About > Leadership > Elders
Listed alphabetically by last name
Paul Lorch
My first sixteen years were spent growing up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where I attended a Presbyterian church. We moved to Columbia, Maryland, where we again joined a Presbyterian church. However I very soon stopped attending, having no interest in God or religion. I enrolled at the University of Maryland (College Park), graduating in 1973, and then spent a year and a half in graduate school, also at the University of Maryland (Baltimore City). By the age of twenty-four I was living a hopeless life, where none of my dreams were being (or had any hope of being) fulfilled.
I met a young woman in January 1976 who had recently been saved, and she witnessed to me in June about Jesus Christ and what He had done in her life. Although I appeared very hard-hearted (my mother said if I could get saved, anyone could), God was obviously working in my heart and showing me my desperate need for Him. I received Jesus as my Lord and Savior in July 1976, and that beautiful young woman became my wife in October 1977. We have two wonderful children, Amy and Tim; a son-in-law we love very much, Matt; and two adorable grandchildren, Caleb and Liberty.
We have attended a bible-believing Episcopal church, a non-denominational Charismatic church, a Pentecostal church, and now a Bible church. I spent over 15 years as an elder prior to coming to WBC, and was extensively involved in teaching adult Sunday School and in altar prayer ministry. God has also given me the opportunity to lead and/or teach several small groups. I have always had a great love for God’s Word and for His people and am grateful for those times when God has allowed me to serve others, in whatever way I could. I look forward to serving God and the people of WBC in whatever way the Lord chooses to use me.
My first sixteen years were spent growing up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where I attended a Presbyterian church. We moved to Columbia, Maryland, where we again joined a Presbyterian church. However I very soon stopped attending, having no interest in God or religion. I enrolled at the University of Maryland (College Park), graduating in 1973, and then spent a year and a half in graduate school, also at the University of Maryland (Baltimore City). By the age of twenty-four I was living a hopeless life, where none of my dreams were being (or had any hope of being) fulfilled.
I met a young woman in January 1976 who had recently been saved, and she witnessed to me in June about Jesus Christ and what He had done in her life. Although I appeared very hard-hearted (my mother said if I could get saved, anyone could), God was obviously working in my heart and showing me my desperate need for Him. I received Jesus as my Lord and Savior in July 1976, and that beautiful young woman became my wife in October 1977. We have two wonderful children, Amy and Tim; a son-in-law we love very much, Matt; and two adorable grandchildren, Caleb and Liberty.
We have attended a bible-believing Episcopal church, a non-denominational Charismatic church, a Pentecostal church, and now a Bible church. I spent over 15 years as an elder prior to coming to WBC, and was extensively involved in teaching adult Sunday School and in altar prayer ministry. God has also given me the opportunity to lead and/or teach several small groups. I have always had a great love for God’s Word and for His people and am grateful for those times when God has allowed me to serve others, in whatever way I could. I look forward to serving God and the people of WBC in whatever way the Lord chooses to use me.
Rich Riddle
I was raised in New Jersey and went to Rutgers, graduating with an MS in Mechanical Engineering. I met my wife Nancy while working in Washington, DC, and we were married in 1968. We were not believers. Nancy identified herself as a Christian. I was agnostic. So, after graduate school, God led us to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. We thought maybe for a few years -- God had other plans.
Five years into marriage, things began to fall apart for us. “For the kids” (we had a son and a daughter at that time), I sought a church from the phone book that seemed safe. Well, it wasn’t. People shared during the service what God was doing in their lives. God is real and personal? I could not get over it. God works things out in amazing ways. The church had just started a visitation team to follow up with visitors and share the Gospel if not believers. They came to our home, shared the Gospel, and it was just the most natural thing for me to yield my life to Jesus and embrace the salvation that was mine through His death on the cross and the new life that was mine through His resurrection. That was just after Easter 1974. God led Nancy to salvation that Fall. My spiritual walk and Nancy’s have been a journey together ever since.
I helped plant a church in Milwaukee that eventually died. That was a very painful time for me, but God introduced me to grace through the suffering. From there, God led us to a larger church, and, after hiding for a while, God called us to a lay-counseling ministry within the church. God has a sense of humor. Our marriage was struggling again, so He moved us into a counseling ministry to tear down our faulty foundations and rebuild our relationship on the firm foundation of Jesus Christ with biblical roles for us as husband and wife. Our ministry included marriage counseling and marriage enrichment groups, breaking free groups, mentoring a college and career age group and leading a group we called “Earnestly Seeking God.” Again, God leads. As we led the group in seeking God’s will (Robin Mark’s song “All for Jesus"), God led us back east after 29 years in Wisconsin.
We walked into Westminster Bible Church in September 2000 -- the first church we visited -- and knew we were home. Soon afterward, I helped start the first small group at WBC and have been leading it ever since. In 2005, God and the elders called me to be an elder. It has been a privilege, although not always easy, to serve as an elder here at WBC. We are an elder-led church, which we see as biblical, and seek always to set ourselves aside to understand the will of God for WBC. I love to teach, not just to the head, but to the heart so that the Word informs how we live. I see unceasing prayer as key to life and ministry as an elder; but, even so, sometimes I struggle in this. Finally, I see that we can do nothing without the Holy Spirit filling us and having His way in us to the glory of God.
Five years into marriage, things began to fall apart for us. “For the kids” (we had a son and a daughter at that time), I sought a church from the phone book that seemed safe. Well, it wasn’t. People shared during the service what God was doing in their lives. God is real and personal? I could not get over it. God works things out in amazing ways. The church had just started a visitation team to follow up with visitors and share the Gospel if not believers. They came to our home, shared the Gospel, and it was just the most natural thing for me to yield my life to Jesus and embrace the salvation that was mine through His death on the cross and the new life that was mine through His resurrection. That was just after Easter 1974. God led Nancy to salvation that Fall. My spiritual walk and Nancy’s have been a journey together ever since.
I helped plant a church in Milwaukee that eventually died. That was a very painful time for me, but God introduced me to grace through the suffering. From there, God led us to a larger church, and, after hiding for a while, God called us to a lay-counseling ministry within the church. God has a sense of humor. Our marriage was struggling again, so He moved us into a counseling ministry to tear down our faulty foundations and rebuild our relationship on the firm foundation of Jesus Christ with biblical roles for us as husband and wife. Our ministry included marriage counseling and marriage enrichment groups, breaking free groups, mentoring a college and career age group and leading a group we called “Earnestly Seeking God.” Again, God leads. As we led the group in seeking God’s will (Robin Mark’s song “All for Jesus"), God led us back east after 29 years in Wisconsin.
We walked into Westminster Bible Church in September 2000 -- the first church we visited -- and knew we were home. Soon afterward, I helped start the first small group at WBC and have been leading it ever since. In 2005, God and the elders called me to be an elder. It has been a privilege, although not always easy, to serve as an elder here at WBC. We are an elder-led church, which we see as biblical, and seek always to set ourselves aside to understand the will of God for WBC. I love to teach, not just to the head, but to the heart so that the Word informs how we live. I see unceasing prayer as key to life and ministry as an elder; but, even so, sometimes I struggle in this. Finally, I see that we can do nothing without the Holy Spirit filling us and having His way in us to the glory of God.