Rev. Tom Kristoffersen

Senior PAstor

Tom was born in Norway, moved to America as a toddler, and was raised in Connecticut. He grew up in a home that was culturally Norwegian (he is still fluent) and nominally Christian, but came to saving faith in Jesus Christ while he studied business at Bucknell University. There he also met Deb, and they were married in 1996. After working in the business world for seven years, Tom followed God’s call to prepare for pastoral ministry and eventually earned an MDiv at Biblical Theological Seminary in the Philadelphia area. The congregation of the Presbyterian Church of Wellsville called Tom as their Pastor in the summer of 2006, and he has been blessed to shepherd them and teach them God’s Word ever since. The Kristoffersens have adopted two sons and are also actively involved in foster care. Tom loves spending time with his family, and enjoys good food, reading, listening to music, playing acoustic guitar, and watching movies or Yankees games while he attempts to exercise on his elliptical machine.

Marvin Achilles

RULING ELDER

Marvin grew up in Northern Vermont on the family farm. First coming to Western New York at age 18 he attended Houghton College where he graduated in 1970. He continued his education at night school at Syracuse University where he graduated from the Maxwell School in 1979. Marvin is now retired from the insurance industry where he worked as an underwriter and manager for 45 years. He has served in the church as a deacon and an elder in Syracuse and has served as an elder in Wellsville for most of the 18 years he has lived in the Fillmore area. The Achilles family includes his wife Dorothy and four daughters, Sharon, Ellen, Olla and Sarah. He looks forward to continued service at the Presbyterian Church of Wellsville.

Ted Georgian

RULING ELDER

Ted was raised as a preacher’s kid and understood the Gospel from a young age. Think “understanding” equals faith? Nope. Combine a retentive mind and a hard heart and you get a teenager who could spout all the right answers in Sunday school but had no living faith. Freshman year at college he read C. S. Lewis’ "Till We Have Faces" and glimpsed a future spent pretending that God doesn’t exist, a meaningless life. “Lord, help my unbelief!” And he did. Peace. Ted married his high-school sweetheart, Linda and they went to Athens, Georgia, where they honed their church skills in a small house church pastored by a Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod minister. One distinctive of that congregation: lunch every Sunday with the church family. He moved to Olean, NY to begin teaching Biology at St. Bonaventure University. He and Linda joined the new church plant in Wellsville and they have driven there from Olean approximately 2,500 times, for many years with their four children in tow. One distinctive of the congregation: lunch every Sunday with the church family. Most haunting Scripture verse for an elder: “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you” (Hebrews 13:17).

Ransom H. Poythress, Ph.D.

Ruling Elder

Ransom was born in Chestnut Hill, PA, and grew up in a strong Christian home in a northeast suburb of Philadelphia. After making a confession of faith in early childhood, he has spent his whole life in the PCA. After college, he received his Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology and Biochemistry from Boston University. During his time there, he was ordained as a Deacon in the PCA and helped with the University ministry as a member of Citylife Presbyterian Church. He then went on to receive his MA in Counseling from Westminster Theological Seminary where he met his wife Lisbeth. He currently works at Houghton University as a Biology Professor. His interests include Ultimate Frisbee, superhero movies, and playing board games with his lovely wife and children. He is honored and humbled to accept the church's call to serve as a Ruling Elder.