Our Staff
James Kessler, Senior Pastor
Martin Han, Assistant Pastor
Pastor Martin joined the NSCC Staff in 2010. He is bivocational, currently also working for the Department of Defense as a Contracts Team Leader. In 2017, he reentered the Air Force part-time as a military chaplain in the Reserves. He is married to Kimberly and is father to Abigail Noel, Ethan Martin and Isaac Luther. Abby is a nationally ranked swimmer, and Ethan and Isaac are amazing boys with special needs. Martin’s favorite foods are pizza (he feels strongly that only NY pizza gets to be called “pizza”; everything else needs more words, like “Chicago deep dish pizza”) and soup dumplings (especially Joe’s Shanghai, and he doesn’t care about it being a tourist trap). Martin leads our Journey Group discipleship ministry, our Friday night FaithBuilders group, and our Sunday Adult Bible Study.
Tae Cho, Director of Christian Education
Tae Cho was born in Seoul, South Korea and immigrated to the states when he was nine. He first lived in Elmhurst N.Y. then moved to Northern New Jersey during high school. He graduated from Philadelphia Biblical University (Now Cairn University) with a Bible/Youth Ministry degree, and then graduated from Westminster Theological Seminary with a Master of Divinity. While he was in seminary he was a pastoral intern at Jubilee Presbyterian Church as college and youth group for three years. Upon graduating from seminary he joined pastoral staff at the First Korean Church of Brooklyn as English ministry pastor/youth pastor, overseeing the Education Department. He is married to Wisdom and is father to Enoch, Chole and Asher. Tae’s hobbies include: snowboarding, basketball, football, ultimate freebie, baseball, skateboarding, and rollerblading. He is a die hard Yankees fan.
Michaela LaBelle, Director of Children’s Education
Michaela grew up in Las Vegas, Nevada. In 2022, God brought her and her family all the way to Long Island, NY. She became a member of NSCC in December 2022 and joined the NSCC staff in June of 2023. Michaela studied Elementary Education at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and has over 30 years of children’s ministry experience. She is excited to use her talents to serve the Lord and the families of NSCC. Michaela enjoys doing yoga and spending time outdoors and enjoying delicious cuisine with her husband Greg and her two kids, Lucy 13 and Owen 9.
Charles Alvarenga, Church Administrator and Director of Worship
Charles joined the NSCC staff in October of 2019. Over the past ten years, Charles has served as a worship leader in churches throughout Long Island and NYC. He studied vocal performance at Nassau Community College and graduated from Nyack College with a Bachelor of Music in vocal performance. Charles’ passion is to lead the church in singing songs that cause the word of Christ to dwell in us richly. He enjoys going to the beach, watching movies(especially period pieces), and reading.