Meeting Our Lay Leaders (Part 3)
By Bruce Stoltenberg
In the first two articles we discussed the lay leadership structure at HRAC, which includes a Board of Elders and a Governing Board. They are nominated by a nominating committee and confirmed by a vote of the membership at the annual meeting in January for terms of one to three years. Then we introduced five of the six elders.
In this article we are introducing the four members of the Governing Board who are not elders. Those include a deaconess who is selected by the other deaconesses (Kelly Benjamin), a deacon selected by the other deacons (Eric Bokovoy) and two members at large (Ilea Bouse and Kaylene Baker).
Kelly Benjamin has lived in the Hood River Valley for 37 years and has been married to Randy for 34 of those years. She has a daughter and a grandson. Kelly taught first and second grades at Mid Valley Elementary School for over 30 years before retiring.
Together, Randy and Kelly they have been a part of HRAC for the past 33 years. She has been a familiar face serving on the worship team. She has participated in Celebrate Recovery and 12 step groups, hosted and participated in small groups, and participated in women’s ministry, in addition to serving as a deaconess.
Eric Bokovoy grew up in Hood River. His father was an elder in the church in the 1970’s and 80’s. In the early 90’s, Eric left Hood River and moved to Portland. He met his wife, Mary, there in 1994 and married her in 1995. The family moved back to Hood River in 2007, where they have raised their two daughters. They have attended HRAC since just after they returned.
Eric has been a firefighter and paramedic his entire career and is now a station captain with Tualatin Valley Fire and Rescue. Serving as a deacon for the past 8 years, he has been head deacon for 6 of those leading to his role on the Governing Board.
Ilea Bouse moved to Hood River 27 years ago when she married her husband, Kevin Asai. They have two adult children, one of whom still lives in the area. Although raised in the church, she did not fully commit to following Christ until she was an adult. When she moved to Hood River, she began attending Hood River Valley Christian Church. In 2014, she felt the need to make a change and Dan Armstrong encouraged her to give HRAC a try, which she did.
Since then, she has participated in and led Celebrate Recovery share groups, participated in Women’s Ministry, and participated in the prayer ministry of the church. She writes Christian inspirational articles in her spare time and has had some published.
Ilea has a master’s degree in Aging Services Management/Gerontology and has almost 30 years of experience working with seniors and people with disabilities. She currently works for CAPECO in The Dalles.
Kaylene Baker moved to Hood River 22 years ago, two years after marrying Shae, and began attending HRAC a year later. They have raised their two girls in Hood River and at HRAC. She has worked in Women’s Ministry and Children’s Ministry and even spent 8 years on staff at HRAC. She, her husband and her daughters have served in children’s ministry as a family. She has served on the Governing Board for four years.
Away from the church, Kaylene has served as a packing house director and an organic produce salesperson for the past ten years.
I continued to ask each person I interviewed what they appreciated about the boards they served on and the people on them. I continued to hear about the humility of the board members, the sincerity of their faith and their desire to see the church thrive.
However, there were a few new comments. First there were comments about the kindness of those on the board. Members felt like the governing board worked hard to find consensus rather than just go with majority rule. They tried to be sure everyone had been able to share their perspective and to feel like they had been heard.
As an outside observer, I noticed something else. First of all, these folks are engaged. They don’t just make decisions for others to implement, they step up and serve. Also, board members, particularly the elders, have taken a lot of criticism over the past few months. A natural inclination is to get defensive or to walk away. However, I did not detect that defensiveness. These leaders have opted not to resign because they did not feel that God had called them away at this time or that it would not be in the best interest of the church to resign. I was impressed that the focus was on God’s will and the best interest of the church. These are not perfect people, but their motivations are impressive.