A Dedicated Congregation

Minister Pete Brazle

Pete has been a minister for the Heritage family, since 1992, when the congregation was born. For four years, he was an Outreach and Youth Minister, and then in 1996, Pete became the Preaching Minister. In 2008 he was asked to serve as one of the Shepherds.

Pete and Janine came to Heritage from the mission field of Honduras and their passion for both outreach and ministering to the marginalized, has always been a hallmark of their work here. Pete and Janine have been married for over 24 years and have four wonderful children and two sweet granddaughters.

Pete holds degrees in Missions and Education from Oklahoma Christian University and a Masters in Ministry from Rochester College, but his heart for ministry stems from growing up on the campus of Western Christian College, in Saskatchewan, Canada.

It was hard for Pete to come up with a favorite scripture, but one that has come to mean so much to him is Micah 6:8: "He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."

Ward Bartlett

Ward was born to parents that came north, to Michigan from Tennessee, to work in the booming auto industry. (yes he’s that old) His mother found him to be a carefree, pleasant and happy child. (Ward has a hard time finding anyone to agree with his mother) Raised in Pontiac his parents sent him to boarding school in Canada for his high school years.

(the reasons behind this international education are still in debate) Wanting to see the world, or at least the United States, he attended 13 different colleges after graduating 8th in his class. (Ward often leaves out the fact that there were only 28 people in his whole class.)  Not being able to find a single woman that wanted to marry him at any of those schools he returned to Michigan and married the daughter of southern immigrants. (Southern in the fact that Toledo Ohio is South of Detroit) 

They had three daughters who adore their father but call their mother at least 3 times for every phone call he gets.  He is now a teacher of world history being that he is old enough to remember much of it.  He also works with teens in drug and alcohol prevention.  Being that he has never been drunk or high the students think him the perfect person to teach them about the dangers of excessive use.

When ask to become an elder of the Heritage Church of Christ he responded excitedly by exclaiming…

1.       Why me?
2.       That takes another thing off my bucket list!
3.       Are you talking to the right Ward Bartlett
4.       All of the above.

Ward works with the teachers at heritage.  He also has done Children’s Chatter for many years.  These activities allow him to act like a child while pretending to be a mentor and scholar.  It should be noted that Ward loves to have fun, often at his own expense, and has a great joy in the life that God has lead him to.  The areas he is very serious about are his family, his friends, his church and his relationship with God.  If you ever need to work on your relationship with God he is always happy to lend an ear or offer spiritual advice.

Mel Storm

Mel Storm has been an elder at Heritage for over 20 years. In addition to his responsibilities as elder, Mel has been active in worship planning, worship leading, and teaching adult Bible classes. Until his recent retirement, Mel was Professor of New Testament at Rochester College, where he taught courses mainly on the gospels, the book of Acts, Paul’s letter to the Romans.

Mel is married to Diane. They have four sons, two daughters-in-law, and three grandsons. Mel and Diane love to sing and have sung with the Madrigal Chorale for the 25 years. In addition to singing, Mel loves reading, watching sports, especially the Detroit Tigers, reading mystery novels, and writing.

Tom Achard

Tom and his wife Vicki moved to Troy, Michigan from the western suburbs of Chicago in January 1991 just a few months before the Birmingham and Clawson congregations merged to form Heritage. They have been married over thirty years and have four children, two boys and two girls, and now five grandchildren.

 Tom was raised believing in God but with sporadic church attendance. It was not until junior year of college that he realized that Christianity could be real in everyday life and was baptized into Christ. Tom has served as one of Heritage's Elders for the past fifteen years.