Rev. Becca Messman
Senior Pastor and Head of Staff
Becca comes to us from Trinity Presbyterian Church in Herndon, where she served for 15 years—5 years as co-pastor and 10 years as associate pastor. She is a native Virginian, growing up in Danville, Virginia, and graduating from the University of Virginia, where she majored in Classical Studies and Government. Each of those places gave her an affinity for history, the church, and a deep love of words. She also holds a Master of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary.
While serving in Herndon, Becca helped launch a worshipping community of recent immigrants called Lunch for the Soul that has been used as a model for community engagement around the denomination. A prolific writer, she has served as Vice President of the Presbyterian Outlook magazine and co-authored “Cultivated Ministry,” a book about church vitality. She was Co-Chair of VOICE, Virginians Organized for Community Engagement.
Becca lives in Arlington with her husband and two children. She is an avid runner, a lover of puns and music and singing loudly, and a non-threatening board game player.
The Rev. Adam Ogg
Associate Pastor for Youth Ministry
Adam grew up in Ojai, a small town in Southern California, not far from the beach. He does indeed know how to surf but is quite terrible at it. He grew up going to Ojai Presbyterian Church, and became clearly aware of how Protestant he was by attending a Catholic institution for his years in high school.
Being challenged to think about his faith during these formative years, this led him to attend Whitworth University in Spokane, Washington where he studied Theology. After several different experiences in youth ministry, Adam felt the call and inspiration to go into ministry. He went on to attend Princeton Theological Seminary. While there he fell in love with reading and learning while figuring out his calling, in both an urban ministry setting, as well as a stint as an interim youth director.
After graduating, he worked in a seminary-owned garden and as an assistant cheese-maker at a dairy until he moved to serve as the intern at Siesta Key Chapel, a Presbyterian church in Sarasota, Florida. After a year he accepted the call and moved to Burke. Outside of BPC, Adam enjoys podcasts and audiobooks, music, running, or some combination thereof. He can be found hanging out in coffee shops with a good book, seeing live music, or throwing a Frisbee in the park. adam@burkepreschurch.org
Rev. Catherine Taylor
Parish Associate
Catherine, a former high school math teacher who entered seminary in her 50s, lives in Oakton, Virginia. She has 2 grown children, a granddaughter, 2 dogs, and is married to Norm, an engineer. She received a full scholarship to attend the hybrid MDiv program at Claremont School of Theology and graduated earning their top academic award in 2017. She completed her Presbyterian coursework at Princeton and was ordained in 2020 to a chaplaincy ministry at Medstar Washington Hospital Center, where she specialized in working with Burn/Trauma patients. She is currently a parish associate at Burke Presbyterian Church, where she wears a number of hats from supply preacher to course teacher, and retreat/event planner. Let her know what ideas you might have for her work with Burke! She is a huge U of Michigan fan, where she completed her undergraduate work and was born and raised in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. She also loves the trails, mountains, and lakes of New Hampshire, where she completed her first Master’s Degree in Math Education at UNH. In her spare time Catherine volunteers at the Fairfax County Animal Shelter, enjoys travel, hiking, good fiction, writing poetry, music of all types, and great comedy. catherine@burkepreschurch.org
