About Us: Our Team
Fr. Michael Flowers
Rector
Michael serves the congregation as the rector (the lead pastor). He’s responsible for leadership development, vision, pastoral care, and liturgical life. He’s married to Liz, who serves alongside him. They have two grown children, Julia and Ian, both of whom are married with children. They celebrate six grandchildren.
He completed a B.A. in Theology and a Master's in Theology at Fuller Theological Seminary. He began ministry at St. Andrew’s by the Sea in Destin, Florida (now Immanuel Anglican Church), and spent 16 years pastoring Vineyard Christian Fellowship churches in the San Francisco Bay Area. During this time, Michael also led worship and recorded for Vineyard Music. After leaving the Vineyard, Michael and Liz planted Connect, a network of house churches around the SF Bay Area. Connect now, Connect Africa, resides in Uganda, Kenya, and the Congo, establishing sustainable technologies and clean water solutions for East African villages.
In 2004, they moved to Kansas City for an extended sabbatical. During this time, he reclaimed his initial calling to the Anglican priesthood. 2012, St. Aidan’s was planted in their home with a team of twelve. He loves music, walking in nature with Liz, reading, and writing songs.
Fr. Derek Metcalf
Curate
Fr. Derek serves St. Aidan’s as curate (assistant pastor). He assists in the liturgy and directs youth catechism. As a high school teacher by trade, he teaches Classical Greek at Whitefield Academy, a local Christian school. Apart from a brief stint in North Carolina to study theology, he and his wife Katie and their three children (Isaac, Ann, and Liam) have always called KC home. Derek took the scenic route to Anglicanism, passing through other rooms in the Protestant world before landing happily within its red doors. He deeply appreciates the theology, liturgy, and sacramental way of worship of the Anglican way. Derek loves spending time with his wife and kids, playing board games, cooking, and being outside doing adventurous things, and he is a bit fanatical about his disc golf game. Email Derek with any questions about youth catechism, and he would love to get you connected.
Dillon Wadsack
Deacon & Administrator
As a deacon, Dillon develops our weekly house communities and mercy ministries. When he was ordained, the bishop said, "It is the Deacon's office to encourage and equip the household of God to care for the stranger, to embrace the poor and helpless, and to seek them out, so that they may be relieved" (ACNA Book of Common Prayer, 478). His role is to seek the Lord for how to best do this at St. Aidan’s. Contact him if you would like to join the team! He married Lila, whom he met at St. Aidan’s, in June 2019. He works for Pinnacle Career Institute as Director of Business Development. He has a B.S. in Business Development from Trinity International University. He is currently working on an M.Div. at Nazarene Theological Seminary with Anglican Studies at Nashotah House Seminary.
Samuel Beckett
Worship
Sam began serving as music director at St. Aidan’s in November of 2020. He is married to Ana, and they have four grown children and six grandchildren. Sam got a B.S. in theory/composition, with a piano performance degree from William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri. He has previously written music for TV/radio commercials; played the organ for the KC Royals games; soloed with the KC Ballet; taught music theory at Penn Valley College; and has written lots of worship songs/hymns.
Sherri Bertram
Healing Prayer Ministry
Sherri heads up the prayer team for St. Aidan’s. She oversees two areas of prayer: Soul Healing Prayer, an extended time of listening and soaking prayer, and the Intercessory Prayer Team, a team of about ten people who pray for any and all needs at St. Aidan’s. Simply email your request to her, and she will pass it on. She is married to Ted, and they have two grown children and four grandchildren, all living here in KC.
Sara Stuart
Children
Sara leads St. Aidan’s children's ministry. She is married to Dennis and they have three daughters Kathleen, Tierney, and Emma. She has a B.A. in psychology from Bryan College and an M.A. in counseling from Denver Seminary. She was the director of an early childhood center for her first 10 years in Kansas City. Since then she’s worked in HR and as a social worker. Currently, she works three days a week at Avant Ministries, as well as working through The Whole Person providing care for a disabled person.
Eric Rainwater
Morning Prayer Teams
Eric leads the daily morning prayer teams and our vergers (liturgical directors). He has a deep value for prayer and desires for others to see its sustaining power in their lives. He has been married to Joanna since 2018. They have a baby girl, Jael. He is currently working on an M.Div. at Nazarene Theological Seminary with Anglican Studies at Nashotah House Seminary.
Joey Panella
Sexton & Prayer Leader
When not playing in jazz bands around KC, Joey takes care of the custodial work at St. Aidan’s and leads Wednesday Morning Prayer and the Psalm chant team. Joey is a professional musician and educator. He is married to Lillian and father to Alessandra, Monaco, Leandre, and Antonina. He is continuously captivated by Christ reclaiming all of the “little things,” from music to cleaning to family life, and calling His people to labor in love and offer these things in thanksgiving to Him. He has a B.M. in jazz studies from the University of Southern Mississippi and is pursuing an M.A. in music therapy from the University of Missouri Kansas City.
Lillian Panella
Communications
Lillian is in charge of our our weekly updates, our online presence, and loves connecting people together at our parish! She has a B.A. in public relations and biblical studies and has a passion for communication and cultivating community. She works part-time as an Online Communications Director for a local business and homeschools her children. Lillian is married to Joey Panella and together they have four children.
Stuart Ruch III
Bishop of the Anglican Diocese
of the Upper Midwest
Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of the Upper Midwest
Dean of the Greater Chicagoland Deanery
Rector of Church of the Resurrection, Wheaton, IL
Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of the Upper Midwest
Dean of Chicagoland and Missouri
Bishop Stewart and his wife, Katherine, have six children, and their first love and passion is developing their family as a “domestic church.” As bishop, Stewart has another deep-seated passion: to plant a revival of Word and Sacrament infused by the power of the Holy Spirit across the Upper Midwest. The diocese does this through modeling the 5 S Church in relationship and mission, raising up leaders and artists, and following the Spirit to new things.
Read Bishop Steward's interview in Preaching Today.
Fr. D.O. Smart
Memory Eternal
Fr. D.O. Smart was a founding member of St. Aidan's. On April 25, 2015, he joined the heavenly cloud of witnesses. As a "cradle Anglican" he served as a layperson, deacon, and priest. D.O. was a Navy rear admiral and a former dean of the Anglican Relief and Development Fund. He earned a B.S. in engineering from the University of Michigan and an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. We are forever grateful for his unforgettable zeal for life and inextinguishable love for Christ and his Church. Memory eternal.
Parish Council
Jim Lloyd
Senior Warden
Jim serves on the parish council as senior warden. He also enjoys volunteering as a Scripture reader, greeter, and usher. He is married to Laura, and they have three adult daughters and one grandson. He graduated from Dartmouth College with a degree in economics and an MBA at New York University. He started his career as a commercial banker in NY and moved to KC to start his own business as a financial consultant to entrepreneurs.
Anita Powers
Junior Warden
In 2017 Anita Powers moved to KC from OKC to be with her family, Isaiah and Lindsay Powers and to attend St. Aidan’s. She loves St. Aidan's and the spiritual formation she has received through the liturgical life here. As an infant she was baptized in a Presbyterian Church, and in college, in 1974, she came to acknowledge a personal relationship with our Lord through a vibrant campus house church. Before moving to KC she was a member of Southern Baptist Church in Oklahoma City. Today she feels like she has finally found a home here at St. Aidan’s in Kansas City with her biological and church families. She loves serving at St. Aidans as the leader of the Altar Guild team, hosting a weekly community group in her home, and being on the Morning Prayer team. She is the Junior Warden on the Parish Council.
Joanna Rainwater
Secretary
Joanna serves as secretary for the St. Aidan’s parish council. She has been married to Eric since 2018. They have one daughter, Jael. In 2013, she graduated with a nursing degree (BSN) from College of the Ozarks in Point Lookout, Missouri. She currently works part time as an ICU nurse in a local hospital.
Hunter Harris
Treasurer
Hunter serves as treasurer for the St. Aidan’s parish council and as the tech team lead. He has been married to Katie since 2021. In 2020 he graduated with a mechanical engineering degree from Texas A&M. Shortly after getting married and graduating college, Hunter and Katie moved to Kansas City from Houston, Texas.
Hunter currently works as an engineer at Honeywell.
Brock Burnick
Member & Hospitality Leader
Brock is on the Parish Council and enjoys assisting with and contributing to numerous policies, programs, and decisions for St. Aidan's, including safety policies, and often assists with projects on behalf of the Diocese of the Upper Midwest. Brock also leads the Hospitality team which includes greeters, ushers, and the coffee-preparers. Brock is an attorney licensed in Kansas and Missouri and keeps busy as a civil litigator, is involved in numerous bar associations, and loves being involved in civic organizations. For fun, Brock enjoys St. Aidan's Eastertide parties, home improvement projects, traveling, and cheering on his alma maters, Kansas State University and the University of Notre Dame, in college sports. Brock is originally from the small town of Girard, Kansas, and was raised on a family farm.
