WHO WE ARE

The mission of Parakaleo is to strengthen the gospel spreading impact of church planting by coming alongside church planting movements and couples. We do this through coaching, connecting, caring, and celebrating in order to facilitate adequate training, encouragement and care of church planting couples and spouses.

The church planters spouse plays a crucial leadership role in the new church as well as in support of the Church Planter, yet frequently goes unnoticed and has little training or support.

Did you know?

56% of Clergy spouses report having no close friends

84% of spouses surveyed in the PCA report a lack of denominational care and support for them in their role

100% of church planting spouses surveyed have requested mentoring or some form or support system

Parakaleo offers gospel centered care and coaching to church planters spouses.

Parakaleo works closely with existing church planting movements and presbyteries to establish local and national coaching networks. These networks concentrate on four important "C's" in the life of a church planters spouse:

Coaching: We share relevant, research based training, either one on one or in groups, to equip and support church planting spouses

Caring: We come alongside her as she cares for others and we prompt her to care for herself

Connecting: We link spouses to each other and to other church planting couples, not only in their own geographic areas, but also around the country, providing a longed-for support system.

Celebrating: We bask in the beauty of the gospel as our father reveals Himself in her life, in her family and in the church plant.

The geographic isolation of many church plants, the aggressive outreach required by church planting families and the lack of support systems places a great deal of stress on church planters, their marriages and their familiars. In her unique role, the church planters spouse is particularly subject to feeling of isolation, loneliness or fatigue. This stress often affects the health of the church plant itself.

Providing coaching, training and support networks, Parakaleo equips and encourages the church planting spouse for her task and promotes strong relationships between church planting spouses and their families. This strengthens the church planting effort of the couple, and in turn, the impact of church planting and the spread of the gospel across the country.

The Staff

Shari Thomas (Parakaleo's Director) along with Tami Resch, Cristina Caires, and Maria Garriott bring over 70 years of combined church planting experience to Parakaleo. Having been in the trenches, we are passionate about equipping and supporting church planting spouses. Couples and families, thus seeing Jesus good news spread through healthy church plants.

Shari Thomas
Founder and Director

I'm a mom to three birth children, and also to many others who have wiled their way into my heart. The hardest thing I've ever done is church planting without an understanding of the gospel. The second hardest has been church planting even with a gospel understanding. Under Mission to North America, I founded and currently lead parakaleo-a ministry that 'comes alongside' church planting spouses, couples, and movements. Yes, I'm proud of that and I love my job! Through an understanding of The Gospel Story and it's intersection with my own story, I've discovered a freedom I never knew possible. More than anything, I love inviting others to discover this freedom. I also enjoy sharing beauty, good food, my home, and family with others. Okay, throw in shopping, travel, and the outdoors. And one day on the other side, I plan on having a large table under an even larger tree where we can gather to hear the finished narratives of our current stories. Until then, my husband and I live in Manhattan where he is the Director of Global Training for City to City and I continue to direct parakaleo's ministry.

Tami Resch
Associate Director

Tami and her husband, Steve Resch, were thrilled to be called to church planting in their native Big Ten country. Since 1991, they have co-labored in three church plants currently serving Walnut Creek Presbyterian Church in Columbus, OH (The wrong Big Ten city for a Purdue Alum). Tami loves opening her home and mentoring women (chocolate is usually involved in both). She loves giving things away...which kept her from a career in sales...but led to the discovery of a passion for giving away hope in Christ. She shares with church planter's spouses and women in her community a life of gospel joy, hugs, and hope in Christ. As crazy as it may sound, she enjoys attending General Assembly, church planting conferences, serving at assessment centers. Other neuroses include organizing closets, drawers, cupboards, and her refrigerator. Tami is an R.N....retired nurse...a retired home school mom, and the sometimes tired but never retired mother of Steve, Emily, and Katherine.

Cristina Caires
Director of Global Network Development

Born and raised in São Paulo, Brazil, Cristina moved to the US in the late 80's and has been involved in church planting for almost 20 years. She and her husband Darcy planted and co-labored in two church plants and currently, as part of a cross cultural pastoral team, planted Astoria Community Church, in Queens, NY.

Presently, Cristina is the administrator for the ESL ministry, co-leader of a women's fellowship, a freelance translator, and is thrilled to be part of the developmental stages of a Parakaleo ministry in the NY metropolitan area.

As a church planting spouse, she has experienced both, the joy of the transforming message of the Gospel, and the pain of finding herself in a desert. She believes that through Parakaleo, spouses, churches and pastoral families can be strengthened, which will directly affect the work of the church in the community.

Cristina loves coffee, chocolate, traveling, and has become addicted to Wii and her Iphone. She and her husband don't have children of their own, but have been blessed by the many children who have become family to them in the last 20 years.

Maria Garriott
Special Projects Director

Maria and her husband Craig moved to a distressed urban Baltimore neighborhood in 1980 to plant Faith Christian Fellowship, a multiethnic church committed to ministry in Word and deed. The church presently operates a Christian day school, tutoring program, sports leagues, and other ministries.

Her memoir A Thousand Resurrections describes what happens when a pastor's large family meets the grit of the city. It weaves stories of redemption and loss, elation and discouragement, and the ever-elusive quest to balance ministry, marriage, and motherhood. She is still trying to figure out how to be, not do; rest in Jesus; and remember she's a daughter, not an orphan.

Maria's poetry, essays, and nonfiction articles have appeared in The Baltimore Sun, BreakPoint Worldview, The New York Quarterly, Urban Mission Journal, the Maryland Poetry Review and other markets. She has written curriculum for the Johns Hopkins University that has been published by Oxford University Press and Smithsonian Books. Maria enjoys reading, playing guitar, encouraging other women, and most of all spending time with her husband and five children.

Carrie Ott
Communications Director

One of Carrie's earliest memories is a fascination with words before she could ever read them. Her fascination has only grown through the years. Carrie was raised in the world of ministry as a daughter of a church planter. She was given a rich heritage of faith while experiencing, from a unique vantage point, the ups and downs and wild extremes of this unique, crazy life.

As an adult Carrie entered ministry through the avenue of writing, script writing, theater production, multi-media, and technical production. She and her husband Russ are the parents of three children: a teenage son and two grown daughters. Their dachshund Hamlet does not plan on moving out no matter how old he gets. Carrie is an artist, a writer, and an editor.

Carrie believes there are few things more powerful than a woman who is discovering the glory of her story, whose life is being turned inside out by the gospel, and who is being cared for, body and soul, by other women who believe in the grand adventure God has invited all of us to. She is excited to bring her experiences, her endless affection for the gospel, and her passion for words to these women.