Andy Sytsma
My family and I moved to Texas in the summer of 2009. It’s been a lot of fun getting to know everyone in the church and jumping into life here in Spring. We love the diversity of Houston, love the sun, and see great need and potential in the people around us. It is a privilege for me to pastor New Life Church.
I was born in Japan and lived there until I moved back to the U.S. for college. My wife Jacie grew up in Argentina and later lived in the Bay area of California. We met at college, were married a few years later in seminary, and then internships in West Michigan, Houston and Seattle gave us invaluable experience about how to start and grow healthy and diverse mission-focused churches.
Prior to moving to Texas we spent ten years in New Jersey. I helped rebirth an old dying church. This was a very rich season of life and ministry for us. We weren’t looking to move but God made it clear he wanted us in Texas. So we accepted the call, made the big move and jumped in.
It’s humbling and energizing to follow three other pastors at New Life who helped lay a solid and healthy foundation. My prayer is that God will bless and bring to fruition our vision to GROW. We would love to see individuals and families grow, our church and community grow, and if God would so bless, grow and multiply many new churches in the metro Houston area.
Right now, I’m having a lot of fun being dad to my two kids and enjoying date nights with Jacie. I love basketball, reading books, watching movies and finding cheap, hole in the wall restaurants with great food.
My leadership style is similar to the apostle Andrew. You don’t hear much about Andrew, but he loved Jesus and loved leading people to Jesus. I can be a little introverted at times, so you might not hear much about me, but that’s fine. I’d rather have the spot light shine brightly on Jesus! And in the mean time I’m going to work hard leading as many people to him as I can.