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Brett Varvel
Executive Director
Brett Varvel is an Emmy award winning director who aided in founding House of Grace Films. Some of his other awards are two-time David Letterman Scholarship winner, and two-time L.A. Showcase Director. Brett’s largest film to date is entitled “The Board.”
Varvel graduated from Bethesda Christian High School in 2004, and got his Bachelors degree in Telecommunications at Ball State University. He ran Timeless Pictures, a production boutique specializing in Wedding videos, and Senior Portraits, before starting House of Grace Films. His real passion however is filmmaking.
From a very young age Varvel loved to experiment with the camera, and was not shy in front of an audience either. Varvel wanted to pursue acting until God directed him to filmmaking. He discovered his passion for storytelling, and how movies could be used to further the Kingdom of God. Varvel has dedicated his life to media ministry, and prays that God will continue to use him to spread the Gospel to the nations.
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Mike Stefanik
Chairman
Mike and his family, Kimberly (wife) and Jarryd (son), have been members of Bethesda Baptist Church since 1995. Mike has served on the deacon board, pastoral search committee and currently leads a LifeGroup for Jr. High School age children. Mike has also led the video taping ministry since 2000. Mike and his family were honored to be part of the cast and crew of The Board. Mike established the “behind the scenes” filming crew and was credited as the key grip for the film. Kimberly had an acting role as well as being part of the make-up and continuity teams. Jarryd facilitated and participated with the “behind the scenes” filming crews, and was a stand-in for much of the pre-production rehearsals.
Mike has held management roles in the steel industry for the last 12 years. Mike is currently the Continuous Improvement Coordinator for Nupro Steel, a division of Nucor Steel Indiana. Mike is responsible for product quality and is a Certified Lead Auditor for the TS 16949 Quality Management System and ISO14001 Environmental Management System.
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Tim Boling
Vice-Chairman
Tim has 33 years experience in the Television Engineering and Production industry. He has held various positions in Television News Production, Television Broadcast Engineering & Maintenance, and Television Broadcasting Management. He currently holds an executive position with McGraw-Hill Broadcasting as their Director of Engineering & Chief Information Officer.
In 2008, Tim was an Associate Producer of the Bethesda Baptist Church movie production; The Board. Tim was responsible for all production gear on the shoot for the film.
Tim and his wife Mary are faithful followers of Christ. They are parents of five children. Two of them are now with the Lord from a rare genetic disease. Tim and Mary formed two not-for-profit foundations as a result of their terminally ill children. The Niemann-Pick Disease Foundation (focused on research), and Just for the Kids of NPC (focused on aid for families of NPC children). Tim and Mary currently serve in a Special Needs Ministry at Bethesda Baptist Church.
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Mike Davis
Treasurer
Mike and his family have been members of Bethesda Baptist Church since 2004. Mike has served on the Finance Committee of the church since 2007 and is involved in the media ministry since 2008 as a worship service video projectionist. In addition to his financial support, he worked in several capacities in the production of The Board film including assisting as set painter and decorator, boom operator and grip. His wife, Angela, assisted with make-up on the film. His sons, Clayton and Tyler participated as an extra and grip, respectively. Mike has also provided financial consulting services in the overall management of the film production and distribution.
Mike is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) with twenty-five years of professional experience. He is currently the Executive Director of Internal Audit at Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana. He previously worked in various accounting, finance and auditing positions in his professional career.
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Angela Graham
Secretary
As a member and officer of the Board of Directors for House of Grace Films, Angela brings experience in business, public relations, and event management to the team. She earned both a B.S. in business and M.S. in human resource development from Indiana State University. Angela was a volunteer on the first movie, “The Board,” and received an associate producer credit.
With a husband who has served multiple overseas deployments, Angela has found that volunteering her skills and abilities provides the flexibility she needs to be both father and mother at times, maintain stability in the home, and keep up with three active children. Besides helping spread the gospel of Christ through House of Grace Films, Angela’s most rewarding experience was organizing the community homecoming for the 700-member 1-151 Infantry Battalion and their families after a 15 month Afghanistan deployment. The homecoming included a community parade, waterfront ceremony featuring a past Indiana governor, current Lt. Governor Becky Skillman, and Congressman Mike Sodrell, and an evening dinner and festival. The success of this event earned her a Congressional commendation letter, but greater still was the joy of the reunited military families and satisfaction of giving back to those who are willing to give all for their country.
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Mindy Buck
Mindy has been married to Gary since 1990. They have three children Nathan 16, Lauren 13 and Jenna 9. They have been active members at Bethesda Baptist Church for 19 years. She is a pediatric physical therapist and volunteers in the community through the school, church and coaching softball. She was privileged to be a participant in Bethesda Baptist Church’s first film project due to her personal friendship with the Varvel family, the developers and producers of The Board.
Her assistant producer title was earned by recruiting, coordinating and supervising the nearly 200 volunteers for the behind the scenes tasks. She eagerly lends her strong leader- ship, communication and problem solving skills to whatever is needed to see House of Grace Films fulfill its vision and mission.
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Mike Johnson
Michael was born and raised in Fort Wayne, IN. In approximately 1973, he met his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ through the invitation of a neighborhood friend to attend church via a local bus ministry.
After marrying his college sweetheart in 1989, he moved to Lebanon, IN where he became active in the local church. During the subsequent years at Grace Baptist Church, he continued to grow and serve in various ministries.
In 2002, Michael and his family moved to Brownsburg, IN to be closer to Bethesda Christian Schools. Following a period of transition from their home church, they began attending Bethesda Baptist Church in 2007.
In 2008 Michael was recruited to help with set design and related cost estimating for The Board Movie. Following production of the film, consistent with his personal goal to help lead at least one million people to Jesus Christ, he volunteered to help plan and organize a free, door to door distribution of approximately 5,000 DVD’s during a two day outreach event prior to Christmas.
Michael is a licensed architect in Indiana and Illinois and holds an NCARB (National Council of Architectural Registration Boards) certificate. He is also a Certified Construction Specifier (CCS) through the Construction Specifications Institute (CSI) and is recognized as a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) accredited professional by the U.S. Green Building Certification Institute.
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Chuck Petersen
Charles is the husband of Anita for 31years, father to Rachel, Sarah and Abbey, strives to be a faithful steward of God’s resources and desires to be a friend of God.
He is the founder of Petersen Engineering, Inc. and co-founder of PEI Pipeline Services, LLC. He has over 35 years experience in the design, operations, construction and maintenance of pipelines. He was also one of the co-founders of Cornerstone Pipeline Inspection Group (CPIG) that was later sold to Baker Hughes.
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Gary Varvel
Gary Varvel is an award winning, syndicated, editorial cartoonist, part-time high school art teacher, adult Bible study teacher, actor and screenwriter.
Varvel draws political cartoons for The Indianapolis Star and has over 30 years of experience as a professional journalist. His work is internationally syndicated through Creators Syndicate and appears in 100 newspapers around the world. Varvel's cartoons have appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, Newsweek, Time, Sports Illustrated as well as on CNN and Fox News.
He graduated from Danville High School in 1975 and received his art training at John Herron School of Art in Indianapolis. In '77, Varvel began working as a production manager and drawing cartoons at a small weekly paper in central Indiana. In '78, he landed a job at The Indianapolis News where he became the chief artist. In 1994, Varvel moved to his current position at The Indianapolis Star.
Varvel is a board member of the House of Grace Films. He co-wrote the screenplay for The Board, served as the Executive Producer and played the part of Mr. Will in the movie. Currently, Varvel has co-written the screenplay for The War Within and has been cast as Mr. Will in the movie. Along with these roles, Varvel also is the storyboard artist for both films.
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Bryan Waggoner
As a member of the Board of Directors for House of Grace Films, Pastor Bryan brings experience in project and event management, and marketing to the team. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration with a minor in accounting, from Cedarville University and has 33 years of full-time church ministry experience. Additionally Bryan and his wife Sheri have 20 plus years of experience in running a small business, Student Minister Resources. Bryan worked behind the scenes in leadership of the first movie, “The Board,” being vitally involved from the inception through distribution.
Since 2009, Bryan has served as the Executive Pastor at Bethesda Baptist Church in Brownsburg, Indiana, where he has worked since 1983. Previous to his current position, he served as Pastor of Student Ministries and later as Pastor of Outreach and Communications. Additionally Bryan was in charge of the Bethesda video production ministry for many years.
His hobbies include being creative, performing gospel magic, ventriloquism, computers and reading. Bryan and Sheri have four adult children age 18 through 26.