Pastors: Reverend Nathan Winterhof and Reverend Sara Pearson

Prince of Peace called husband and wife Rev. Nathan Winterhof and Rev. Sara Pearson as co-pastors in April 2015. Sara and Nate moved back to the Bay Area after serving as solo pastors to two congregations in the far north woods of Wisconsin. Both graduated from seminary at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary (PLTS) in Berkeley, California and work 3/4 hours to allow more time for their young children.
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Meet Rev. Nate

The Rev. Nathan Winterhof's first call was with a wonderful community and feels delighted and blessed to have been called to serve another at Prince of Peace.

"I'm not exactly new to the area, but it's been a while since I've been here so it feels both like coming back and finding something new; I am excited for the adventure ahead."

Pastor Nate's Bible verse of choice is 1 Thess. 2:8, "So deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you have become very dear to us." It's his favorite verse because it recognizes the profound value of a faith active in love, and how sharing God's love for the world also means knowing your neighbors and being known by them.
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As such, Pastor Nate (or Pastor Nathan, or just Nate, if you prefer) will be doing a lot of learning about the history, culture, and life of Prince of Peace and the larger Silicon Valley with his whole family.

Email Rev. Nate

Meet Rev. Sara

Rev. Sara Pearson hails from Omaha, Nebraska. Before answering the call to be a pastor, Sara worked at a variety of jobs in a variety of places including time as a naturalist in SE Alaska, volunteering for the Peace Corps in West Africa, and caring for the elderly in Denver, Colorado.

Sara is excited to be away from the mosquitoes and ticks of Wisconsin and back to the loving warmth of the Prince of Peace (PoP) community where she served as intern in 2009-2010. She also looks forward to being part of an awesome staff and inclusive community, and to expanding the programming and outreach of this vibrant place. 

When Sara is not working she is probably chasing after their two small children or romping with their black lab, Poe. Sara is eager to get back to her hobbies of surfing, climbing and biking.

Email Rev. Sara

Co-Pastors: How does that work?

Primary Responsibilities

BOTH: Leading worship, Pastoral Care, & Retreats. Sara and Nate take turns delivering the sermon, leading the ceremonial part of worship, meeting with those in crisis, and leading retreats. In addition, they each have specialties.

SARA:

• Fellowship
• Evangelism
• Outreach
• Social Ministry
• Synod
• Local Churches
• Community
• Personnel Management
• Adult Education
• Finance, Budget & Audit
• Vendor Relations (Building Usage)

NATE:

• Youth
• Children
• Worship & Music
• Visitation
• Stewardship
• Property Maintenance
• Computers & Technology

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Office Staff

Office Manager:
​Carol Gobby

Carol has been on staff at Prince of Peace since June of 1995. In her capacity as Parish Secretary Carol helps keep things running, coordinates with volunteers, and puts a smile on people's faces. Prince of Peace is actually Carol's third career after being a dental assistant and spending many years in high tech.

Carol states that she loves "working at Prince of Peace because unlike most commercial jobs my soul gets nourished. Where else can you get a hug from a 4 yr. old and learn from a 70+ volunteer on the same day. I see all ages, all walks of life, all kinds of needs, and some I can help with. I enjoy working with our diverse staff, and love our volunteers like family. I really enjoy Wednesday's at 10 a.m. where you can usually find me trying to keep up with our maintenance volunteers over a cup of coffee. It's not an easy job but I figure someone has to try."
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Carol is a single parent of a grown daughter, Marisa. "I love movies, games (card & board) and reading.  I enjoy playing bridge with friends weekly. If I had unlimited funds I would travel a lot, I love seeing new places. The most beautiful place I've been was a small Island in the San Juan Islands, Canada. I got to sail with friends and we went ashore on an Island that had ferns the size of cars. Of course they got that way because it rains 300 days a year but not while I was there. I love the Ocean, but the mountains win out as my favorite spot. I lived in Boulder Creek for several years and will always remember it as a special time in my life.”

Email Carol

Community Life Director:
Anne Hess

Anne joined the team in May 2007 to focus on building relationships within Prince of Peace and to assist the congregation in active involvement in our community. "Prince of Peace has a lot going on all of the time. My job is to get people involved with what they feel passionate about whether it is cooking for those in need, raising money, singing for joy, teaching, or just setting a good example." This has evolved to include managing the website & social media pages, publishing the seasonal newsletter, organizing fellowship events, project managing major renovations, and many other fun tasks. You will often see her around Prince of Peace with a camera, taking action shots of all of our fun activities.

She and her family joined Prince of Peace in May 2005. “We knew Prince of Peace was the right place for us. We loved the music and hit it off with the  Pastor from the beginning.”

Her philosophy on community involvement is: Start while they are young. “I like to involve kids in all the activities. They want to be helpful when they are young. It is important to reinforce the behavior, even if it means more work for me. Usually, it is not difficult to find something they can do and feel good about.”

​Anne received her Bachelor of Human Environmental Sciences from the University of Missouri at Columbia. She has worked in retail management, IT services marketing, training, and human resources.

Email Anne

​Music Staff

Photo by: Teresa Tam

Music Director:
​Barbara Day Turner

Barbara Day Turner has been on the music staff of Prince of Peace for almost 40 years. She is also  the founder and music director of the San José Chamber Orchestra, and its family of youth orchestras, celebrating their 25th Anniversary! An ardent advocate for new music, she has premiered more than 130 new works with SJCO alone, as well as 5 operas, an assortment of harpsichord works written for her and a number of other unclassifiable works involving music. Named the 2012 Silicon Valley Arts Council “On Stage” Artist Laureate, Maestra Day Turner is also Music Administrator and Conductor of the Utah Festival Opera where she has been resident conductor for 15 seasons. She has led 25 of the Festival’s mainstage productions, including such works as Barber's Vanessa, Verdi’s Otello, Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, Mozart's Don Giovanni and musicals including Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, The Secret Garden, and Kiss Me Kate. Maestra Day Turner has conducted opera in Berlin and the Thuringian Symphony Orchestra in Germany as well as the Orquesta Sinfónica de Aguascalientes, Mexico, as well as guest conducting throughout the US. Her discography includes six recordings with SJCO, the PBS award-winning DVD of George Roumanis’ opera Phaedra, the Naxos release of Alva Henderson’s opera Nosferatu, and a recent critically acclaimed Naxos release of varied works by Howard Hersh entitled 6Angels and Watermarks. Recently honored with the SJSU Phi Kappa Phi Distinguished Alumna award, she is a frequent adjudicator for the Metropolitan Opera national auditions, a judge for the Irving M. Klein International String Competition, and serves on the board of directors of the Women's Philharmonic Advocacy and the advisory boards of the Delphi Trio and Opera Neo in San Diego. Maestra Day Turner holds BA and MA degrees in music, with an emphasis in harpsichord performance from San Jose State University.

Music Staff Associate:
​Kerry Lewis

Music Staff Associate Kerry Lewis assists Director Barbara Day Turner in rehearsing and conducting the choir, writing and arranging music for church services, and organizing/maintaining the music library at Prince of Peace. When he is not conducting the choir Kerry sings in it, as does his wife Elizabeth.
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Kerry is a published composer and a graduate of San Jose State University, where he studied music composition with Lou Harrison. His music has been performed by the San Jose Chamber Orchestra, the Winchester Orchestra, the Prince of Peace Sanctuary Choir, and other local groups. Kerry and Elizabeth are long-time members of Prince of Peace and have lived in San Jose for many years.

Organist:
​Michael Touchi

Organist/pianist/composer Michael Touchi has been providing lovely "grace notes" at Prince of Peace for over 26 years. The San José Chamber Orchestra's Creative Consultant, Michael's most recent work, Gallarda, was commissioned and premiered by SJCO early in 2014. Written for pianist Jon Nakamatsu and clarinetist Jon Manasse. Gallarda was reviewed as a “work of dancing lyricism”-”exciting”. Other popular works written for SJCO include Kahea, Tango Barroco, Nocturn, and Concerto for Harpsichord and Strings. He has numerous choral works published, and a recording of his brass quintet Chorea Solis was recently released by the St. Louis Low Brass Collective. A pianist and woodwind doubler, his professional affiliations include Symphony Silicon Valley, Opera San José, West Bay Opera, TheatreWorks, and Best of Broadway San Francisco. He can be heard on the Broadway revival cast album of A Chorus Line, Baz Luhrmann’s La Bohéme, George Stiles’ The 3 Musketeers, and has a CD of compositions featuring commissioned works by SJCO. A native of San José, he received his B.A. in music performance from San Jose State University where he studied bassoon with Vernon Read and composition with Brent Heisinger.

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