Pastor Chris Whitney has come to Foothills Southern Baptist Church having pastored churches in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Colorado, New Mexico and Texas.  He is a graduate of Pillsbury Baptist Bible College in Owatonna, Minnesota and Central Baptist Theological Seminary in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  He has been married to his wife Keren for 27 years and they have two grown sons, Braeden and Sean who are both students at Arizona Western College here in Yuma.  He comes to Foothills with an open heart; a passionate love for Jesus, God’s people; the Word of God; and for winning the lost.

His hobbies include motorcycle riding, golf, gardening and blog writing.  To visit Pastor Chris’ blog, go to www.sandscribbles.org to read and listen to his teaching and preaching on the Bible.

Luis was born and raised in Yuma, AZ where he accepted Christ at 8 years old at Foothills Southern Baptist Church. At the age of 13, he felt the call into ministry and participated in serving in the youth, children, worship, and Hispanic ministries. At 18, he became the interim worship leader at Oasis Church and within 6 months served as the Worship Pastor over the following 4 years.

Having a heart for the teenagers in the area, he transitioned to serving as the Youth Pastor for 4 years. Over the course of the next several years of transitions in serving as soldier, counselor, and teacher he has returned to serve at Foothills Southern Baptist as its Interim Worship Ministries Director with his lovely wife Shelby and 4 beautiful daughters Hannah, Alice, Isabel, and Penelope.

I am very blessed to have a position where I get to teach kids about our Amazing God! I grew up here in Yuma and I am the 5th generation in my family to be an alumnus of Yuma High School. God has given me a loving, patient…very patient, God-fearing husband who leads our family with such grace. We have 3 great children whom we love watching Christ work in every day.

Shelby Manos

Shelby was born in Yuma, AZ and grew up here most of her life. She received Christ into her life at age 12 at Community Christian Church, where her and her father were baptized together. As she grew she served in several different ministries from Worship to Children’s. Later she felt Gods call to minister to young wives and military families while stationed in WA. She has served in several non-profit organizations where she ministered to children, teenagers, and wives of military soldiers. Coming to Yuma she served on her previous church’s worship and media team. Shelby is a passionate follower of Christ who seeks to serve wherever there is a need. God has opened an opportunity here at FSBC to serve as part of our staff with her lovely family Hannah, Alice, Isabel, Penelope and her husband, Luis Manos.