Pastor Gary is a devout believer that “a great church seeks to live out the Great Commandments and the Great Commission.” Thus Jesus’ charges to “love God with all your heart,” “love your neighbor as yourself,” and “go and make disciples of all peoples” form the foundation for his pastoral ministry.

Dr. Olsen is an Equipper for the ChristCare small-group ministry system, having trained in St. Louis with Stephen Ministry. Along with the rest of the Rolling Hills Equipper team, Gary has outfitted over 60 church members for Christian ministry leadership. Utilizing ChristCare for the first time ever in the design of a research project, Pastor Gary earned his Doctor of Ministry degree May 2007 at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky. His dissertation’s title was “Disciple-Making Boards: The Impact of Training a Church’s Governing Board in Small-Group Spiritual Formation Leadership.”

In 2002, Gary and his wife Joyce each earned the Certificate of Advanced Church Leadership from the Beeson Institute, a three-year seminary program to take pastors and church leaders to cutting-edge, teaching churches across the United States. Through Rev. Olsen’s leadership, Rolling Hills has been a pilot congregation for the latest programs from Stephen Ministry and Purpose-Driven Churches.

His latest venture in 2008 has been to become a certified online workshop provider, exploring the possibilities of the Internet to make and grow disciples of Jesus Christ.

When asked about interests and hobbies, Gary lists his wife, their two children and their spouses, and their two grand-children!

A native of southern California, he has earned: a B.A. degree from the University of California, Los Angeles, with a major in Urban History and a minor in Cultural Geography; a Masters of Divinity from Nashotah House Episcopal Seminary, near Milwaukee, Wis.; and Clinical Pastoral Education units at Pawtucket Memorial Hospital, Pawtucket, R.I. through Interfaith Healthcare Ministries. Rev Olsen possesses ordination standing in the United Church of Christ and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).

The Rev. Dr. Gary L. Olsen began his ministry at Rolling Hills Community Church on October 1, 1992. Our unique four-denominational concept was a positive force in his decision to become our pastor. His enthusiasm and dedication to the unique challenge are readily apparent as he continues to fulfill a very vital role in the leadership and spiritual growth of our church.
 

Dr. Leonard McCormick, organist of Rolling Hills Community Church. Dr. McCormick leads the congregational singing in the traditional Sunday worship services at 8:30 and 11:00 a.m., as well as accompany the choir and provide concert-level performances to enhance worship.

Dr. McCormick comes to Rolling Hills after a four decade career as a music educator and college administrator at Tarrant County College, in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.  He started at the College as an instructor of music in 1967. He later served as a department chair on the South Campus for 18 years, then moved to the Southeast Campus in 1996, where he became Chair of the Humanities Division in 2001. In 2002, McCormick was appointed Dean of Instruction of the Southeast Campus, where he oversaw faculty, curriculum, and student academic matters until his retirement in July 2005.

In 1999, McCormick received the Chancellor’s Award for Exemplary Teaching. Two other recent acknowledgements include the Elston Brooks Lifetime Achievement in Theatre Award given by the Live Theatre League of Tarrant County, and the Dallas-Fort Worth Theater Critics Forum’s 2002 Outstanding Achievement for Musical Direction in a production of Stephen Sondheim’s Putting It Together at Stage West.

McCormick earned his doctorate in higher education from Florida’s Nova University and his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music from the University of Texas at Austin. Additional graduate work was completed at the University of North Texas and Southern Illinois University.

Dave spent most of his youth growing up in Northern California.  At an early age he was interested in music and started his musical journey by taking up the drums.  He studied percussion with a respected instructor, Todd Fleming, for several years.  In his senior year of high school he started playing guitar and singing to expand his musical knowledge.  This was prompted by an opportunity to join a new band that was being formed.  Dave continued his education at Santa Rosa Junior College where he majored in music.  While attending college he maintained his professional music career in a bay area band named Steele.  This band went on to be offered a record contract, but the band decided to turn it down in hopes of a better offer.  While Steele did not become a national act, they were well known in Northern California and played with many nationally known artists.  Dave went on to form other bands in the later part of the 1980’s and eventually transitioned into writing, producing, and recording his own music as well as other artists.  He continues to write, produce, and record Christian music currently.

Dave’s non-musical carrier resides in the software industry.  He has been working for software companies for over 20 years in various roles.  He attained a senior management position in a Northern California firm that produced various automated insurance rating programs.  In 2003 Dave and his family moved to Lago Vista and he joined Highland Lakes Software.  This company produces enterprise programs for telecommunications billing and accounting.  He currently holds a senior management position overseeing the software support and quality assurance departments.

Dave, his wife of 21 years Jamie, and his daughter Sabrina joined Rolling Hills Community Church shortly after moving to Lago Vista in 2003 and have all been active members ever since.  Dave joined the contemporary praise band in late 2003 as the bassist and a vocalist.  He later transitioned into a lead guitar role and continued to sing lead and backup vocals.  He took over the leadership role for the praise band on January 1, 2010.

Judy Geddes began membership and her employment at Rolling Hills Community Church in 1998.  She has been actively involved in youth ministry during the past nine years as director of the Youth Choir, Coordinator of the elementary youth programs, and this past year she has taken on the responsibility of the Middle School and High School youth ministry.  Judy is a Stephen Leader in the Stephen Ministry program, Christ Care Small Group Leader, and Lay Ministry Leader in the Church.  She is involved in the Care Ministry of the church, and oversees most care needs of those who request help.  This can include prayer requests, food needs, hospital and nursing home visitation, or fulfilling a request for a Stephen Minister.

Judy and her husband Bill love camping, gardening, animals (especially cats), and their five granddaughters.  Wherever they go Judy always keeps her cell phone handy and is in constant touch with the church.  Reaching her is never a problem and she welcomes any and all calls regardless of the time of day.

Hannah Hohl (pronounced “Hall”) joins the Rolling Hills Communty Church staff September of 2011 and will be spearheading our newly launched Family-Life Ministry; the next step in helping children, youth, and their parents live faithful and exciting lives together. Hannah brings with her recent experiences in congregational youth ministry, women’s shelter work, and overseas missions implementing vacation Bible schools. She is a 2010 graduate of Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, where she was not only an Honors Psychology Student, but the leader of a Bible study for her peers.

One of the first assignments for Hannah will be to attend the D6 Conference in Dallas in mid September. D6 is the tag for a movement that finds its origins in the Bible, in the sixth chapter of the book known as Deuteronomy. Three evocative verses (5-7) describe what, when, and how parents can have a lasting godly impact in their family’s lives. The D6 Conference provides loads of approaches, ideas, programs, and networks of people to help accomplish this “faith at home” lifestyle.

Personal referral, plus job references like “the best intern ever,” “full of ideas,” “would keep her if there was any way possible,” and “always spends time in prayer before she acts on anything” won the Ministry Call Team over. 

The 2008 District 31-5A Division 1 Most Valuable Player in football is turning his sights to ministry with high school and middle school students through Rolling Hills Community Church. Though quarterback and co-captain of the 2008 Area Champion Harlingen High School football team, the Rolling Hills assignment is not a sudden shift for the current UT junior, as John’s leadership skills have been used for Christ all along the way. Whether as an officer for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes at Harlingen High, or as the leader of a peer-led, weekend retreat (the equivalent of Chrysalis) for high school students from all over south Texas, or whether as a current member of the board of a UT campus ministry, Murphy has been ready and willing to step up, give back, and serve Jesus by sharing what he has with others. Murphy’s hometown pastor told us in his reference letter that he "would recommend John 10000000%" and described John as "a natural born leader … [with] a servant’s heart." We are stoked to have him on board! 

Sherry joined Rolling Hills Community Church staff in October of 2000 as Communications Coordinator.  She has 20 years experience in the Administrative field.  Her responsibilities include preparation of weekly worship outline and powerpoint information, weekly electronic newsletter, all advertisement literature and newspaper ads.  She also maintains the church database and website. 

Sherry is originally from Dallas, Texas and moved to Lago Vista in 1997.  She and her daughter, Danielle, joined the church in 1999.  Prior to joining RHCC staff she worked as a substitute teacher for LVISD.

She and her husband Bill were married in January of 2004 by Rev. Gary Olsen.  Bill retired from Continental airlines in 2008 and now works part-time at Best Buy in the electronics department.  Cory is a Sophomore in High School.  Danielle Graduated from UTSA May 8, 2010 with a BBA in Marketing and is pursuing a career in the marketing field. 

Vickie Knight - Bookkeeper

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Vickie joined Rolling Hills staff as Bookkeeper In October of 2011.  She has over 20 years background in accounting.  She has been the full charge bookkeeper for Shades Cafe' for 14 years (yes Shades is still around and seasonal and located in Lakeway).  For the past seven years Vickie has served as treasurer and full charge bookkeeper for her church home in Cedar Park.

Vickie moved to Point Venture in 1995 from Dallas, Texas.  Shortly thereafter she was joined by her sister and her family and not long behind them her Mother and Father also moved to the area.  It took a while but her brother also made it and resides in Lago Vista.

Vickie has one son, Aaron.  He graduated from LVHS and attended college in Charleston, South Carolina and married his high school sweetheart, April.   Vickie has four beautiful grandchildren (two girls and two boys) that live in Leander.

Sara and her husband Chris and their three daughters, Marchelle, Maryssa, Marquia, joined the Rolling Hills church family in January of 2003.    Sara was offfered a position with the church staff  in January of 2011 as Nursery Supervisor.

Bill Geddes has been employed as custodian since April 2005.  He and his wife Judy retired to the Lake Travis area in 1998, after eight years of full-time RVing, and made their home in Jonestown.  Bill, a retired Navy Chief, is a veteran of WWII, Korean and Viet Nam wars.  He and Judy have two children and five granddaughters. 

Bill considers it an honor to serve in the church, and cheerfully accomplishes his daily tasks, which always includes making coffee first thing and having it ready for the staff when they arrive.  Bill will tell you that keeping God’s house clean “isn’t a job, it’s his privilege”.