ELDERS

Rob Love

Elder of Preaching & Vision

Pastor Rob Love serves the church as the Elder for Preaching and Vision. The Loves started ministry at Immanuel in March, 2016 after sixteen years of Pastoral ministry in Jefferson, WI and Greenwood, WI. Rob Graduated from Maranatha Baptist University with an undergraduate in Bible and Church Ministries and Liberty Theological Seminary with a Masters in Theology. Rob’s greatest passion in church life is declaring, with conviction, the relevant truth of God’s Holy Word so that the faith family can grow to imitate our glorious redeemer, Jesus Christ. Rob is joyfully joined in life and ministry with his wife, Lynelle. As former college athletes, Rob and Lynelle both enjoy playing and coaching sports and anything that includes spending time with their four children.

Will Zalizniak

Elder of Family Life

Pastor Will Zalizniak serves as the Elder of Family Life. After graduating with a degree in youth ministry from Maranatha Baptist University in Watertown, WI, he became the Pastor of Family and Worship at Missionary Baptist Church in Greenwood, WI, where he served from 2014 until his transition to Immanuel in July of 2017. He is presently studying Church Ministry online at Liberty University. Will is passionate for God’s glory in His good designs of church and family, especially as God’s Word equips parents for raising their children in the Lord and helps transform believers of every age into the image of Christ. Will enjoys many sporting and outdoor activities, and is grateful for God’s providence of life and ministry with his wife, Rachel, and four children.

Josh Sturm

Elder of Discipleship

Josh Sturm is our Elder of Discipleship. He graduated from the The Master’s Seminary with an undergraduate from Moody Bible Institute in Spokane, WA. While at Moody he met his wife, Nicole. It was in the context of his local church that God used His normal means of grace–Scripture, prayer, and community–to slowly show him what it meant to grow in Christ and instill a desire for pastoral ministry. In May of 2021 this season of training in both seminary and the church came to an end, culminating in his ordination. In November of 2021, Josh was voted in as staff elder at Immanuel. He and his wife have one daughter, Elanor.

Chris Menard

Elder of Student Ministries

Chris Menard serves the church as the Elder of Student Ministries. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire with a degree in Accounting and has worked in the Wausau area in various financial and accounting roles since graduating. Chris and his wife, Theresa, have attended Immanuel since moving to Wausau shortly after college and have served in a variety of children’s ministry roles through the years, which include serving as Awana Ministry Directors since 2004. Chris served on a Shepherding team in 2015 and was appointed as a lay elder in 2016. His passion is to encourage children, teens and parents to know, love and serve the Lord Jesus Christ. Chris and Theresa have six grown children and five grandchildren.

Lee Barton

Elder of Spiritual Life

Lee Barton graduated from Talbot Seminary with a Masters of Divinity (M. Div.) in 1982. He and Shary joined Christar International Mission in 1981. He was Associate Pastor in Colorado from 1982-85, when they left for Egypt. In 1987 he returned from the field and served as Vice President in charge of new personnel until 1992 when he and Shary returned to the Middle East, and served in Jordan. Lee taught in a seminary there, served as assistant director of a language school, and began a church planting effort among Iraqi refugees, helping develop a church, school and micro-enterprise. Shary worked at a medical clinic for refugees and also helped at the school. In 2001, they returned to LA where Lee served as associate pastor for a large suburban church. Then in 2007, he undertook a pastorate in a small rural church in central Oregon. Lee retired from vocational pastoring in 2016, first moving to Colorado and then in spring of 2019 settling in Rothschild, WI.

Elder of Local and Global Missions

Our Elder of Local & Global Missions graduated from the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and continued graduate studies at Moody Bible Institute where he received a diploma in Biblical Studies. He spent 30 years on the mission field in various ministries, but most of those years were spent doing evangelism and discipleship in northern Kenya with an unreached people group. He has a passion for reaching people in the 10-40 window with the Gospel. Immanuel was a supporting church, and when he returned to Wisconsin in 2016, he was appointed as a lay elder. He and his wife have been married for over 40 years and have 2 adult daughters, who have given them 6 treasured grandchildren.