Itasca Missionaries

On Mission striving to create relationships for Christ with the

“none, done and undone” in the neighborhood, community and the nation”

Bob Butler

Bob Butler moved to Itasca from Oswego, IL in 2017. Bob is a former entrepreneur, national sales manager, lead pastor, author, outreach pastor, recovery speaker and church planter. Bob is passionate about re-imagining how the church (Big “C”) engages the culture with the message of Jesus. Bob is currently the lead apostolic at The Center, the director for RENEW, a Forge Network Hub Leader and a board member for Impact For Jesus NFP.

Bob has been married to his wife Diane for 34 years. He has been on a number of short term international mission trips. He holds a Masters of Divinity Degree from Northern Seminary. He enjoys coffee, music, movies, reading, soccer, conversation, dogs and binge watching TV shows with his wife. 

Diane Butler

Diane leads our children on Sunday morning. She loves all the children by creating age appropriate ways for kids to connect with the weekly big idea from our time together. Diane has been an educator for nearly 35 years. She is a proud mother who also loves watching soccer, movies and her dog Leo.

Jennifer Swets

Jennifer is a versatile ministry leader with strong gifts in shepherding and teaching. She currently leads a woman's bible study, a Christian yoga group and our social media outreach. She is married to her college sweetheart and has four beautiful children.

Debbie Schalke

Debbie is not your classic evangelist. However, she has a passion for reaching the none (no faith) and the undone (struggling in life). She oversees our evangelism, finance and community efforts challanging us to alway be ready to share His story. Debbie has been married to the love of her life, Dave. She also started our Spiritual Explorers coracle and wrote the Christian 12-step recovery program manual for everyone looking to overcome their issues.

Peter Pereira

Peter’s ministry has grown in South Asia. Hundreds of gatherings have begun and people sent. He has cared for orphans and taken care of ‘the least of these’ for almost three decades.

As of August 1st, 2018, Global Hope Partners ministries will be headquartered at ‘The Center’ in Itasca. We will support one another in leading and training both domestic and international missionaries, contact Peter at globalhopepartners.org

Larry Swets

Larry has a strong leadership gift of recognizing, directing and holding The Center to its covenant with God for this community. 

He has a passion for the mission, his family and helping others reach their potential. 

Hannah and Kevin Leonor

Hannah and Kevin and their beautiful children are found helping the tribe in a variety of ways. Kevin is our Sunday morning worship producer handling everything techinical for our variety of worship leaders and their teams. He also oversees reaching our youth by meeting with them every couple of weeks before worship. Hannah has been our wedding coordinator for years and has recently taken a full time teaching position at Timothy Christian School. While her time during the week is limited, she remains a valuable part of The Center team.