Our Staff

With over 25 years of experience, Pastor Jeff was born in Huntsville, Alabama and grew up in Greenville, South Carolina. He and his wife Joanie were married in 2000 and have two boys, Andrew age 20 and William age 16. He holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Psychology from Winthrop University (1991) and a Masters of Divinity from The Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary in Columbia, SC. Since his graduation and ordination in 1996 he has served in both South and North Carolina parishes.

Pastor Jeff came on board in March of 2013 as our Associate Pastor after serving 9 1/2 years as Senior Pastor of Ascension Lutheran Church in Shelby, North Carolina. Following Pastor Bob Byrne's retirement in 2016. Pastor Jeff was called to serve as our new Senior Pastor. He is a trained Healthy Congregations workshop facilitator, a certified leadership coach within the ELCA, has earned advanced certification to teach the enneagram of personalities through Dr. Jerome Wagner's Enneagram Spectrum of Personality (Institute of Pastoral Studies Loyola University Chicago) and is a professional member of the International Enneagram Association. His passions include spending time with his wife, playing with his boys, leadership coaching as well as leading workshops on team development and how to manage one's self within one's relationships utilizing family systems theory and the enneagram of personality.

Deacon Kathleen has lived in the Augusta/Aiken area most of her life. She is married to George - a Musician/Photographer, A/V Consultant, and Computer Tech. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Music (with a minor in Education) from Augusta University, Augusta, GA and a Master of Arts in Religion (Theology Track) from Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary, Columbia, SC. Deacon Kathleen has worked as organist, pianist, and choral/instrumental conductor for over 35 years. A former Children's Choir Instructor for the Piedmont Diocese of the Episcopal Church, she created and steered the Westobou Arts Festival Organ Series, and has served as a collaborative accompanist for several local music organizations, on various art boards, and on many local and regional concert/worship/conference planning teams. She is Dean of the Augusta Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, and one of the former Presidents of Region 2 of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians. Deacon Kathleen performs as organist, pianist, conductor, and accompanist in recitals/concerts, leads choral workshops and retreats for singers, and information workshops on small group singing and dealing with copyrights in worship.

Deacon Kathleen came to St. Paul as Director of Music and Organist in August of 1997, being called as a Rostered Minister to St Paul in 2011, serving as a Deacon - Minister of Word & Service. Her call includes serving as Director of Music & Liturgist at St. Paul, coordinating music & liturgy for worship; giving support to social issues, faith formation, local outreach, Discipleship/Bible study, Campus Ministry, preaching, shepherding support, writing devotions, & music. Deacon Kathleen enjoys spending time with George, family & friends; visiting art galleries, and concerts. She loves art and is inspired by styles of music from Early Chant to Classics to Jazz - including Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Chick Corea, Claude Bolling, Bach, Haydn, Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Mahler, Faure, Ravel and Gershwin.

Rhonda began with St. Paul in January 2023 after moving to Aiken from Philadelphia, PA where she served as an Administrative Assistant in the Academic Affairs Office and Athletics Department for the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA from 2007-2022.  Prior to that she served as Administrative Assistant to the Athletic Director for Cheyney University, Cheyney, PA from 2005-2007.  She is an avid Philadelphia Eagles fan and a graduate of Widener University Chester, PA.

George Cartledge is our YaWaY Graphic Design Artist.  (He also serves as St Paul’s Technology Administrator and Audio\Visual Technology Coordinator for Worship and Music.)

George is a native of North Augusta, South Carolina, with two siblings and a number of nieces and nephews. His interests are music, audio recording, and the visual arts. His first career was photojournalism – as staff photographer for The Augusta Chronicle/Augusta Herald. After that he worked as a free-lance photographer, and as the chief recording engineer for Advanced Sound Creations. George also worked in the early years for USA Today as a distributor and in transportation, later becoming Assistant to the USA Today Print Site Supervisor in Columbia, SC. He continued to study photography as well as graphics, computers, and electronics.

George loves to spend time with his wife Kathleen.  While he likes puzzles and cycling, he also loves animals – especially cats.  George feels it is a blessing to serve God and his people, and thankful to be here at St. Paul.

Chris Morgan is our YaWaY Music Leader for the 9:45 am worship service on Sunday mornings.  Chris has lived in Los Angeles, Vancouver, Portland, Tampa and Aiken.  Chris began playing guitar at age 16, and after that sang and played in several music groups in the CSRA. He married his lovely wife Beryl and they have one son – Christopher. During his time in Florida, Chris’ career was as a performer, a professional singer and instrumentalists. Chris has also worked with bands, played a lot of Irish and Welsh music, historical folk music and plays 12 string guitar, banjo and harmonica. He is a member of St. Mary, Help of Christians Catholic Church in Aiken; and has worked with their Life Teen Music Ministry. Chris is excited to be at St Paul with the YaWaY Worship Service. When he was approached about this music ministry opportunity, Chris realized that this was one way of doing more with the talent God has given him in a way that will serve and praise God.

Chris says this about his role at St Paul Lutheran Church: “God has led me to sing a new song… for Him. I look forward to worshiping and thanking God through this ministry and serving the congregation at St. Paul’s.”