Hello, my name is Steven Berkenpas, and I am the Lead Pastor here at Living Hope CRC.

As a pastor, I get excited about the things of the church. There are many parts of the job that I love, coming alongside people at major points of their lives, meeting with people and helping them see God at work in them in the day to day, and studying the Bible as I prepare for the Sunday morning message. If you have questions about the Bible, God, or how God works in our lives, I’d love to hear them and walk with you in the midst of them. See at the bottom of this page to set up a meeting if you’d like!

Beyond the pastoral role, there are plenty of other things that I am excited about. I enjoy sports, particularly beach volleyball and ping pong. On the music side of things I enjoy playing guitar and the ukulele, and when it comes to the kitchen I enjoy making pizza, and baking bread. When I’m not doing any of these things you can likely find me playing a board game or taking a nap – two other passions of my life.

My page also would not be complete without mentioning my wife Alyssa and daughters Anneke and Nell (short for Petranella). If your looking for tips for pronouncing their names I’ve found the most helpful ones to be:

• For Alyssa think ‘there is one Lisa.’ A Lisa.
• For Anneke you can think for the spelling as Anika. We thought We’d reveal our Dutch roots in keeping a traditional Dutch spelling of the name. Alyssa also wanted to pass on the tradition of a name that is hard to pronounce based on the spelling.
• Nell almost got an easy name. But we figured mixing it up by giving the full name of Petranella went with our challenging names theme nicely.

While Alyssa she stays clear of the volleyball and ping pong, we share much of the other things in life, from coffee, to bread, to board games – she is my partner in enjoying the good things of this world.

If you’d like to chat, you can set that up by emailing me at steve@livinghopecrc.ca. I can also be found at my study at the church so feel free to stop by and say hello if I’m around!