Ministers

Monty Pettyjohn was born in Shawnee, Oklahoma on Feb. 16, 1961. He grew up in Shawnee and graduated from the University of Central Oklahoma. He met Diana in Shawnee while she was a co-worker with his dad in the engineering department at Southwestern Bell. They married on May 15, 1982. Monty and Diana have two grown sons, Austin and Tate.

Monty graduated from SIBI in 1992 and became the pulpit minister in Burlington, Colorado. He was the minister there for eight years before becoming the Education Minister at Waterview church of Christ in Richardson, TX, where he served from 2000 -2005. In June of 2005, he took the position of Director of Placement with SIBI. He began serving as an elder at Sunset in October of 2007. Monty transitioned into the role of Lead Minister after Jay Jarboe left to work with Mission Resource Network in 2010.

His hobbies include hunting, fishing, racquetball, and tennis. He especially enjoys hiking mountain trails with Diana.

Bill was born in Pueblo, Colorado on October 14, 1959. He attended Lubbock Christian University and Texas Tech, where he graduated with a BA. Bill taught school at Christian Heritage Schools in San Antonio, Texas.

While in San Antonio Bill met his wife Betty and they were married in 1984. Bill served as the youth minister at MacArthur Park Church of Christ for seven years. In 1991, Bill and Betty moved to Lubbock to attend Sunset International Bible Institute. They graduated from SIBI in 1993 and enrolled in the Missions program where they graduated in December. In 1994, Bill and Betty left with a church planting team for San Diego, CA where they worked for seven years. In 2001, Bill returned to Sunset International Bible Institute where he was one of the instructors of the school and the Assistant Dean of Missions. In 2003, Bill also served as part time small groups minister for the Sunset congregation. In 2006 Bill took a full time position with the Sunset congregation as the Spiritual Formation minister and also serves on the preaching team.

Bill and Betty have three children, Joshua, Matthew and Katie. Bill loves to spend time with his family! His favorite verse is Ephesians 3:20 - 21. His hobbies include sports, reading and attempting to complete crosswords.

Charles was born in Richardson, TX in 1948. His mother was a Christian and reared him in the Lord. He was baptized into Christ as a young man in Richardson and has sought the Lord fervently ever since. Charles is married to Cara (Gilbert) Speer, who also was raised in Dallas by a godly mother. Charles and Cara have two children, Bryn who is band director at Westlake High School in Austin, TX and Jamin, who is a graduate student in Economics at Yale University in Connecticut.

Charles was educated at Southern Methodist University (1970-Bachelor of Electrical Engineering), Sunset School of Preaching (1972), Sunset School of Missions (1986), and Lubbock Christian University (1996-Master of Arts in New Testament). He served as Minister to Youth in Dallas from 1972-1977, Preaching Minister in Weatherford, OK from 1977-1985, Missionary to New Zealand from 1986-1989, and 1989-presents Instructor and Dean of Residential Studies at Sunset International Bible Institute.

Charles loves to spend vacation time with family and play golf with good friends. He believes strongly in the principles of II Tim. 2:2-"And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others."

Rodney Roberts was born on July 9, 1955 in Fort Smith, Arkansas. He moved to Lubbock and received his Bachelor's Degree in Architecture from Texas Tech University. His parents are Kenneth and Sammie Roberts and they still reside in Plainview. He has one brother, Randy.

Rodney met Sherry Burns while attending high school in Plainview and they married in 1976. They have two children, Jenna and Cannon. Rodney and his family have been active at Sunset since 1988. He worked as an architect in private practice for over twenty years. When Sunset began a search for an Involvement Minister they began to look internally and approached Rodney with the idea of changing careers. "I saw this as a great honor and opportunity to serve the Lord as a part of the ministry staff at Sunset and felt the Lord had opened a door for me that I never expected." He began his fulltime work at Sunset on May 15, 2000.

His favorite scripture is Ephesians 4:11-13. His favorite food is Mexican and his favorite sport is basketball. He also enjoys golf and spending time with family.

Jeff Reese was born to George and Beverly Reese on August 13, 1965 in Odessa, Texas. He grew up in El Paso, Houston, and Lubbock. He met Brenda Flowers of Muleshoe while attending LCU and they were married in 1987. He graduated from LCU in 1987 with a degree in Business Administration. He and Brenda have two sons, Justin and Branson.

He worked at Wal-Mart as an assistant manager for 4 years and 10 years at Selle Insulation in sales and operations management before joining the Sunset staff as Administrator in 2002. He also serves as Sunset's LTC coordinator.

Jeff loves Mexican food, camping, baseball and paintball. He especially enjoys coaching his sons in baseball and watching them play.

Jeff Smith was born March 15, 1962 in Wichita, Kansas. His family moved to Lubbock in 1966 to attend the Sunset School of Preaching. This in turn transformed Jeff into the typical "PK" (preacher's kid) living in places like Kansas, Wyoming, Texas and even Botswana, Africa while his father served in full-time ministry.

He met Stacy Lowman when they were both teenagers and members of the Sunset youth group. They married in 1981 and are blessed with two wonderful children, Kristin and Daniel.

Jeff received his ministry training at SSOP (1984-86) and began his first full-time ministry in Phoenix, Arizona. Having served there two years as youth minister, he moved to Dewey, Oklahoma serving as Associate Minister. A life-long dream was realized in 1995 when he was invited back to his "home" congregation to serve as youth minister for the Sunset church. Jeff received a Bachelor of Religious Education from Rochester College.

Jeff's favorite scripture is Romans 8:28 and he enjoys playing golf, softball and supporting his children's extra-curricular activities. His favorite food is chicken fried steak.

"I graduated from Texas A&M (Whoop!). The pride of my life is my Lord, Jesus Christ, and I'm so thankful for all the Jesus followers I get to know here at Sunset. I want all teens to know they are loved, and I want them to know the greatness of our savior and His grace. God has blessed me with the greatest wife, Ashley. I've been working at Sunset since 2007."
More about the Youth Ministry at SunsetYouth.com

Libby German was born October 30, 1958 in Hobbs, New Mexico. She was the youngest of four children and grew up on a small ranch south of Hobbs where her parents still reside. Libby graduated from Harding University in 1980 with a Bachelor's Degree in Nursing. She moved to Lubbock in January of 1981 and was active in Campus Advance at Broadway before meeting Steve in the singles class at Sunset. They married in August of 1982 and have two daughters, Gerianne and Gina and one son Cody. Steve is an Associate Professor in the Business Department at LCU.

After working as a critical-care nurse for almost 15 years, Libby decided to make a career change and joined the staff at Sunset as one of the Children's Ministry coordinators. Her main responsibility is staff recruitment. She loves to teach Bible class and enjoys singing with the children.