Meet the Team
David Martin:
David has been the lead pastor of IBC Cologne since March 2013. In October of 2024, he was elected as IBC’s Director of Church Multiplication.
David Martin grew up in a pastor’s home in Laramie, Wyoming. David came to faith in Christ as a teenager.
After graduating from the University of Wyoming, David married Kristen and began his studies at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary. David and his wife served for 2 years in Germany with the International Mission Board, after which David served 4 more years at Laramie Valley Chapel as the Assistant Pastor and Director of Music.
From 2013 to 2017, David led IBC Cologne through a revitalization process. In 2017, the church voted in a new constitution and installed elders a year later to help teach and bring oversight to the church’s ministry.
In 2018, David led IBC Cologne in planting its first church in Bonn. He continued serving as pastor of both churches until September 2019, when Stephen Campbell became the lead pastor in Bonn. In 2021, David led a second team out of IBCC planted die Internationale Gemeinde Köln, a German-language church that was constituted in January of 2024.
Darryl Evetts:
Darryl previously vision and leadership to the church multiplication movement of the International Baptist Convention. Prior to his current role, he served as planter/lead pastor of Frontline Community Ramstein, Germany from 2004-2014 ministering to the American military families in the area. Before full-time ministry, he served 22 years in the United States Air Force.
He is a graduate of Liberty University, Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary, and completed a Doctor of Ministry degree in Global and Contextual Leadership with Bethel Seminary.
Darryl found salvation in Christ while living far from home and far from God and now has a passion to see others living as expats have the same opportunity to find life in Jesus.
Some of Darryl’s interests are church planting, leadership development, learning about cultures, travel, food…and coffee…lots of coffee!
Darryl is married to his high school sweetheart, Debra, and they currently reside near San Antonio Texas. They have two grown daughters, a son-in-law, and one awesome granddaughter.
Debra Evetts:
Debra serves IBC Church Multiplication in a logistic and administrative support role. She also brings an encouragement to parent church pastors and church planters with an emphasis on their wives and children’s wellbeing.
Debra currently lives in hot San Antonio, Texas, home of the Alamo, the Riverwalk and delicious Tex-Mex food. The previous 15 years she lived in Germany, as a church planting missionary alongside her husband, Darryl. Together they serve English-Language churches throughout the world with the International Baptist Convention.
Debra’s perfect world is where people love Jesus and chocolate. The main reason she’s involved in church planting is to show and tell others about Jesus. Next, after loving Jesus, Debra’s most important roles in life are Wife, Mom and Grandmother, affectionately called “Honey” by her spunky, curly redheaded granddaughter (if you desire to see pictures Debra has a few).
God has given Debra opportunities in a broad range of service from teaching children in church, as well as Christian and Public schools, table-top counseling, leading a variety of women’s’ organizations and studies; along with doing whatever is needed in the church plant to include serving coffee and sweeping and cleaning floors and bathrooms; just to name a few.
God’s greatest gift to Debra is a love for His word and prayer.
Lee Hanson:
Lee is from Southern California, San Diego, being his hometown.
He grew up in a Christian home and at an early age asked Jesus into his life as Savior and Lord.
In 1970/71 he attended Capernwray Bible School in England. While traveling in Europe that year he visited Denmark. Since that time Lee has had an interest in serving the Lord there. From 1974 to 1980 Lee was in Denmark, learning the language, attending the Danish Baptist Theological Seminary, and serving as a youth minister in a Danish Baptist Church.
Lee returned to California in 1980. For the next 20 years Lee remained in Southern California working at various jobs while being an active member of Fullerton Evangelical Free Church. He continued to have an interest in Denmark, and visited there several times during those 20 years.
In 2001, an opportunity developed that allowed Lee to return to Denmark.
Lee serves at Koinonia International Christian Fellowship in Aalborg, Denmark.
Nate Korpi:
Nate serves as the Lead Pastor of LifeBridge International Church in Panama City, Panama.
He enjoys preaching in a way that makes the Word of God practical and applicable for everyday life. Nate loves making heaven more crowded by seeing new people come to faith as well as believers make new step of faith.
Growing up in Quito, Ecuador the international community is something Nate is familiar with. Diverse culture, multiple languages and international community has been a part of Nate’s life since childhood.
After growing up in Ecuador, Nate attended college in the United States at Liberty University and Cairn University. After graduating with a degree in Bible and Youth Ministry, Nate served as the Director of Youth Ministry at Grace Point Church for 8 years.
In 2016, Nate and his wife, Jendi, felt the call to missions and specifically, the international community of Panama City.
Nate and Jendi have been married for 11 years. They have lived in Panama City, Panama for five years and always love finding new adventures.
Sam and Desireé Dyer:
Sam and Desireé have lived in Germany since 2013 after spending several years in South Asia as missionaries. After an unconventional meeting in Dubai (you should ask them about it) and a wedding shortly thereafter in the U.S., the Lord has led them on quite a journey around the world all for the sole purpose of making disciples of Jesus. In 2020 a new adventure began when the Dyers and several other families began planting River of Life Church in Frankfurt. As a pastor, Sam is passionate about seeing people grow in Christ and teaching the Word of God in its entirety.
Sam and Des are blessed to have a son and a daughter who identify as American but are really German deep down inside. To complete this international family they adopted a Turkish dog, Rüdiger P. Dyer, who obeys commands in English and German.
Taylor Whitley:
Taylor works as a project leader for a church start-up in Berlin, Germany, with his wife Lydia and their two boys. His goal is to invite people from all nations living in Berlin to walk with Jesus.
Taylor grew up in Birmingham, AL, USA. He studied Religion at Samford University, and earned a Master of Divinity from Beeson Divinity School. Since then Taylor worked as Student Minister at IBC Stuttgart, and trained for church planting at Christus Gemeinde in Bremen. Taylor now partners with the International Baptist Church of Berlin, establishing a new church start-up project in the family friendly and cafe loving Prenzlauer Berg neighborhood.
Taylor enjoys brewing delicious coffee, reading books, and sharing Jesus with others from the playground to the brewery. He thanks God for the new projects started by IBC churches, and looks forward to a future where more people will follow Jesus through the efforts of our IBC community.
Lydia Whitley:
Lydia works as a church planter and lives in Berlin, Germany, with her husband Taylor and two energetic sons. Her dream is to see people walking with Jesus as she helps build a worshiping community in a fun, former-east Berlin neighborhood.
Lydia grew up in Texas in the USA. She studied Interior Architecture at Samford University, but God re-directed her plans and led her into pastoral ministry instead of design. After earning her M. Div. at Beeson Divinity School, she and Taylor moved to Germany in 2015. Before Berlin, Lydia worked at IBC Stuttgart as the Adult Discipleship Coordinator and did a two-year apprenticeship as a Trainee für Gemeindegründung at Christus Gemeinde FEG in Bremen.
Lydia enjoys eating tacos, reading books, running and having interesting conversations with other people. She feels thankful to be a part of what God is doing in international churches in Germany, Europe and beyond.
