Jack Hilligoss, Lead Pastor
Pastor Jack and his wife Jenelle, moved to Lake Wales in May of 1997 to become the Lead Pastor of HighPoint Church.
At that time, HighPoint was known as Burns Ave. Church of God. The congregation had been through a rough decade and, just the year before calling Pastor Jack, had actually discussed disbanding and merging with another church. That first summer Pastor Jack preached to about 90 people on a weekend.
In the last two decades HPC has seen hundreds baptized, become a church that engages and leads in its community, expanded facilities, adopted two sister churches, and spun off two missions organizations to the nation of Honduras. Pastor Jack is involved as a leader in both community civic and religious organizations in Lake Wales and has helped HPC become “a church in the community, rather than a community church.” He has also authored two books in his time at HPC.
Pastor Jack loves getting to know people over a cup of coffee, going to the mountains, traveling to historic sites, going to Frostbite or Sonic with his daughter, and taking road trips with his sons.
Bonnie Barker, Executive and Missions Pastor
Bonnie has the privilege of hiring, firing and holding the staff accountable as well as local global outreach and runs the day to day operations
Bonnie joined the staff of HPC in August of 2001. Her and her family came from the wonderful state of Michigan. They have 3 sons and 2 daughters as well as 2 daughters in love and 2 grand daughters (the best thing ever!). Bonnie and her husband Keith, founded a children’s home in Honduras, where they rescue girls from all forms of trafficking. The Barker’s love to play games and are all pretty competitive! You will often find Bonnie at the movie theatre or at Dunkin Donuts enjoying a caramel iced coffee with cream!
Andy Blair, Family Life and Recovery Pastor
Andy is responsible for Children’s Ministry, Student Ministry and our Recovery Ministry
Andy joined HPC in July of 2017, and was most recently a lead pastor in Mississippi. Prior to that Andy spent 20+ years in Fortune 500 companies and had a successful career in sales and leadership. However, in 2006 he found himself bankrupt spiritually, mentally and physically. He checked into an addiction treatment facility and finally answered God’s call on his life. Since then, God has been working in and through Andy and his family. Andy’s wife, Becky, is an elementary school teacher and they have two daughters, Emily and Betsy.
Mike Willis, Connections Pastor
Mike oversees Assimilation and all of our Group Life. He also leads our First Impression teams such as, Connection Track volunteers, greeters and guides.
Mike grew up living in different parts of the world as an Air Force brat. He has been in pastoral ministry for 19 years, spending the last 8 at HighPoint Church. He walked in here feeling burned out, stressed out, and about to check out and has never left (or should it say “We can;t get him to leave”). Mike has also worked in the non-profit world helping advocate for the educational needs of people in at-risk circumstances through mentoring, character development, and career coaching. He and his wife, Lana, have 6 kids, but only 3 still live at home. In his spare time, he enjoys spending time with his family, running, and following Alabama football.
Marcus Kirby, Pastoral Care
Pastor Marcus and his family began attending HPC in late 2013. Pastor Marcus and his family have a servants hearts with a passion to see believers connect. They embrace the HPC vision statement of “Connecting People to God, To Others and To Purpose.” Marcus and his wife Viola, are blessed to have five lovely children, Rasheed, Mariah, Marcus, Gavin and Isaiah.
Melissa Hulen, Children’s Ministry Director
Melissa oversees our ministries for children, nursery through 5th grade.
Melissa is a graduate of Warner University where she earned a bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education. Melissa spent ten years working as a substitute teacher, classroom and resource teacher and most recently, a preschool teacher. She and her husband Matt started attending HighPoint Church after getting married in 2009. Their time at HighPoint has inspired a passion for serving and investing in the community. Matt and Melissa are excited to answer God’s call to partner with our HighPoint families and engage children in developing a deeper faith by building stronger relationships and equipping them to make wiser choices. Matt is a firefighter/paramedic at Lake Wales Fire Department. They have two children, Brynn and Capp and enjoy spending time outdoors together.
Jenelle Hilligoss, Office Manager
Jenelle runs the day to day operations of the office, oversees the website and church app, creates all publications and tries to keep the staff in line.
Jenelle has been blessed to work in the office for HighPoint Church for the last 10 years. She is happily married to Pastor Jack and together they have 3 wonderful kids, Zac, Ben and Emily Rose. Her hobbies are reading, bingeing on Netflix, traveling and taking trips to the beach and to the mountains. Some of her favorite things are coffee, watching HGTV and going to the movies!
Nick Stohler, Next Gen Director
Nick@HighPointLW.com
Nick oversees our Next Generation Ministry that focuses on those who are 18 to 28 yrs. old.