leadership

KAYLEE VANCE - worship LEADER

Kaylee was raised in a military family and was blessed with the opportunity to grow up amidst diverse people and communities. Despite the restlessness of military life, she always found Church a solid constant in the midst of constant change. However, as a Mental Health Therapist, she began to question a faith that seemed at odds with her work with hurting people in a context of extreme social injustice. Through her deconstruction of her childhood faith, she found The Hearth, which offered her a glimpse into a Christian denomination that recognizes the beautiful messiness of faith and the overarching love and true grace of Christ. Through this new lens of mature Christianity, she began to appreciate anew the ways in which the clients she worked with taught her that the world is not a juxtaposition of black (street alleys) and white (picket fences), but rather a lush kaleidoscope of human experiences to be celebrated (and mourned) together. When she finally found a Church that could enter into this tapestry lovingly and without judgment, she knew God had a calling for her that was beyond anything she had imagined.
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Kaylee’s background in Clinical Psychology and her entrance into Seminary is preparing her for missional Church leadership, with a focus on reaching those who feel unwelcome or unwanted in traditional church settings - the people who joke, but often with a grain of belief, that they would be smote upon entering a vestibule. Her transitional leadership at The Hearth will be focused on sustaining this beautiful community and growing Christ’s Church to reach more individuals in Central Florida with a message of nonjudgmental love, community created by imperfect people, and warm hearts and cold beer. 

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​FRANCISCO VALENTÍN - WORSHIP DIRECTOR

​Francisco was born and raised in Puerto Rico. During some of his most formative years there, Ricky Martin’s “Livin' La Vida Loca” was one of the biggest hits. Which explains a lot about his wild personality (we’re being sarcastic). There are many things that Francisco is wild about, though. Among them, Jesus, family, community, playing music, The Beatles, and that sweet, sweet feeling of an ice-cold beer after a long week of work. 

Francisco studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA where he majored in Contemporary Writing and Production. After some years of living in New York City and teaching music there as well as touring the Northeast and South America, he and his wife decided to relocate here to Orlando, where everything was much cheaper and the weather was more like his native Puerto Rico. 

Francisco’s journey with faith has had many twists and turns. He was raised Catholic until age 16. At this age, he gave up on church as a whole because, among other things, he felt like it was excluding people more than it was including them. During his teens and early twenties, he wrestled with his love of God contrasted with his doubts and skepticism. Francisco and his wife Cindy found this church one fateful November morning in 2018. They immediately fell in love with the community and the sense of openness and acceptance.

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Katey Suits - Worship director

Katey was born in Indiana, but moved to Georgia at a young age, where she lived until moving to South Carolina for college, where she studied music. The Disney College Program is what initially brought her down to Florida, and she and her husband permanently moved to the Orlando area in 2019. 

Katey’s journey with faith is a continuing one, still evolving to this day. She grew up a pastor’s daughter in the Baptist denomination, and attended a very conservative Christian college. It wasn’t until meeting her husband (who had also grown up Christian) and coming to Florida that she realized how much freedom there is within the true grace of God. Moving to Orlando was definitely a culture shock, and there are many tenets of faith that she still wrestles with, but she rests in the freedom to struggle that Christ’s true love and peace allows, again, slowly evolving to be ever more the hands and feet of Jesus. 

One outlet Katey has found to be particularly restorative in her faith journey is through music, where she co-leads the Hearth worship team with Francisco Valentín. In her free time, she also enjoys going to the beach, spending time with her husband, Walker, and her two dogs, and of course, enjoying a cold beer.​

Church council

Council President, Bryan Focht, retired from Cardinal Health where he was the VP-Controller of the Pharmaceutical Segment. He also spent 7 years with Deloitte and Touche, an international accounting firm. He is a life long Lutheran and has served as Council President and Treasurer at his past church in Dublin, Ohio. Bryan also served on the board of directors as the treasurer for a non-profit mental health counseling center in Dublin Ohio. He has 5 children and 3 grandchildren, with more on the way (grandchildren that is). Bryan resides in Celebration and relocated from Ohio to Florida in 2016. He has been an active member of the Hearth since 2020.

Council Vice President, Sienna Malik, has been a member of this community since the Fourth of July 2021. Since moving to Orlando in 2016, she struggled to find a cohesive community, and felt at home from the first time she set foot in what was then Castle Church Brewing Community. She loves being a part of such a thoughtful and creative community that's dedicated to making Central Florida a better place and she comes away from every service with something new to think about. (And having a group of people that she can both have thought-provoking theological discussions with and have excellent dance parties with is really just so special!) She has served as a general council member for a year now, and Sienna says it's been an honor to serve this amazing community. In college and grad school, she also served in various leadership positions, most recently as an officer for UCF's Graduate Writer's Association. During her tenure with GWA, Sienna helped plan a monthly reading series, secured funding for a group of students to attend a conference and co-led the planning of a networking event with graduate writing and game design students.

Council Secretary, Kendall Hall, was born and raised in Orlando. She attended various local churches but found her church home at The Hearth with her husband, Nick. The Hearth’s warmth, openness, kindness, and fun inspired her to volunteer as a Worship Assistant and eventually join Council. Kendall attended Flagler College and the University of Central Florida, and she currently works as a Marketing Coordinator. In her free time, she enjoys drinking IPAs and Hefeweizens, listening to Taylor Swift, going to Disney, working out, and spending time with friends, family, and her dog, Charley.

Council Treasurer, Steffen Guenzel, joined Castle Church Brewing Community in early Spring 2021, which offered him a religious home and church family in the Lutheran tradition, in which he was raised. In the past, Steffen has taken on all of the roles of President, VP, treasurer and secretary while volunteering on these boards and learning about effective board governance: West Alabama AIDS Outreach (9 years), Canterbury Episcopal Church and Student Center at the University of Alabama (4 years), Condo Association in Orlando (7 years). Steffen believes it to be an honor to work on behalf of The Hearth on the Church Council to advance the mission of the church community.

Council Member Jeremy Carnes has been attending The Hearth since 2019 and the Castle Church days. He works as a Postdoctoral Scholar and Professor at the University of Central Florida teaching writing and cultural studies. He enjoys spending his time with his wife, Jessica, and kiddos--Dreamy, Codack, Eila, and Mae-Lynn.

Council Member, Jackie Cano Diaz, has proudly lived in the Orlando area since 2019. Now an instructor at the University of Central Florida, she spends her free time planning crafts, working on puzzles, and walking around Disney. Jackie started going to The Hearth on Palm Sunday in 2024 with her wife and they've been regular worshippers since! Having been raised Catholic, finding herself in a Lutheran congregation has helped her reconcile her relationship with religion and her own spirituality. Church is no longer an obligation of guilt but is now a joyous source of renewal. As a queer, Hispanic woman, Florida can feel threatening and overwhelming, but the warmth and spirit of The Hearth never has her question her belonging. Jackie's leadership experience includes being president of Jacksonville. University's Gender and Sexuality Alliance (GSA) for two years of her undergraduate degree. Running the GSA grew her interpersonal skills, listening to organization members' ideas and concerns while advocating for the organization's continued presence on campus. Through the GSA, she learned the importance of reaching out to community organizations to collaborate over their shared mission to support the Jacksonville LGBTQ+ community. Currently, she leads Children's Ministry at the church, designing lessons and accompanying crafts to provide a space for some of our youngest members to grow their sense of belonging within our church community and develop their understanding of God's love.

Council Member, Eric Lowe, was a financial attorney for ten years (currently, he is one of The Hearth's many teacher congregants), during which he briefly served as outside counsel to a theater non-profit in California. Eric has been attending The Hearth since October of 2023, and an official member since 2024. He moved to Orlando in the summer of 2023 and found The Hearth while looking for a church he wouldn't feel like he had to apologize for. The Hearth is a place where he has been able to reconnect with the idea of Christian community, and he is now on the Church Council to pitch in to a place that he believes has made his life better.

Council Member Walker Suits brings with him a Master’s in Divinity and experience as a Pastor in previous churches. If you’ve heard Walker preach, you know he is grounded in the grace and faith we hold dear as Lutherans. Walker’s wisdom and experience in Congregational Leadership and business management will bring a wonderful balance to our team.