Anthony Rodriguez has been pastor of Valley Hope since Fall 2011. He served as a preacher and leader of Isight (which was Valley Hope’s original name) since his days as a student in Montreat College, when the church was started in a bar in Black Mountain. After a year serving in Cape Town, South Africa, Anthony entered studies full-time at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Charlotte. He graduated and became an EPC Commissioned Pastor in 2012. He was ordained as a Teaching Elder in 2017. Anthony serves Valley Hope as a preacher and pastor and by leading the elder team. Anthony and the elders are responsible for discerning and communicating Valley Hope’s vision while caring for and equipping the people for the work of the Gospel in whatever context God calls them. He also serves as an adjunct professor at Montreat College. Anthony enjoys trying to stay active at the gym, playing and watching soccer, or golfing, mostly badly. And of course, he’s probably reading several books from the various stacks around his house and office.

Anthony married his best friend, Erin, in 2006, following his graduation from Montreat. Together they have three beautiful daughters, Ryann, Alethia, and Hope and one son, Valor. Erin works in construction and remodeling, working with her hands to make beautiful things. If she’s not working at her job, she’s probably at home building something else to make their lives better.

The Rodriguez family loves Valley Hope and is thrilled to be in the Swannanoa Valley, continuing to invest in the community that has given so much to them for so long.

Daniel Lancaster serves as both our Director of Church Operations and Director of Student Ministries. Daniel graduated from Montreat College in 2018 where he studied Bible & Religion with a particular emphasis on Student Ministry and Worship Arts. Daniel is currently working towards his MDiv at Reformed Theological Seminary. During his time at Montreat, Daniel was a part of starting the Student Ministry program at Valley Hope along with a great team of volunteers and parents. Daniel served as the Director of Student Ministry at Valley Hope Church for 2 years from 2017 to 2019 and during that time began to work with teens at the Black Mountain Home for Children and later served as a Transitional Living Coach and the Cafe Lead supervising youth in the Apprenticeship program.

Before returning to Valley Hope Church, Daniel spent some time serving with the Creative Department at Ligonier Ministries in Orlando, FL and learned about the intersection between faith and beauty. Daniel returned to Valley Hope in 2022 excited to work with students and help them see what God is orchestrating behind the scenes in their lives. 

Daniel accomplishes things only via the help of his wife Emily, and gets distracted from doing things via the help of his two kids, Elliot and Theodore. Aside from the above, Daniel also drinks excessive amounts of coffee. 

Amy Berry has served as the Director of Discipleship for Valley Hope Church since the Fall of 2020.  She graduated from Furman University in 2001 where she discovered the ministry of Young Life and felt a call to be in relational ministry.  After she and Phil were married in 2003, they moved to Gwinnett County in Georgia where they were part of a Young Life/ church partnership for the next 4 years.  They learned a ton about youth ministry, church work, nonprofits, fundraising and the importance of community.  Phil was asked to come work at Camp Ridgecrest for Boys where he had been coming since he was 9 years old so they packed up and moved to Black Mountain, NC.  Phil currently serves as Executive Director of Ridgecrest Camps.  From Fall of 2007-Fall of 2020, Amy served on the Young Life staff of Asheville/Buncombe County in various roles until God asked her to do something new and serve at Valley Hope.  Amy is passionate about people learning how to follow Jesus every day of their lives while always having eyes to see others that do not yet know him.  

Amy and Phil  have 2 daughters, Piper and Lily who are in the Owen schools.  Amy is passionate about our schools and helping people in our Valley that may not have resources that they need.  She wants the people of Valley Hope to be a people that is always looking up to God, in to love each other and out to see who is there to be brought into God's family.

Amy loves walking and hiking, reading, eating good food and drinking good drinks and traveling.  Please let her know if you ever want to go on a walk or get a cup of coffee!

Jen Aitken serves as the Director of Children's Ministry at Valley Hope. Jen graduated from Houghton College with a degree in Vocal Performance and then later received her Elementary Teaching license from UNC Asheville. She had a blast teaching Kindergarten at Asheville Christian Academy before becoming a stay-at-home mom. As a stay-at-home mom, Jen taught voice lessons part-time and created curriculum and classroom resources for other teachers. 

Mila grew up on a small farm in Old Fort, NC and spent her formative years in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Prior to her work as Ministry Assistant at Valley Hope Church, Mila worked at home raising and educating her three daughters and assisted in her family’s small custom cabinet business. Before children she worked as Communications Director with The American Chestnut Foundation in Asheville, NC.

Service to others — at school, church, and in her community — has always been important to Mila. As a child her family would visit homebound friends in nursing homes and volunteer at a women’s shelter. As a teen she became a youth deacon at her church in Black Mountain and learned the power of the Gospel through missions work locally and abroad. After graduating from Erskine College with a BS in Biology, she joined Peace Corps Paraguay and worked in a rural community on conservation and agroforestry projects.

Mila and her husband Taylor live in Swannanoa with their three girls Rosie, Sylvia, and Laurel, their chocolate lab Creek, and twelve chickens. Mila enjoys hiking, knitting, reading, and gardening.

Sully grew up in West Asheville, and to this day can joyfully say he does not take these mountains for granted. Through experiences going to Camp Ridgecrest every summer and long-term relationships with some great spiritual mentors he found himself at the foot of the cross sometime in high school. Since then he’s been on a wandering but wonderful path of trying to follow Jesus. Many stop and go attempts at different careers have given him many opportunities to hold his plans loosely before the Lord and trust that what He has planned is so much better.
After testing out being a software developer and a firefighter and finding neither career to be the right fit, Sully found himself back in the field of construction with a year long stint as the property manager at Camp Ridgecrest for Boys. This reignited a passion for working with his hands and craftsmanship, and he now works for himself running his small business Pierce Carpentry.

Sully joined the staff at Valley Hope in January 2024, soon after marrying his wife Bailey. His passion is to serve and disciple the youth and other members of Valley Hope, a family that has given him so much joy and closeness with Jesus, and which brought him and Bailey together. Sully and Bailey hope to make community with their church family a priority in their new life together, and their longing for themselves and their church family is for a deeper love and knowledge of Jesus.

When he’s not crafting something with his hands or hanging out with youth, Sully loves to hike, run, or climb in our beautiful mountains, relax and share great food with friends, or just read a great book.

Samuel serves as the Director of Worship here at Valley Hope Church. He trained as a classical violinist as a child and began playing on the worship teams for the churches where he grew up in Rutherford County, NC. Throughout high school and college, he led on multiple worship teams. Samuel attended Belmont University in 2012 as a Songwriting Major, and then transferred to Montreat College in 2013. He graduated in 2015 from Montreat College with a Bachelors in Music Business. During his time at Montreat, he served by leading worship in the chapel band. Samuel’s wife, Emily, also attended Montreat college and graduated with him in 2015. Emily currently serves as the Director of Montreat Morning School in Montreat, NC. They have two boys, Ezekiel and Cooper, who are both full of life and energy and keep Emily and Samuel very busy.

Samuel has a passion for worship music that is grounded in scripture as well as working to bring out the worship gifts and talents of the members of Valley Hope Church. He leads the worship team at Valley Hope along with three other leaders. Samuel led on the Worship team for around 4 years before he stepped into the role of Director of Worship in 2023.

When he’s not wrestling his two boys, Samuel enjoys reading, songwriting, and being in the beautiful outdoors of Western North Carolina.

Jen graduated the University of Tennessee in 1995 with a BS in Mechanical Engineering.  She then worked for about a decade for John Deere as a software engineer designing and writing code for their engine controls system.  She had not grown up recognizing her creativite side but a life long love of photography eventually led her to venture into graphic design. So began the next decade long career as a freelancer doing web development and graphic design.  It was during this time that she began exploring more traditional venues of artistic expression.  Eventually she stumbled into encaustics which is currently her favorite medium in which to work outside of photography. Now retired from other jobs, she enjoys running, hiking, landscape photography, photography adventure travel and doing encaustic art.

Though she had grown up occasionally going to church as a child, it was through some life hardships that she came to believe in and depend on Jesus.  Her faith has grown and deepened over the years both through study as well as her daily walk with God through the joys and challenges of everyday life.  

Jen and Brock have been married since 1995 and have two VERY spoiled cats. Jen is excited to have an opportunity to serve Valley Hope. She is passionate about helping people have the tools, processes and information they need to get connected and grow in Christ centered community.

Leslie was born and raised in Buncombe County and loves having the views of the mountains in her sight every day! Leslie started her career working in non-profit accounting with a school foundation until asked to come work at a historic church in downtown Asheville; she never looked back. She has many years of church finance experience and loves being able to apply her talents in a church setting. She currently provides the accounting services to multiple churches and stays very busy and challenged!

She is married to her husband Larry, they have two sweet kids, Mattie Grace and Liam. Leslie enjoys spending time with her family, traveling, eating good food and the beach! She is happy to be working with the staff and church family of Valley Hope Church!