Pastoral Staff

Rev. Dr. Peter Moon
Senior Pastor
Ext. 21
Email

Pete Moon has served as the Senior Pastor of Woodlake UMC since June 2002.  He received his Masters Degree from Union/PSCE Seminary in Richmond, and a Doctorate from Wesley Seminary in Washington D.C.  His focus has been upon changing lives through Christ in the midst of a rapidly growing segment of Chesterfield County.  At the same time, he believes that the church must be invested in the lives of those who struggle for life in our Richmond Community and in overseas missions.  He has been married for twenty years to his wife Lynn and has five children.  In his spare time loves woodworking and building furniture.

Rev. Michael Whaley
Associate Pastor
Ext. 38
Email

Michael Whaley serves as an Associate Pastor and is head of the Mission Team, which organizes local and global mission trips and opportunities.

Rev. Erin Reibel
Assoc. Director of Congregational Care
Ext. 37
Email

Erin has been working at Woodlake UMC in a variety of contexts since 2001.  She is married and is the mother of four young children, which takes up the majority of her time.  Erin is a graduate of Union-PSCE.  She enjoys cooking and reading although she has very little time for either.  She enjoys her current role of working with the prayer service and visiting people in the hospital.

Rev. Michael Shirley

Teaching Pastor
Email

Rev. Michael Shirley is our Teaching Pastor who delivers the message for our Saturday night Connect service each week. 

Administrative Staff

Pam Johnston
Director of Stewardship
Ext. 23
Email
 

Pam Johnston came on board as a staff person in 1997 and began attending Woodlake UMC in 1999.  She enjoys being part of a team that helps keep the church running so that people may gather and worship as well as meet other needs they may have.  She is married to her husband Herb and has three children.  Her favorite book of the bible is James.  Her favorite movie is Rigoletto and for fun she enjoys spending time with her family – what little time our schedule allows us to - reading and attempting to do Suduko!

Tracy Garner
Administrative Coordinator
Ext. 25
Email

Tracy Garner is the church's Administrator Coordinator.  Tracy has been a member of the church for several years and is very involved in Missions.  She brings with her many years of administrative experience and skills..

Shirley Huffman
Treasurer
Ext. 26
Email

Shirley Huffman came on board as a staff person in 2007.  She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Finance & Economics from Northwest Missouri State University and prior Accounting experience in a non-profit organization.  Her husband, Charles, is a retired Army officer and they have a son, Aaron, living in Florida.  Shirley handles the funds for the church, oversees payroll, benefits, and works very closely with the Finance Committee on the budget process.  Her talents include singing in the choir and playing violin in the orchestra.

Sharon Takai
Communications Coordinator
Ext. 27
Email

Sharon Takai has been attending Woodlake UMC since 2004 and came on board as a staff person in 2006.  She loves having the opportunity to use her gift of creativity for work in God's Kingdom.  She is married to her husband, Joe, and has a baby boy named Jayden and two dogs named Chuckie and Lexi!  Sharon has a BA in Information Systems from Virginia Commonwealth University and enjoys painting, interior design, watching movies, reading Nicholas Sparks books, and spending time with her family at the lake.  Her favorite verse is Jeremiah 29:11, "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

Discipleship Ministries Staff

MaryKaye Cochran
Director of Discipleship
Ext. 33
Email

Since July 2006, MaryKaye has served as Director of Lay Ministries, overseeing the Good News Team and Lay Ministry Team.  Her background in Christian Education and new student programming provide a strong foundation for sharing her gifts and talents here at WUMC.  MaryKaye is originally from Ashland, Ohio, but has lived in Virginia for 33 years.  She attended the College of William and Mary as an undergraduate and majored in Psychology and Religion.  MaryKaye attended Bowling Green State University in Ohio for graduate studies in college student personnel.  Her professional experiences include directing the orientation program at Longwood College (now University) and serving as Christian Educator at Farmville UMC (Farmville, VA) and Duncan Memorial UMC (Ashland, VA). MaryKaye is married to Larry Cochran and they have three children, Jason, Samuel and Lauren, and a dog, Annie.  Her favorite book of the Bible is the Psalms and her favorite movie is the “Sound of Music.”  She loves to sing, scrapbook, and read whenever possible.

Beth Christian
Dir. of Children's Ministries
Ext. 28
Email

Beth Christian has been attending Woodlake UMC since 1997 and came on board as a staff person in 2001.  What she likes best about her ministry is the absolute trust and awe children have for Jesus.  The kids “get it” AND share it!  She is married to her husband Roger, and has four children ages 12, 15, 22 & 23.  Her favorite book of the bible is Romans.  Her favorite movie is The Sandlot and for fun she enjoys spending time with her husband.

Lori Snidow
Preschool Director
Preschool Office:
(804) 639-5411
Email

Lori Snidow came on board as the Preschool Director in January 2008.  The preschool's doors opened fall 2008 and has a wonderful attendance of children ages 3 - pre-K from all over the community.  Click here for more information.

Jennifer Rose
KidZworship/WOW Coord.
Ext. 62
Email

Jennifer Rose is our KidZworship and WOW Coordinator and started the position in August 2009.  She has such a love of children and brings fun and exciting lessons for the children to love and learn about God!

Linda Chapman
Nursery Coordinator
Ext. 55
Email

Linda has been attending WUMC since 1992. She came on board as the Nursery Coordinator in June 2007.  She has been volunteering in the nursery for 15 years, so some of you reading this may have had a diaper change from her! (Just kidding)  She has loved children forever and feels God wants her to serve Him in this way. She truly loves your children and considers them treasures of her heart!  Her goal is to make our nurseries the happiest places on earth, the most spirit filled, and a ministry that ministers to the whole family.  She has two grown daughters, Rebekah who has two precious sons, and Amanda who has one son, Liam.  Her husband's name is Greg.  He is a Head Usher and wanders around the church every weekend, (movin' chairs and makin' the coffee and donuts).  They have been married for 35 wonderful years!  She loves to read and hang out at the beach or pool.  She feels honored and blessed to be a part of the WUMC staff!

Amy Beckwith

Director of Youth Ministries
Ext. 35
Email

Amy Beckwith joined our staff July 1, 2010 as Director of Youth Ministries.  Amy is a trained and experienced teacher with a degree in Health and Physical Education from Longwood University, and she brings those talents to us with many years of experience in youth ministry in the United Methodist church, both as a youth participant and an adult leader.  She is passionate about helping youth discover their spiritual gifts, providing activities that help youth work as a team and be leaders in youth group and in their communities, and engaging youth in missions.

Marie Misiaszek
Director of Adult Ministries
Ext. 30
Email

Marie Misiaszek came on board as a staff person in November 2007.  Marie has had extensive experience in communications, training and development of training classes and material in the secular world.  Since joining Woodlake Church she has been active on various mission teams, co-chaired and led the recent Women's Retreat, served on the Lay Leadership committee, and has participated in and led a variety of small groups.  We are excited to welcome Marie to our staff at Woodlake and hope that you will join us in this welcome when you see her here at church.

Healing Ministries Staff

Julie Warren joined our staff on July 1, 2010 as Director of Congregational Care.  She brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to this position through many years of nursing in the areas of behavioral health and labor and delivery.  She also has led mission trips to Africa and Mexico through the United Methodist Church and served as the United Methodist Volunteers in Mission Coordinator for the Central Texas Conference.  She strongly believes in motivating and equipping people, inspiring them to become leaders and team members in ministry partnerships, and looks forward to developing Christ-centered relationships within the church in order to meet the needs of those we serve.

Gayle Turner came on board as a staff person in 2007.  She is actually a native Floridian, along with several generations of her family who still live all over the state. She is married to Mark (who plays in the Connect band) and loves to tell the kids that “her boyfriend is in the band!”  They have been married 25 years. She has two children, Josh and Ashley, who are both in college and make her very proud. (They both play with Connect as well!)  She graduated from the University of South Florida with a degree in Geology. She loves to play outside in the dirt as much as possible. Her favorite things to do are camp, read, cook, garden, turn teens and adults onto the Bible, laugh, and hang out with her family. She has attended WUMC since moving to Virginia in the summer of 2001. The entire family feels that God led them to this spot in the Richmond suburbs and they actually bought their house based on its proximity to the church.  She is excited about “feeding God’s sheep” and looks forward to increased fellowship with each person at WUMC.

Worship Ministries Staff

Darren Raley
Director of Worship
Ext. 29
Email

Darren Raley came on board as a staff person in 2001.  He loves being used by God and watching him change lives.  He enjoys being able to make so many different kinds of music and work with such amazing people!  He is married to his wife Julie and has a son named Campbell.  His favorite book of the Bible is Psalms, but Paul’s letters are great, and of course the gospels too.  His favorite movies are A Fish Called Wanda, Monty Python (any of them), Mel Brooks (the early ones) Sci-fi – Armageddon, Apollo 13 Serious films – Truly Madly Deeply, and Monster’s Ball.  For fun he enjoys reading (classics or sci-fi), but mainly spending time with my family – camping, canoeing, just hanging out together.

Michael Berkley
Assoc. Director of Worship
Ext. 34
Email

While serving as the choral director of Clover Hill High School, Michael received a call from the founding pastor of Woodlake UMC saying, “I want you to come and do over here what you are doing over there.”  At that point, in 1997, that meant a part time job creating a youth choir, which was formed in a pretty standard church style.  Some years later, now full-time with the church, Michael leads music for KidZworship and our W.O.W. “tweens” ministry. At 8:15 on Sunday mornings he is truly in his element, as the pianist and music coordinator for our traditional worship service which features hymns, soloists and ensembles of voices. He has released two CD's of inspirational vocal and piano music, the proceeds of which will benefit WUMC. Michael is also heavily involved in and passionate about our skateboard group, which he helped start in 2004. He feels that more and more people need to know that their skills and passions, whatever they are, can be used for God’s glory and to build His kingdom. 

Shirley Pridgen
Pianist

Shirley Pridgen is our resident Pianist and plays during our 9:30 and 11 AM Sunday services.