Indianapolis

Karen Goley uses her resource knowledge and relational style to work closely with congregations as a resource consultant and behind the scenes with our robust database of resources and doing project work.  Prior to joining the Center, Karen spent over fifteen years in the human resources field, serving nonprofit and financial services organizations in the Indianapolis area and the suburbs of Chicago.

With faith as her foundation, Karen enjoys spending quality time with her family and is a very proud Purdue University alum.  Having earned a bachelor’s degree in Organizational Leadership and Supervision, Karen put her pride on full display by naming the family pup Mackey- after Purdue basketball’s Mackey Arena.  Boiler Up!

Noemi Cifuentes hails from Guatemala City as the youngest of nine children.  She became a resident of New York in early 2001, however, shortly after 9/11 Noemi relocated to Indianapolis, IN.

Since being in the great city of Indianapolis, Noemi has served the Christian community in multiple capacities both personally and professionally.  For nine years, she served as the Director of Hispanic Ministry at Old Bethel UMC. She later became a Case Manager at Wheeler Mission Ministry as the Family Coordinator and is currently the Office Manager for SENDCDC while also serving as a Contract Resource Consultant for the Center for Congregations.

Noemi enjoys interacting with people and sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. Her passion for teaching the Bible to beginners is unparalleled.  She is married to the love of her life, Temo, is the mother of three children and a proud Grandmother. In her free time, Noemi loves to drive and listen to music, paint, and sew and has been noted for having quite the sense of humor.

Terrance Bridges serves as a resource consultant for Indiana congregations. He is licensed with subsequent ordination from Pentecostal Churches of the Apostolic Faith. An ordained elder, Terrance combines his parish ministry with adjunct professor work for Grace College, New Horizons Christian University, and guest lecturing at colleges and universities. His consulting practice includes work in the areas of program development, evaluation, congregational strategic planning and intergenerational ministry. Terrance has a bachelor’s degree from Taylor University in Upland, a master’s from Ball State University, Certificate of Advanced Graduate Studies and Doctoral Studies from Regent University in Virginia Beach, Virginia. He is working on his culminating doctoral project in education at Northcentral University in Prescott, Arizona. He has served in ministry at Eastern Star Church, Indianapolis, and Union Baptist Church in Muncie. He continues his ministry service at Mt. Zion Apostolic Church, Indianapolis, through the ministerial alliance, leadership council, preaching and teaching ministries.

Susan Weber coordinates the evaluation processes for Lilly Endowment Inc.’s Religion Division. She spent several years as the Indianapolis Center for Congregation’s director of evaluation and congregational learning, as well as a resource consultant to congregations.

Susan is a Roman Catholic lay woman. Prior to her work at the Center, she served the Archdiocese of Indianapolis as coordinator of boards of education, office of Catholic education from 1976-1985. For almost 20 years thereafter, she was an independent consultant and group facilitator for dioceses, churches, religious communities, and schools nationwide. Sue has degrees from St. Mary-of-the-Woods College and Indiana University, Bloomington and is professionally certificated as a group facilitator through Indiana University.

Tim Shapiro is the Indianapolis Center’s president. He began serving the Center in 2003 after 18 years in pastoral ministry. For 14 years, Tim served Westminster Presbyterian Church in Xenia, Ohio. Prior to his pastorate at Westminster, he was pastor of Bethlehem Presbyterian Church in Logansport, Indiana. He holds degrees from Purdue University and Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.

Tim’s interest in how congregations learn to do new things is represented in his book How Your Congregation Learns. After his extensive work on the Center’s Sacred Space initiative, Tim co-authored the book Holy Places: Matching Sacred Space with Mission and Message. He has also authored several articles, including Applying Positive Deviance and The Congregation of Theological Coherence.

Diana Poirer is the Center’s Executive Assistant to the President and Executive Board as well as the Grants Administrator for both Resource and Special Grants. Her undergraduate degree is in secondary education from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Prior to joining the staff at the Center, Diana passionately worked in the food banking industry for nine years, while also volunteering at a food pantry in her free time. She has spent an extensive amount of time helping congregations establish food pantries making it a natural fit to continue supporting congregations at the Center.

Kelly Minas designs and directs evaluation processes for grants, resource consulting, and educational programs at the Center for Congregations. Kelly received an undergraduate degree in American culture from Vassar College, where she was active in interfaith work on campus, and a master’s degree in contemporary sociology from the University of Leicester in England.

Ben McKibben is the senior web developer for the Center for Congregations. His primary responsibility is the development, enhancement and maintenance of the Congregational Resource Guide (CRG). The CRG is provided by the Center as a service for anyone seeking to find the right resources for their congregation.  Ben has a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from the University of Southern Mississippi and an MBA from Indiana University. He has more than 20 years of experience developing internet applications. Ben lived in Malaysia for ten years while serving as an associate director for a cooperative program between Indiana University and a Malaysian university.

Christal Johnson is the Center’s Director of Marketing & Communications.  While in this role, Christal will also serve as a resource consultant to congregations throughout Indiana. Before joining the Center, Christal garnered more than 25 years of experience in Advertising, Brand Strategy, Communications, Creative Design, Event Planning, Radio & TV Production and Marketing.  She has worked in both the public & private sectors and is thrilled to be a part of the team at Center for Congregations.

She is a proud Ball State University and Leadership Academy Alum and is in a servant leadership role with Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA). Christal is a woman of strong faith; grew up in the Methodist Church and later joined a small Baptist Church where she eagerly served in several capacities.

Catharine Green develops and maintains the Center’s database system. This system is an essential tool in the Center’s mission of identifying the right resources for congregational needs, and learning how congregations make effective use of specific kinds of resources.