Meet Our Staff Team

Pastor Scott Elliott - Operations Pastor

Pastor Scott serves as the Pastor of Operations, which means he works on systems and processes behind the scenes. His goal is to help the church run smoothly and to help people come to know and follow Jesus.

Originally from Colorado, Scott received his Masters Degree from Denver Seminary and moved to New Jersey with his family in 2015. Scott has over 20 years of pastoral experience and various capacities of church leadership, coaching and consulting.

His favorite things in this world are his wife, Kaitlin, and three daughters - Jayce, Emerson, and Parker. In his free time, you might find him coaching soccer, co-hosting the "So… What Else" podcast, or enjoying a bowl of cereal… honey nut cheerios, of course. 

James 1:27 - Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

Jessica Soprano - Administrator

Jessica has been attending The Crossing Church since 2016. Being a Preschool teacher, she started serving as a volunteer in the children's ministry soon after and joined the Crossing Kids Ministry Staff in September 2023. Jessica is blessed to be able to serve families and children of the church and watch God's hand work through this ministry. Jessica is married to Steve and they share a beautiful daughter who loves attending Crossing Kids!

Jessica's Life Verse - Psalm 46:10 "Be still and know that I am God".

Nate Jules - Youth Director

Nate joined the staff at The Crossing Church in 2026 to lead the Youth Ministry! He is passionate about helping students discover who they are in Christ and grow into the leaders God has created them to be. With a heart for discipleship and a gift for building authentic relationships, Nate loves creating environments where middle and high school students feel known, welcomed, and challenged to take meaningful steps in their faith. He believes youth ministry is not just about fun events, but about forming lifelong followers of Jesus who live out their faith at home, at school, and in their communities.

Nate brings energy, intentionality, and a deep love for the local church to The Crossing Youth Ministry. He is excited to partner with parents, volunteers, and church leaders to cultivate a ministry that is spiritually deep, relationally rich, and rooted in Scripture. When he’s not hanging out with students, you can usually find Nate enjoying time with friends and family, staying active, or even handing out cookies on a Sunday morning!

Joe Harris - Worship Director

Joe has been serving on staff at The Crossing Church since 2022. Through his experience studying music in college, Joe felt called to enter worship ministry. After years of patiently serving in worship, God opened the door for him to become the Worship Ministries Director at The Crossing Church. Joe was raised in York, PA, and went to Messiah College, where he met his lovely wife, Katie. They have 2 dogs together, Bailey Blue and Indy.

Joe's Favorite Bible Verse - Matthew 6:26-27 "Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?"

Kaitlin Elliott - Kids Team Operations Coordinator

Kaitlin joined the staff at The Crossing Church in the Fall of 2023. She has been part of the church from birth through adolescence. Although life took Kaitlin to Colorado for four years and then a different church for six years while her husband served on staff, The Crossing has always been home. Kaitlin was a public school teacher for grades 3-8 in both Colorado and New Jersey. She has been married to Scott since 2013 and have three beautiful girls — Jayce, Emerson, and Parker.

Zephaniah 3:17 “The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; He will quiet you by his love; He will rejoice over you with singing.”

Pastor Tim Chicola - Pastor Emeritus

Pastor Tim was born and raised on Long Island’s south shore (Seaford) and served the Lead Pastor at The Crossing Church for 30 years from December 1994 to 2024.  He and his wife Marianne first visited what was then the West Essex Baptist Church in the Spring of 1987 after completing pastoral duties in the Chicago suburb of Prospect Heights, Illinois.  For seven years, they served in a number of capacities at the church before being called to the Lead Pastor position.  

Pastor Tim is passionate about the local church, believing that a Christ honoring and Holy Spirit directed local church is the last great hope of the world.  His life verse is 1 Corinthians 15:58: “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord,” (KJV).

Pastor Tim is a rabid fan of the New York Giants and New York Yankees. He counts Dr. Haddon Robinson, Dr. Timothy Keller, Mrs. Terry Franits, his late cousin Pastor Daniel Mercaldo, and his pastor in his formative years, the late Pastor Robert Hoover, as his mentors and heroes of the faith, who all were used by God to form him spiritually. 

He attended Northeastern Bible College (B.B.L. 1980), Denver Seminary (M.Div. 1985), and Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary (D.Min. 2007). 

Pastor Tim’s dear wife Marianne, a servant of Christ ‘s and the Crossing Church, went home to her Savior in August of 2023 after a two-and-a-half-year battle with cancer. Together they were blessed with four wonderful children, Joseph (deceased), Kaitlin Elliott (Scott), Emily Carpenter (Matthew), and Caroline Chicola. 

Pastor Tim lives in Hackettstown, New Jersey just down the road from his three spectacularly gorgeous, and brilliant granddaughters Jayce (7), Emerson (5), and Parker (1).