Gene and Jaci Turner

Jaci was born in Minnesota, then moved to Oregon in 1955. Gene was born in Nyssa, Oregon and as a young boy moved to Coquille, Oregon. Gene and Jaci met while in high school and after Gene's first year at Bethany College in Santa Cruz, California, they were married. Gene received his degree from Bethany College and began ministry right away.

The Turner's were married in 1967 and still like each other, A LOT! They have two grown, married children. They also have four special grand-children: Matthew, Andrew, Payton and Jaired.

The Turners have been in ministry since 1969 and have been on the staff and/or been pastors of churches in Oregon, Washington, and California.

John Burton – Music Director

John is a church music director, a middle-school band director, a husband, and a daddy.  He grew up in Nampa, Idaho, and earned his degree in Music Education from Northwest Nazarene University.  During college, he directed the choir at Nampa First Baptist Church, and during the summers, (in addition to washing dishes and cleaning cabins,) he led worship teams at Cathedral Pines Baptist Camp.  After graduating from college, he taught band and choir at Glenns Ferry Middle School and High school.  While he was at Glenns Ferry, he played piano for three years on the Sunday AM team at Mountain Home Assembly of God.  He and Karen moved during the summer of 2004 when John took a middle school band position in Nampa.

John and his wife, Karen, have been at Southside since December of 2004, when he took the Music Director position.  John leads worship, plays piano, runs rehearsals, and plans worship services and music ministry activities.  Karen plays bass and sings on the worship team, helps with administrative work, and acts as a sounding board when John is planning worship services.

From John—“I love working in music ministry.  I have the opportunity to grow musically and spiritually, and to help other people grow.  We have the opportunity as a team to learn a variety of music that’s worship, not just a performance.”