Pastors & Staff

Dr. Elisa Bickers

Co-Director of Music; Principal Organist
Mission Campus

Dr. Elisa Williams Bickers is the Principal Organist and co-director of music at the Mission campus of Village Presbyterian Church, where she leads the Alegría Adult Choir and the Village Ringers hand bell ensemble. Her favorite things about her role at Village are the people and the music, in that order. She delights in the church’s Richards, Fowkes & Co. pipe organ, leading a fabulous music staff, and collaborating to plan meaningful worship services and powerful concerts.

Additionally, she is the keyboardist for the Bach Aria Soloists, a Kansas City chamber music ensemble devoted to performing the works of Bach and composers inspired by him. She performs regularly in recital as a solo organist, harpsichordist, and accompanist, and has served on the faculties of the UMKC Conservatory and Washburn University as instructor of organ and harpsichord.

Bickers has performed world-wide as a solo and collaborative organist and harpsichordist. She has worked with such musical groups as the Te Deum Chamber Ensemble, the Spire Chamber Ensemble, and the Grammy award-winning Kansas City Chorale, as well as the Kansas City Symphony. Her degrees in church music and organ performance are from Texas Christian University and the University of Kansas. She holds the Fellowship certificate from the American Guild of Organists, the Guild’s highest certification.

As an organ recitalist, Bickers is represented by Concert Artist Cooperative.

When not making music, she can be found happily covered in dirt working in her vegetable garden.

Becky Bliss

Co-Director of Music for The Gathering
Mission Campus

Becky grew up at Village Church and attended Shawnee Mission East, followed by the University of Kansas where she studied opera and graduated with a degree in vocal performance. She met her husband Nathan in 2005 after college and both eventually moved to Brooklyn, got married, and started the indie folk band, Barnaby Bright. After the release of their first full-length album in 2009, they began touring extensively all over the world, playing roughly 150 shows a year. After six years of steady touring, releasing three full-length albums, winning several international songwriting awards and gracing such notable stages as Lincoln Center and NPR’s Mountain Stage, they returned to Kansas City and were thrilled to accept the position as musical directors for The Gathering modern worship service at Village Church.

Becky and Nathan currently live in Prairie Village with their daughter Everly and two rescue cats from Brooklyn, Lenny and Booger Cookie.

Nathan Bliss

A/V Coordinator; Co-Director of Music for The Gathering
Mission Campus

Nathan moved to Overland Park from Philadelphia in high school and attended Shawnee Mission North. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Boston’s prestigious Berklee College of Music with a dual bachelor’s degree in jazz composition and saxophone performance. Soon after, he completed the Master Recording Program II at the Conservatory of Recording Arts & Sciences in Tempe, Arizona and moved to Los Angeles where he worked in recording studios and taught himself to play guitar.

Nathan met his wife Becky in 2005 after college and both eventually moved to Brooklyn, got married, and started the indie folk band, Barnaby Bright. After the release of their first full-length album in 2009, they began touring extensively all over the world, playing roughly 150 shows a year. After six years of steady touring, releasing three full-length albums, winning several international songwriting awards and gracing such notable stages as Lincoln Center and NPR’s Mountain Stage, they returned to Kansas City and were thrilled to accept the position as musical directors for The Gathering modern worship service at Village Church.

Nathan and Becky live in Prairie Village with their daughter Everly and two rescue cats from Brooklyn, Lenny and Booger Cookie. Nathan is teaching private music lessons and is also the AV Coordinator for Village.

Kevin Dolan

Children’s Worship Leader
Mission Campus

Bonny Green

Music Ministry Coordinator
Mission Campus

Dr. Langston Hemenway

Director of Village Brass & the Kansas City Wind Symphony
Mission Campus

Dr. Hemenway is director of Village Brass. He also serves as the director of instrumental studies at William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri. He earned his doctorate in instrumental conducting from the University of Michigan, his masters in conducting from the University of Kansas, and his bachelors in music education from the University of Oklahoma. Before being hired in summer 2021, Langston was already a beloved part of the Village family for his visionary and dynamic leadership of the all-volunteer Kansas City Wind Symphony, a Village Musical Arts Alliance member ensemble.

Helen Hofmeister

Music Associate
Mission Campus

Helen Hofmeister is the Music Associate at Village Presbyterian Church, where she directs the More Love Chorale, the Morning Bells, and occasionally plays the organ and piano for rehearsals and services. Helen holds both a BM and an MM from the University of Kansas in organ performance and has done post-graduate study at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik Köln. Prior to coming to Village, Helen served congregations in Michigan, Missouri, Kansas, Washington, and Germany. Helen is also a professional carillonneur and has performed carillon recitals widely throughout the United States and western Europe.

Jenny Hull

Director, Child & Family Development Center
Children’s Music Coordinator, Mission Campus

Jenny Hull is the coordinator of Morning Stars, the Village Church children’s music program. She has been leading the children’s choir since 2008. A cellist, Jenny received her undergraduate degree in music from Illinois State University in 1995. She received her Master’s in Education from the University of Kansas in 2002. After her children were born, she became a certified Kindermusik instructor, and started her work with Village Church in the music department, directing the children’s choir.

In 2007, Jenny began working at the Village Church Child and Family Development Center, where she now serves as director.  She also teaches preschool music classes and directs Village’s yearly drama camp for elementary students each summer.

Jenny and her husband Brad live in Overland Park and have two young adult children, Brady and Katie.

Dr. Joshua Maize

Co-Director of Music Ministry
Mission Campus

Joshua Maize (DMA) is a conductor, vocalist and teacher in the Kansas City area. He is co-director of music ministry at Village Presbyterian Church, where he directs the principal adult chorus, the Village Choir, as well as the Village Chamber Choir and Village Voices youth choir.

Joshua holds a bachelor’s degree in music education and a doctor of musical arts degree in choral conducting from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance and a master’s degree in musicology and church music from the University of Kansas. He was an Ellen Battell Stoeckel Vocal Fellow at Yale University. Joshua has worked in Presbyterian and Episcopal congregations in Missouri, Kansas and Texas where he has established and grown choral and instrumental ensembles for people of all ages. He has served on faculty at the Conservatory of Music and Dance (UMKC) and currently serves as the sub-dean for the Greater Kansas City Chapter of the American Guild of Organists.

He has worked extensively as a choral conductor and vocalist, performing throughout the United States and Europe. Joshua has appeared on the rosters of the Norfolk Chamber Choir, Spire Chamber Choir and Te Deum Chamber Choir. He is a member of the American Choral Directors’ Association, Association of Anglican Musicians, the Presbyterian Association of Musicians, the Royal School of Church Music and the American Guild of Organists.

Dr. Aaron Redburn

Director of Music Ministry & Faith Formation
Antioch Campus

Dr. Aaron Redburn first came to the Village Church Antioch Campus to serve as tenor section leader in 2021, and became director of music and family ministries at the Antioch Campus in August of 2024. His wife, Dr. Shannon Redburn, came in as soprano section leader. Aaron and Shannon met after high school, rehearsing for a show at Shawnee Mission Theatre in the Park, and have since performed countless musicals and operas together. They have been heard around the country, on the international stage and as guests on NPR. They now share a daughter, Rosemary, and a soon-to-be-born son.

A passionate musician, educator and composer, Aaron holds a Doctorate in Musical Arts and a Master of Music from the University of Memphis and earned his Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance. Prior to this position, Aaron was a professor of music at Avila University, Visible Music College and the University of Memphis. The Redburns join Village Presbyterian Church from the congregation of Germantown Presbyterian Church in Memphis, where they served in both children’s and music ministries.