Travis Agnew
Travis Agnew serves as the Lead Pastor of Rocky Creek Church in Greenville, SC. He is married to Amanda and the father of two sons and one daughter. Travis graduated from North Greenville University with a B.A. in Christian Studies and a Music minor. Earning a M.Div. and D.Min. from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, his doctoral focus was on family discipleship.
In addition to authoring books like Distinctive Discipleship and others, he has also developed LifeWay curriculum with movies by the Kendrick Brothers.
Travis has worked on the religion faculty at Lander University and has served on the Board of Trustees for North Greenville University. As time allows, he preaches at different conferences, events, and camps. He blogs frequently about faith and family at travisagnew.org.
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Marisa Bright
Ernesto Chaparro
Karmen Dennis
Karmen and her husband, Chris, have four girls named Aubrie, Anslie, Baylie, and Bradlie. Her girls love being part of the Kid’s Ministry and Preschool Ministry at Rocky Creek and especially enjoy the missions classes on Wednesday nights. Chris works for Intelysis as a Business Development Manager of the Carolinas and helps teach children on Sundays.
Karmen graduated from Auburn University with a degree in Elementary Education. Karmen has transformed her fondness for teaching children into serving for many years in different kids ministries at church including teaching children’s classes at the preschool and elementary level, assisting with the AWANA program, and working with a team to plan VBS. After being called to help with a church plant in the Mauldin area, Karmen and Chris moved their family here to Rocky Creek to continue serving the Lord.
Karmen serves as the Family Ministry Assistant, where she has the opportunity to work with the Kids Ministry as a teacher and to provide support for the other teachers. Karmen also spends time weekly focusing on support for the church staff in multiple areas and works alongside others on the Connections Team to help the people at Rocky Creek find the right place to worship and serve.
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Lauren Duerk
Lauren, Ryan, her husband and their two children Lincoln and Rowan have a wonderful history with Rocky Creek.
Lauren is a descendent of a charter member of a Rocky Creek spanning back 6 generations of members with our church. Both sides of her family were members of Rocky Creek and she jokes that she was a member while still in the womb! Lauren received Christ as her Lord and Savior and was baptized at RC. Lauren and Ryan met and were married at RC and are so proud to raise another generation of members here.
Lauren graduated from USC Upstate in 2010 with a BA in Interdisciplinary studies in Psychology, Communications and health and wellness and worked in dentistry for 10 years before leaving to be more available at home. Ryan, her husband, is the CEO of Miracle Hill Ministries and serves on the IRT on Sunday mornings.
Lauren’s family lives on family farm in Woodruff and enjoys 4 wheeling, fishing, hiking, working with cows and horses and anything outdoors. Lauren has served in the children’s ministry since 2017 as a volunteer and now as a Preschool Ministry Assistant since 2021.
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Joy Emery
Joy and her husband, Chris, have three adult children: Jackson, Kristen, and Brandon. Chris is a relationship manager at a national bank where he specializes in church banking and serves religious organizations.
Joy graduated from Furman University and then earned a master’s degree in religious education with an emphasis in student ministry from Southwestern Seminary in Ft Worth, Texas. She served as the minister of education/youth at First Baptist in Louisville, Mississippi, and served as minister of childhood education at Wayside Baptist in Miami, Florida. While living in Nashville, Joy worked at LifeWay as the editor in chief of ParentLife and Living with Teenagers magazines. She also has experience as a student ministry adjunct professor at North Greenville University.
Currently, Joy serves as the ministry coordinator at Rocky Creek where she is passionate about helping you find your home at Rocky Creek. From the parking lot to church membership, Joy’s Connections Ministry Team desires to see you in worship, in Bible study groups, and in meaningful places of service at Rocky Creek. Joy is passionate about connecting people to Jesus through the church and spreading the Gospel to all generations.
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Daniel Gibson
Daniel serves as the Media Coordinator at Rocky Creek where he is passionate about using media as a means to glorify God, point others to Christ, and enhance the mission of the Church.
Prior to joining the team at RC, Daniel studied Elementary Education at North Greenville University where he graduated in 2020. For over 5 years, Daniel has served and partnered with churches everywhere to help them implement media strategies and techniques into their ministry.
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Kristi Giddens
Jeremy Johns
Jeremy and Keri, his wife, have five children and one grandson: Eli (married to Meredith; grandson Grady), Josiah, Sam, Philip, and Maggie Ruth. Keri is a homeschool teacher at Johns Academy.
Jeremy graduated from Wingate University with a degree in Biology and minor in Chemistry. After being called to the ministry, he quit his job in the textile lubricant industry and attended seminary at Columbia International University. During his time in seminary he also served as a Children’s Pastor at Springdale Baptist Church in West Columbia, SC. In July 2003, Jeremy joined the Rocky Creek staff as the Children’s Pastor.
Currently, Jeremy serves as the Discipleship Pastor, and he desires to see people of all ages know and love God by being grounded in the Bible, living out the truth of Scripture, and impacting their communities with the Gospel. He provides resources for groups, organizes courses for further growth in the Word, and mentors men and leaders. He also leads the Care Team which helps meet the needs of those in the body of Christ and helps minister in our community.
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Becky Kirby
Becky Kirby was added to Rocky Creek’s staff in 2020 as our Counseling Coordinator. She received her BA degree in Music Education from Gardner-Webb College in 1980 and her Masters in Education from Furman University in 1988. She retired from the Greenville County Schools system in 2018 after serving as an elementary music teacher for over 30 years.
Throughout her adult life, Becky has had a heart for ministering to hurting women. During the 1990s, she completed Levels I and II of Liberty University’s lay counseling program, Light University. She earned her Pastoral Counseling degree through Sarasota Academy of Christian Counseling in 2020 and is presently working on a doctorate degree in Christian Counseling. She is a member of both the American Association of Christian Counselors and the National Christian Counselors Association.
Along with her late husband, Rick, Becky served on staff at North Greenville University as co-directors of Joyful Sound for 15 years. She presently serves on the board of the Christian Ministry Scholarship Fund at North Greenville and as a small group leader at Rocky Creek.
Becky has 2 daughters, Karla Simpson (Brandon) of Greenville and Kelly Picardi (Rob) of Herndon, VA. Becky is called by several names; mom, teacher, friend, counselor, small group leader to name a few. Being called ‘Granna’ by her grandchildren is her favorite title by far! Her goal is to live life in such a way that others see Jesus, our Hope and our Salvation.
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Dennis Miller
Dennis Miller serves on our building and grounds staff. He is married to Brenda. They are members of Rocky Creek. Raised in the NC mountains, Dennis likes learning new things and wishes to use skills to help Rocky Creek be a serving church.
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Marty Miller
Marty joined the staff at Rocky Creek in the fall of 2014. His passion is to build relationships with students and their families, invest in their lives, and encourage them to live out their faith in Jesus Christ.
Marty holds the Ed.D, M.Div, and MA degrees from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He enjoys reading, rock music, roller coasters, old–school NWA wrestling, and sports. His favorite thing to do is spend time with his wife Jennifer their two kids, Kensey and Cade. Clemson football and UNC Basketball are his teams. Hailing from Atlanta, GA, Marty loves Braves baseball and Falcons football. Psalm 105:4 is dear to his heart.
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Katya Oripova
Jennifer Rummage
Donald Shockley
Bryce Staggs
Bryce and his wife, Katie, have been married since 2017 and have one son, Levi. Bryce began serving as a Pastoral Resident at Rocky Creek in 2018 and started his role as multisite coordinator in May of 2021.
Bryce earned his B.A. in Christian Studies from North Greenville University and an M.Div in Christian Ministry from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. In addition to his work at Rocky Creek, Bryce also serves as interim pastor at a partner church of Rocky Creek.
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Keith Westcott
Keith Westcott is the Facilities Manager at Rocky Creek Baptist Church. He has a passion to use his gifts and the resources of Rocky Creek to reach the community.
Keith is a member of Rocky Creek and involved throughout the life of the church.
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David Williams
David and his bride, Christie, have been happily married for over half of their lives. They have been blessed to be able to raise their children, Josh and Mollie here at Rocky Creek, and while they enjoy their “empty nest,” they thoroughly enjoy having their grandchildren, Juliette and Judah come over.
One joy of his extended tenure has been watching kids grow up at Rocky Creek and step into ministry roles, here at Rocky Creek, in other ministry locations as well as internationally.
David began his ministry at Rocky Creek in 1992 as Minister of Youth and Education. Over the years, his position has changed several times, but today his role as Missions and Pastoral Care Pastor gives him excitement and satisfaction.
A favorite passage that he tries to live up to as a child of God is 1 Peter 1:14-15. And while it is true that David used to play basketball for the University in Chapel Hill – it was actually University Baptist Church in Chapel Hill.