Our Leadership and Staff

Sitting, from left to right, Deacon Andrew Caudal, Music Director/Ministry Assistant Barbara Haun, Deacon Brion Ferratt. Standing, from left to right, Teaching Elder (Assistant Pastor) Tom Browning, Teaching Elder (Pastor) Kyle Oliphint, Ruling Elder Doug Flowers, Ruling Elder Scott Thanisch

Pastor

Kyle Oliphint | kyle@gracecommunity-pca.org
Our pastor was born in 1962, the fourth of five children, in Amarillo, TX and was raised a Roman Catholic.  It was at age 17, through the circumstances of his parent’s divorce, that God brought him to faith.  God used a number of men and his local church, Christ Covenant, OPC to begin to grow him in his faith.
 
After a couple of years in the restaurant business, he joined the staff of Young Life in Amarillo as student staff, while he pursued his degree in History at West Texas A&M.  He graduated college in 1990 and was brought on full-time staff with Young Life in Amarillo.
 
In 1991, he moved to Jacksonville, FL where he began a youth ministry for a relatively new PCA church, Christ Church. He spent four years in Jacksonville and it was here where God brought to him his wife.
 
Kyle married Lizzie in December of 1994 and moved to Philadelphia, PA in May of 1995 to pursue his theological education.
 
While in seminary, Kyle and Lizzie welcomed their first daughter, Katie, in 1997. Kyle graduated from Westminster Theological Seminary in 1999 with a Masters of Divinity (M.Div), emphasizing in Pastoral Counseling.
 
In October of 1999, while Kyle was serving as Director of Admissions at Westminster, Caroline, their second daughter was born.
 
In September of 2000, Kyle accepted a call as associate pastor of Holy Trinity Presbyterian Church in Tampa, FL.  In January of 2002 the Oliphint’s welcomed their third covenant daughter, Kelly.
 
On January 2nd, 2005 Kyle and family moved to Ft. Worth, TX to begin the work of organizing Grace Community Presbyterian Church, PCA. 

Our pastor is committed to both the public and private ministry of the Word of God for the growth and sanctification of God’s people.  His prayer is that the gospel of Jesus Christ and particularly His cross will shape and form his shepherding ministry and the ministry of Grace Community Presbyterian Church, PCA.  Please do not hesitate to give him a call if there is anything he can do for you.  We hope you will visit our church and worship with us as we together, with Kyle, submit ourselves to God in service to one another.
 

Assistant Pastor

Tom Browning | tom@gracecommunity-pca.org
Tom was born in 1952 in Dallas, Texas. His parents lived in Arlington (his dad was a machinist at LTV) but in those days there were no hospitals in Arlington. Tom grew up attending public school in Arlington. He met his wife Beverly in the first grade at Maxie Speer Elementary. They did not, however, start going together until the seventh grade. In 1970, Tom received a scholarship from the Lion’s Club to attend UTA where he majored in American Literature.

Tom and Beverly got married in 1972 when he was a junior at UTA.

After UTA, took a management position with a national grocery store chain and worked as a store manager at several locations around the Metroplex.

After 7 or 8 years in management, Tom felt a call to ministry and began to take night classes at Arlington Baptist College. Later he was accepted to the ThM program at Dallas Theological Seminary. Around that same time, he was hired as a teacher at Bethel Baptist Christian School in Arlington.

Tom taught school for almost ten years. He taught algebra, geometry, and trigonometry. He also taught Greek, Latin, and American Literature.

He attended seminary the entire time he taught.

In 1986, Tom went to work for Joshua’s Christian Stores working as a store manager. He eventually worked up to the position of Vice-President where he helped grow the company from four to seventy-four stores. He remained with the company until it sold to a national competitor.

When that happened, Arlington Presbyterian Church, where Tom attended with his family, asked Tom to come on staff as a youth minister. He was eventually called by the church as an associate pastor. He remained there until December 2006. He was called as an assistant pastor here at Grace at the beginning of 2008. He is also a teacher at Faith Christian School in Grapevine, Texas.

Tom is committed to the careful exposition of Scripture. A number of his studies have been posted on the web because of their dissemination through Monergism.com. He also has a webpage called Post Tenebras Lux where a number of his studies and articles are available.

Tom considers it an enormous privilege to work and worship at Grace Community. He is especially grateful for the privilege of worshipping here with his kids and grandkids.

Ruling Elders

Doug Flowers
Doug grew up in Minnesota as a pastor’s son and it is hard for him to remember a time where he did not feel God’s presence in his life. God used the persistent witness of his boss to enlighten the truths of reformed theology as revealed in Holy Scripture. Doug studied economics as an undergrad at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois and has an MBA with concentration in finance from the Kellogg Graduate School of Business at Northwestern. His first job led him to Columbus, Ohio, where he met and married Karen. In 1987, Doug and Karen moved to Fort Worth, where Doug is a money manager for a private family hedge fund. Doug has served as the treasurer of previous churches, has taught numerous Bible studies and Sunday school classes, and was a Deacon at Fort Worth Presbyterian before joining the core group that became Grace Community. Doug and Karen have been on several short term mission trips throughout Mexico and Central America. Running (marathoner in younger years), climbing/hiking (successful summit of Kilimanjaro and soon Everest base camp), and golf (consistent duffer), are Doug’s most enjoyable distractions. Doug and Karen are the proud parents of two very active teenage boys.

Scott Thanisch
Scott grew up in the Baptist church where his father served as chairman of deacons and his mother ran the church school. At an early age he professed the faith of his parents as his own, and God has worked in Scott's life to grow and nurture that faith. While attending University of Texas at Austin, Scott married his high school sweetheart, Dawn. It was during another stint in school in Southern Methodist University's MBA program that Scott and Dawn learned the truths of the reformed faith through the radio ministry of RC Sproul. Scott has served in Baptist and Presbyterian churches in teaching roles and Dawn has served in children's ministry. They joined Grace Community in 2005. Scott and Dawn have three sons aged 11, 5, and 2 and one precious daughter aged 8. Scott works in finance for a local travel technology company and Dawn cares for and schools their four children. Scott, Dawn and the kids enjoy traveling, playing games, and riding motorcycles.

Deacons

Andrew Caudal
Andrew is Rebecca's husband, and daddy to Bethany and Beatrix. He grew up in the Philippines, and moved to the US for college. God used the faithful witness of a number of young men in high school and college to bring Andrew to Himself, and the ministry of the Church to continue to teach him. After attending college in ruggedly beautiful West Texas, he attended graduate school in always-exciting New York City. Finding the tug of Texas irresistible, Andrew and Rebecca moved back to Texas and to the Dallas area immediately after graduate school. He found gainful employment, and she took a turn in graduate school. The Caudals moved further west to Tarrant County and joined GCPC in 2005, after Andrew's employer, an Internet company, moved to the area. His newest hobby is learning how to sail. He also enjoys coaching a kids' soccer team in the community, traveling, eclectic movies and music, and reading. Amazon.com loves him. Andrew has previously served in churches as a deacon, men's and co-ed Bible Study leader, and world missions junkie.

Brion Ferratt
Brion and his family came to GCPC in April 2005 from Virginia as a result of a job change. Brion recalls his dad leading him at age 10 to Christ. At Virginia Tech, Brion was very active in InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. He graduated in 1987 with a degree in Marketing and is now a Contracts Administrator for a large aerospace company. Brion has served previous churches as a youth leader, small group leader, auditor, moving crew organizer, Sunday school teacher, and officer search committee member. He enjoys reading (especially Flavel and Edwards), photography, and cycling. He and Laura were married in 1992 and have two sons-John and Bowen. They reside in Heritage with their two cats and a Boston Terrier.

Music Director / Ministry Coordinator
Barbara Haun

Barbara Heidbrier Haun considers her life a journey of grace. She was born in Lubbock, contracted polio in Houston at the age of 2, and begin music lessons early as therapy. She has studied with nine teachers, but considers her most influential teacher to be an immigrant from Germany who had been schooled by a line of J.S. Bach students named Katherine Schotta.

Barbara remembers always being intrigued by Christian ministry. While in high school, she spent summers on staff at Sky Ranch, a Christian camp near Denton. Then she attended Moody Bible Institute in Chicago as a music-Biblical studies major, and went on to study piano under Don Wyrtzen at Dallas Bible College.

While raising her three children, Christopher, Tiffany, and Julianne, she maintained music ministries at various churches - for a total of over twenty-five years - mainly at McKinney Memorial Bible Church and Fort Worth Presbyterian Church, PCA. She led several CEF Good News Clubs, various Moms-in-Touch prayer groups, and a ladies' Bible study. After teaching private piano for twenty-some years, she worked as office manager for the Hymn Society of the U.S. and Canada while it was housed at TCU, and she worked for the FWISD as secretary of the Advanced Academics Department.

She is thrilled that God has led her to be a part of Grace Community Presbyterian Church now, where she senses God's Spirit at work; where she can get to know and serve the wonderful people who attend, as the Music Director and Music Coordinator. God continues to mystify her with His faithfulness and desire to transform seeming setbacks into opportunities for true progress within His perfect will.