PASTORAL STAFF
The senior pastor and other pastoral and support staff are responsible to carry out the mission and values of the church under the authority of the elder board. To read the Pastoral Rule of Life, please click here.
Senior Pastor
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Peter Scazzero is the founder and senior pastor of New Life Fellowship Church. A graduate of Gordon-Conwell (MDiv) and Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary (DMin in marriage and family), he is also the author of Emotionally Healthy Spirituality (Nelson, 2006), The Emotionally Healthy Church: Expanded (Zondervan, 2010), and Begin the Journey with the Daily Office (WCA, 2009). Pete has been married to his best friend, Geri, and together they have four daughters – Maria, Christy, Faith and Eva. He loves libraries, bookstores, and the printed page — on almost any topic. Basketball, hiking and the outdoors (thanks to Geri), laughter, Italian opera, history, and great meals with family, are among his greatest joys. Pete and Geri are co-founders of Emotionally Healthy Spirituality. |
Assistant Pastor
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Jacqueline Snape is an Assistant Pastor here at New Life Fellowship. Jackie and her husband, David, have three unique and beautiful children: Joseph, Jonathan and Ruth. Jackie is a graduate of Queens College, CUNY (BA, Communications Arts and Sciences ‘82), St. John’s University School of Law (JD‘92 ) and a member of the New York State Bar. Jackie also holds a certificate in Core Coaching Skills from Creative Results Management. Jackie has a passion for New York City, food, sports and seeing lives transformed through the Gospel. |
Executive Director of New Life Community Development Corporation
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A. Redd Sevilla is the Executive Director of the New Life Community Development Corporation. He was born in the Philippines and grew up in Jackson Heights, Queens. He is married with two daughters. He left the construction management industry to build great community instead of great buildings. He loves the richness of Queens NYC, hoping that all the yummy and diverse foods in the area will result in some weight gain. He is also praying that the Knicks win a championship in his lifetime. |
Teaching/Associate Pastor
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Rich Villodas is a Teaching and Associate Pastor at New Life Fellowship Church. Rich graduated from Alliance Theological Seminary with a Masters of Divinity degree in Theological Studies. He is a native Brooklynite and an avid fan of the Mets, Knicks and Jets. Rich is married to Rosie and they have a little girl, named Karis. |
Teaching Pastor/Director of Marriage Ministry
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Geri Scazzero is a Teaching Pastor at New Life and serves as Director of the Marriage Ministry. She is co-author of The Emotionally Healthy Spirituality Workbook (2008) for small groups and author of I Quit coming out in Sept., 2010 (Zondervan). Geri also speaks regularly to pastors, leaders and their spouses across North America. An avid outdoors-woman , it’s not uncommon to find her nose in a national geographic or budget travel magazine on any given day, proposing a new adventure for her family of 6. Geri finds her tastes of heaven on an ocean wave , biting into any kind of chocolate and spending time with her immediate and extended family. |
Assistant Pastor
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Linda Johnson, a Queens native, is an Assistant Pastor overseeing small groups, women’s ministry and some equipping classes. She happily assumes this role after over 11 years as New Life’s Children’s Pastor. Linda has a real vision for our mission of helping people deepen their relationship with Jesus Christ because she has seen the fruit of transformation. Women’s ministry and developing leaders are also close to her heart. She is also passionate about racial and cultural diversity and does workshops in and outside of church to raise awareness and bridge barriers. Married for almost 34 years to Kenneth, they have raised now-grown children together and are grandparents to a total of 5. She enjoys reading, eclectic styles of music, nature, traveling, extended family, swimming, and “date-cations” with Ken, plus she is a movie buff. |
Director of Celebration
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Myrna Rohdin is the Director of Celebration. She was born and raised in Colombia (she’s not related to Juan Valdez). Myrna was formerly a missionary in Buenos Aires, Argentina and loves living in New York City for its ethnicity, restaurants and diversity of culture. She enjoys traveling and going to Maine for vacations with her husband, Peter, and son, Jose. Myrna also loves to cook and entertain people at her house. Part of her job is to plan Sunday and special services. She loves this job for its creativity and because she gets to work with many different people in our church. |
Pastor of Worship
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Peter Rohdin grew up in church and surrendered his life to Jesus as a preteen. Peter’s two passions growing up were pursuing his relationship with God and music. After High School, he moved from Maine to New York to study music at Nyack College. After earning a Bachelor’s degree in Music Education, Peter taught music in the public school system and played in several local Christian bands. During this time, he longed to experience the same “body life” in the church as he found in the twelve-step groups he had been attending. God answered that prayer when a friend introduced him to New Life Fellowship in 1989. For several years, Peter was the worship team’s bass player. He served as an intern with the church for two-years, married his wife Myrna and joined the church staff in 1992. He’s still pursuing the two passions of God and music through serving as pastor over Worship. |
Youth Pastor
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James Puleo has had disciple-making in his DNA and New York City in his veins from his upbringing. He’s been connected with youth ministry for over 17 years and has a heart to see gospel movements start among the youth of the city and spread to the nations. Following his Biblical and Theological Studies degree at Wheaton College, James helped re-launch The King’s College while making headway on his MDiv at Alliance Theological Seminary. In 2007 he served as an Associate Pastor for Youth in Sunset Park, Brooklyn and, after training and commissioning his replacement, joined New Life in 2011. James is madly in love with his wife, Sunita, and has 3 amazing daughters. They enjoy Indian food and sushi, good conversations, and wild adventures. |
New Life Kids Director
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Rosangela Villodas (Rosie) is the Director of New Life Kids here at New Life Fellowship. She grew up in church and came to know Christ as her Savior at a young age. She began working with children at a VBS one summer as a Small Group Leader. She’s been hooked ever since! Rosie was on staff at The Brooklyn Tabernacle as Assistant Creative Director for the Children’s Ministry. She graduated from Baruch College with a B.B.A in Marketing. When Rosie is not working on New Life Kids, she spends her time baking, reading, and hanging out with her husband Richard and their daughter Karis. |
Pre-School Coordinator
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Kelly Fol is the Pre-School Coordinator here at New Life Fellowship. She has been attending New Life for over four years and felt like she was at home from the moment worship started straight through to Pastor Pete’s preaching. Kelly just graduated from St. John’s University and loves learning, so she is currently studying to take GRE’s in the near future and eventually earn a Master’s Degree. She worked with kids in a day care facility for four years and found it to be one of the best jobs of her life, which is why she is really excited to be working with the kids again in addition to the parents and other volunteers here at New Life. It is clear that she is passionate about bringing children and their parents in to a deeper relationship with Jesus. Although Kelly grew up on Long Island, she is now a Queens lover and resides in Queens with her husband, Peter. Kelly has two wonderful young adult children in college, Jeni and Robert. She enjoys baseball games, reading, word games and Suduko. |
