Zach Washburn
Senior Pastor
Zach grew up in Chapel Hill, NC, where he also went to college. During his childhood, church was optional and Jesus was a footnote. Nonetheless, he grew up happy, with loving parents. God came for Zach when he was 16 and started reading the Bible. Jesus leapt off the page as the wisest, most loving person Zach had ever encountered. Zach’s enthusiasm for Jesus has never waned. If you ask him a question about anything remotely related to Jesus, come prepared with a comfortable seat and a snack.
Zach met his wife Vanessa at summer camp in the mountains of North Carolina. They married immediately after college. They have seven children: Haley and Dessa (born 2009); Liam (2011); Lucy (2013); Claire (2015), Braxton (2016), Jaxsyn (2018). They spent the first eight years of their married lives as members of Valley Hope Church in the North Carolina mountains, where they learned to love Jesus’ bride in all of her flawed beauty, and grew together as God worked in their lives. They moved to Corvallis in 2015 to serve at Calvin, and have enjoyed it immensely.
When he is not pastoring, changing diapers, reading stories, or wrestling with his kids, Zach enjoys reading, basketball, ultimate frisbee, hiking, amateur home improvement, and pretty much anything he gets to do with Vanessa (he will even consent to a trip to Target if it means getting a date night).