Meet the Team

Fred Stayton

Lead Pastor

Pastor Fred joined the Sonrise staff in the summer of 2019 bringing with him his wife, Cheryl, and six children, ranging in age from to teenager to married adults with their own children. His love of family is evident daily and has helped to fuel his passion to help build great homes and strong families. His focus as a pastor and mentor is to help lead his staff and guide the church into an adventurous relationship with the Holy Spirit and to fall madly in love with Jesus.

Ken Boyd

Associate Pastor

Ken is a long-time member of Sonrise Church with a professional history in the academic world.  A loyal Ball State alumnus, he also has degrees from Indiana University, Asbury Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. from Purdue. Ken serves as an ordained Deacon in the United Methodist Church, has retired twice, once after 30 years at Asbury Seminary and then again after 6 years at Taylor University.  

As a Christian, there is no such thing as retirement!  God has called Ken back into part-time work here and pursues his passion for the spiritual development of young people by working with Fuel, College Care, a young adult small group, and international missions primarily through the college ministry of the Nicaragua Resource Network. He is also dedicated to Guest Services and anything we can do to welcome guests and regular attenders.

 In his spare time (right!), his passions are anything Ball State (football, basketball, marching band, etc…), travel and he will not turn down Pizza King pizza!

Daphne Gottfried

Children’s Ministry Pastor

Daphne has committedly served the children, students and families of Sonrise Church through different ministries since 2002. As part of our Family Ministry, she oversees KidZone on Sundays, guiding the Christian education of our children from infancy to 5th grade. She also believes passionately in the importance of the camping ministry, spending time every summer at Camp Lakewood with our elementary aged students.

She and her husband Robert have been married for 30 years and are blessed with four amazing children and their spouses: Garrett (Lauren), Gavin (Emily), Anna and Abby (Michael). Recently the Gottfried tribe had been enjoying the addition of several grandchildren When there is a free moment in her day, she loves the outdoors, the beach, and something both salty and chocolate!

Caleb Stayton

Student Ministries Pastor

Caleb joined the Sonrise staff in June of 2019, moving here from Muncie, IN where he was involved in student and young adult ministry. He graduated from Ball State University and Wesley Seminary. He is married to Rachel, his wife of 7 years, and they have two daughters. He enjoys athletics of any type!

Caleb expresses that he is deeply passionate about seeing each generation become everything that God made them to be! The mission for the students at Sonrise is to raise up disciples of Jesus Christ who are completely capable of ushering in a move of God in any context.

Susan Abbott

Executive Director & Care Ministries

Susan has been on our office administration staff for more than 10 years and currently serves as the Executive Director. In 2015, she started to find that she had a desire to care for others and was one of the leaders to bring Stephen Ministries to Sonrise. She now is the Director of Care Ministries and continues to develop additional volunteers who have the gift of compassion and empathy.

Susan is married to Rod Abbott and they have three grown children and several grandchildren. Susan and Rod love to travel and spend time with their dog, Cash, and in her free time Susan loves to cook and bake, (We love that, too!)

Stephanie Carrico

Communications & Events Director

Stephanie has served on the Sonrise staff in different capacities now for over a decade. She currently is in charge of communications and events for Sonrise.

Stephanie and her husband, Bryce, have two sons, Gavin & Hayden, whom they home school.  While the whole family is active at Sonrise, they also love to travel and spend time outdoors, especially during the summer.  They are all passionate about serving Jesus and building other families up in the Kingdom.

Ken Drummond

Facilities Manager

Ken has been a regular member of Sonrise for many years and is a familiar face each week as he acts as a greeter and usher. He joined the staff in 2019 after being an “often called upon” volunteer who helped with many projects around the building. He was a natural choice to join the staff and care for the building on a regular basis.

Stacey Hammond

Facilities

Stacey has attended Sonrise for many years and has been on staff taking care of the church facilities for over 15 of those years. She absolutely loves her job because she gets to build relationships with those she serves which makes cleaning fun! Besides doing her day job, she is passionate about small groups. She loves seeing people grow in their relationship with Christ as well as listening to them and encouraging them.

Stacey has two grown children, Skylar and Savannah, as well as several furry kids. Besides spending time with them, she loves to spend time with friends getting coffee or eating out, working in her yard, thrift shopping, hiking and traveling – especially to Lake Michigan.

Lois Litchfield

Worship Arts Pastor

Lois joined the Sonrise team at the beginning of 2020.  She and her husband Isaac have been married for almost 20 years and have 4 children.

Ever since she was a teenager, Lois has been involved in or leading worship.  Her heart and passion is to see Jesus lifted high, and for God’s people to encounter Him in worship – not only on Sundays – but as a part of their daily lives!

Barb Lehman

Staff Accountant

Barb has been a part of the Sonrise team now for many years! Graduating from I.U. with a BS in Accounting, she loves numbers and people, so working at Sonrise has been a great way for her to use her gifts.

Barb and her husband, Steve, have four children. Three are grown and have families of their own with a son still at home. They are blessed with four grandchildren as well! When Barb has some time to herself, she loves to spend it in quiet time, reading. Hiking and spending time enjoying nature are also favorite past-times.

Kristy Abramowski

Preschool Director

Kristy Abramowski and her family have been part of Sonrise for almost 20 years and she has served as the Preschool Director for Sonrise Christian Preschool for the past 15 years.

Kristy says, “My job gets better every year. I learn something new from each child and family. I love to see “a-ha” moments with children and to hear their stories and ideas. My newsletter each month includes quotes from the children that add a wonderful laugh to all readers. Here’s one of my favorite quotes from last year: A pre-k class talked about Martin Luther King, Jr. and later they played Bingo with M & Ms. One boy commented, “Martin Luther King Jr. would like M & Ms because they are all colors on the outside but the same on the inside.” I look forward to building relationships with families and children, growing together as babies are born and as we face some challenging situations with families, and just the investment of time and commitment to growth and change. I know this will be the best year yet!”

Kristy and her husband, Doug, moved to Fort Wayne from Chicago to be closer to Doug’s family and have been married for almost 30 years. They met on a blind date in graduate school and both are licensed clinical social workers. In Chicago, Kristy was a therapist for teenaged girls while Doug worked with a variety of ages and he then worked as a child abuse investigator. In Fort Wayne, Kristy stayed at home with their two children for a time and then taught preschool for 5 years before joining the team at Sonrise. Doug now runs his own company. Their oldest daughter, Karina, is a software engineer for Target in Minneapolis and their youngest daughter, Kayla, is a graduate of Purdue. As a family, they love to read, travel, play games, and go to Broadway shows.