyterian Church of Honolulu (Honolulu, HI), and Stadium Village Church (Minneapolis, MN). Andrea met her husband, Rev. Dr. Thomas Messinger, at Fuller Seminary and they have two children, Tommy and Amelia, who are both married and following Jesus as they serve in their churches. Andrea has had the blessing of using the many resources ECO offers to help churches and pastors flourish and thrive as they discern their Flourishing Next Steps.