Our Ministry Team  PCB-logo-Gray-HR

Pastor David Ezekiel, Transitional Pastor

Pastor David’s passion is congregational health and vitality. He has decades of experience leading and working with a variety of congregations and organizations in transition. David desires for his churches to discover their place of most potential and opportunity. He is relentless in his efforts for the congregations he coaches to develop a purpose, goals, and a plan. One of the defining scriptures for his life and ministry is Jeremiah 29:11-14, which says in part: “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope…”

This driving interest is communicated to his seminary students by teaching them about the locus of culture and context for ministry. David was honored when one class asked to extend their week-long intensive so that he could teach them about intersectionality. The faculty requested a presentation, too. David even taught UCC polity at the request of several students.

But David has never forgotten his early roots having once wanted to be an economics major. The way he tells it, his mother was a bookkeeper, so he learned how to run a double-entry column of figures and read a spreadsheet before he began grade school. David says that both God – and the devil – are found in the details.

David is married to Janet, and they love to travel. They have lots of stories: sleeping out under the stars on the ice of Antarctica is a favorite one. He loves to cook and try new foods. (Sushi is the exception – he grew up where raw fish is called “bait”). David is a religious devotee of college football, especially the Alabama Crimson Tide. (He will point out that the University is actually referenced in the Old Testament book of Ezekiel – of course).

He is not a patient driver. Always has a good quip, joke, or story. Loves dogs. Loves good scotch. And loves good coffee.


Rev. Jae Cho M.Div., Associate Pastor

Rev. Jae Cho moved to the United States from Seoul, Korea, when he was 3 years old. He grew up in a Christian family and felt called to ministry in his college years.

Jae spent his early years living in Los Angeles and his teen and college years in Seattle. Jae graduated from University of Washington where he attained a B.A. in Communications with a minor in Entrepreneurship. And after working for a few years sensing God’s call, he enrolled in Regent College at Vancouver, British Columbia graduating with a Master of Divinity.

Jae has served youth, college, young adults, and adult ministry. He also participated in mission trips all over the world: Tijuana, Mexico, Hong Kong, Beijing, China, Tibet, and South Korea.

 Jae enjoys spending time with family. He is happily married to Esther who is a Chicago native. They have a fun loving son, Luke.  Jae loves to talk to people about his faith journey and has an eye for beauty in all of God’s creation including art, design, and culture. When he has free time, he loves watching and playing all kinds of sports from basketball, ping pong, tennis, and golf. He also loves watching YouTube videos and connecting with people on social media.


Kirsten Hedegaard Director of Music

Kirsten Hede­gaard has enjoyed a duel career as a singer and con­duc­tor. She has per­formed numer­ous Bach can­tatas and baroque cham­ber music and has been a soloist with many early music spe­cial­ists includ­ing Nicholas McGe­gan, Paul Hillier, Ivars Tau­rins, Ken­neth Slowik, and John Butt. Ms. Hede­gaard has sung with, Phil­har­mo­nia Baroque (found­ing mem­ber), Mer­cury Baroque, Ensem­ble viii, Baroque Band, the New­berry Con­sort, Ars Anti­qua, the Rook Ensem­ble, the Cal­lipy­gian Play­ers, the Opera Com­pany, Bella Voce, and Tafel­musik BSI among other ensem­bles. Ms. Hede­gaard has per­formed a vari­ety of new works, includ­ing an inter­na­tional tour of Louis Andriessens’s The Odyssey with the Bep­pie Blankert Dance Com­pany and per­for­mances with the Grammy-award win­ning new music ensem­ble, eighth blackbird.

Cur­rently Direc­tor of Choral Activ­i­ties at Loy­ola Uni­ver­sity, Ms. Hede­gaard has taught con­duct­ing at Con­cor­dia Uni­ver­sity, River For­est and has con­ducted choirs and orches­tras for var­i­ous insti­tu­tions includ­ing East­man House, Chicago Children’s Choir, Gallery 37, Loy­ola Acad­emy, and the Uni­ver­sity of Cal­i­for­nia. She was guest con­duc­tor with Chicago Choral Artists for the 2009-10 sea­son and is the for­mer con­duc­tor for the Bella Voce Out­reach pro­gram. In 2000, she co-founded The Musi­cal Offer­ing, a non­profit music school in Evanston where she held the posi­tion of Exec­u­tive Direc­tor until 2005. She also holds the posi­tion of Direc­tor of Music at the Pres­by­ter­ian Church of Barrington.

Ms. Hede­gaard holds a BM from North­west­ern Uni­ver­sity and her MA in con­duct­ing from the Uni­ver­sity of CA, where she was assis­tant to Paul Hillier. In 2008 she was invited to be a con­duct­ing Fel­low at the Yale Nor­folk Fes­ti­val, study­ing with Simon Carrington.

Andy McBeath, Organist

Andy served previously as the Associate Organist/Choirmaster for eight years at The Church of the Holy Spirit in Lake Forest, Illinois. Currently, he teaches percussion and assists with both the band and orchestra program at Lake Forest High School. Andy received his Masters of Music from New York University Steinhardt School of Education and his Bachelors of Music from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.