Church Leadership

Chris  & Carley Ritchie

When God calls, you answer. In early 2020 the Lord called us to transition into the senior leadership role at Encounter. The previous nine years as worship pastors our goal was to built a worship culture and worship community who's sole focus was honoring the presence of God. 


We have taken that passion into the senior leadership role by making one thing our priority on Sundays - The Presence of God. 

Everything else must come out relationship with the Father - but it must start with Him, His Son, and His Spirit. 


Lead Pastor Chris Ritchie + Executive Pastor Carley RItchie



Our Story

In 2009, Zack & Rachelle Wechsler founded The Encounter Community Church in a small coffee shop just outside of Las Vegas, NV. It was the cry of their heart to see lives radically changed by the love of God. The Holy Spirit arrested the hearts of prodigals, pimps, prostitutes, homeless, and the broken because Zack and Rachelle answered the call. In the summer of 2011 Chris and Carley Ritchie packed up their family and moved to Las Vegas to join what God was doing at Encounter. They served faithfully as the worship pastors for nine years.


In 2020, in the midst of a global pandemic, Zack and Rachelle once again answered the call of God and accepted the role as senior leaders at New Hope Community Church, in Rochester, NY (now Encounter Church NY). In what was a natural fit, and God-ordained, Chris & Carley Ritchie became the senior leaders of Encounter Church Vegas in March of 2020. They carry the same heart to see sons and daughters raised up and released into their calling, and to see the captives set free through the love of Jesus.