Today in the Mission Yearbook - Church closure leads to a new call for a PC(USA) pastor

The Rev. Brent Raska opens a brewery where faith is always on tap

May 16, 2023

Originally published May/June 2021

When membership of the small church he was serving dwindled to the point of closing, the Rev. Brent Raska, a home brewing enthusiast, turned his hobby into a vocation. He opened Burning Bush Brewery in 2020. Raska says the brewery has provided him with a way to continue ministry in a unique context. (Photo courtesy of Brent Raska)

As the Rev. Brent Raska finishes up another order from customers in the states he distributes beer to, he remembers how he felt on Dec. 31, 2017. How he wept after preaching a final sermon at the small church he’d served for five years, which was down to 12 people. “I couldn’t help but think I was a failure,” he said, “even though I knew I wasn’t.”

Although sad in the moment, the closing of Christ Presbyterian Church in North Riverside, Illinois, a suburb west of Chicago, presented the opportunity to pursue a dream born out of his commitment to relational ministry: to open a brewery. Raska, who had been home brewing for about six years, saw the idea as an extension of his call to ministry. He jumped in, believing the brewery would combine all of his passions for high-quality craft beer, fellowship and conversation — along with the opportunity for hospitality and community service.

“I felt like I could still be a pastor, but in a different way,” he said, adding, “a lot of 20- and 30-somethings will walk into a brewery, but not a church.”

When Raska opened with a soft launch on Jan. 1, 2020, his brewery had a community room in the back, with free meeting space for nonprofits and churches. He named his new business venture Burning Bush Brewery, after one of his favorite Bible stories.

“I love that God spoke to Moses in that way, and that Moses was faithful to God and his community,” he said. “People feel comfortable in a brewery, so they naturally ask me about the name, which leads to conversations about their thoughts about God, or faith, that they might not have had otherwise.”

Just a week after the Burning Bush’s grand opening on March 6, 2020, those conversations came to a grinding halt when the reality of the effects of Covid led to an effort to flatten the virus’ curve with sheltering-in-place mandates. Among the things that disappointed Raska was that he had to cancel a book sale in the community room. Proceeds would’ve gone to a nearby Lutheran church. “My head was spinning; we were in survival mode,” he said. “We had to cut expenses.”

Raska let his head brewer go, deciding it was time for him to take that on himself. A fellow brewery owner helped him learn the intricacies of commercial brewing. Another home-brewing friend, Frank Mercadante, learned the commercial side along with Raska, and has been brewing with him since the pandemic. Mercadante also has a ministry background having led a Catholic youth ministry for 30 years. In the process of starting his own brewery, he and Raska laugh about how they’re going back to a pre-Reformation tradition: Some of the best and oldest beers in the world were made by monks in monasteries.

Needing to keep income flowing, Raska kept Burning Bush Brewery open for takeout. He also started delivering his beer to some of Chicago’s suburbs.

By summer, he was able to serve many customers on his patio outside, paying close attention to social distancing guidelines. And in the fall, he started canning beers to provide another “to go” option for customers.

“It’s been quite the ride,” he said. “We have a good core of regulars in the neighborhood now. Eventually we’d love to have a community service day with them.”

Those regulars, and others becoming familiar with the beers he has on tap, constantly ask him about the stories behind their names. Most on the current list have biblical or church references.

Raska said he is grateful for his parents’ support and he is also grateful for his wife, Erin Raska, also a PC(USA) pastor, for weathering many a storm with him in their years together, from the closing of a congregation to the opening of a brewery at the start of a pandemic.

“How wonderful it has been,” he said. “We didn’t make a profit in our first year, but we didn’t have a huge loss, either.”

Perhaps another beer will be in the works at Burning Bush Brewery, one called Faithfulness.

Paul Seebeck, retired Mission Communications Strategist, Communications, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Omar Chan, Program Assistant, Application & Committee Support, Office of the General Assembly
Jill Chancellor, Reference Archivist, Presbyterian Historical Society, Office of the General Assembly

Let us pray

O God, we ask your blessing on those whom you have called. Strengthen them in this important service even as they strengthen the church through their work. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Praying intimately, with expectation and power

8 Habits of Evangelism author says prayer is the only way we can live like Jesus

February 22, 2023

Photo by Jon Tyson via Unsplash

As he began to talk exclusively with unchurched people, Dr. Tom Bagley heard the same thing again and again from people who were spiritually curious about God and faith: They wanted nothing to do with the church because of its hypocrisy, judgmentalism and exclusivity.

“People spoke about the brokenness they’d feel after dealing with church,” Bagley said. “Which is about us, our lifestyle and how we’re [not] living out what we are talking about.”

During that time, Bagley, who was starting a new worshiping community after leading an established PC(USA) congregation for 18 years, realized churches could no longer wait for people to come to them.

“If we’re ever going to bring perspective to the Christian church and its message, we need to go where people are,” he said. “With an alternative, distinct way of living that is all about our habits and practices.”

This is why Bagley, who is now a church revitalization and evangelism consultant and pastor of a small Presbyterian congregation in Normandy, Tennessee, chose to write about prayer in the 8 Habits of Evangelism resource produced by Theology, Formation & Evangelism ministries.

During an online discussion recently, Bagley said that a work by Alan Kreider, which focused on the distinctive habits of Christians in the early church, changed his life.

“The early Christian communities grew by leaps and bounds,” Bagley said. “There was a radical welcome for diversity of people.  They were not just teaching beliefs about Jesus but practicing the things Jesus taught.”

As he reflected on the Book of Acts and its stories of the early Christians loving their enemies and showing generosity by taking care of everyone including the poor, Bagley made observations about their prayer habits.

“I saw intimacy, how they related to God as Jesus did,” Bagley said. “Concerned about everyone and everything, they prayed for courage to stand up to systemic persecution.”

They also had expectations that they were going to see God’s activity, which gave him pause. “How often do we pray and forget about it, with expectation that God would do something?” he asked.

The Rev. Dr. Tom Bagley

The early church also prayed with power, which Bagley said was the Holy Spirit magnified when they prayed.

The congregation Bagley serves as a part-time pastor had no online presence until the pandemic, which he says helped the church to begin to look outward. Members and friends began to see new ways of God’s activity through people yearning for justice and dignity.

Now every Sunday, people who live even a block from the church join them for online worship.

“We had no idea they had spiritual yearnings, or that they were hungry for God,” Bagley said. “They’ll probably never come inside to church. But now, people who drive in and out of this neighborhood for church have an incredible connection.”

And once churches start talking about outward presence in the community, Bagley says, prayer becomes incredibly important.

“Because how can you and I live like Jesus?” he asked. “The only way is through prayer. That’s when you begin to see where God is at work, active in our neighbors, our coworkers, our communities — in the world.”

Normandy Presbyterian Church has started the practice of prayer walking in the neighborhood around the church. One day Bagley and a congregant met someone suffering from neck pain.  They asked if they could pray for him, which they did. Calling it a good thing, Bagley said they came back later to see how he was doing.

The man’s physical situation hadn’t changed, but here’s what he said to them: “I haven’t known people in the church in a really long time.  But it means so much to me that you care and are interested enough in me to check on me.”

“I believe that’s how it happens, how people get cured,” Bagley said.

Bagley hopes Presbyterians will take these practices of prayer, along with other the habits of evangelism, and begin to practice them in a regular and disciplined way, with more intentionality.

For if we pray with intimacy, expectation and power, Bagley said he’s convinced the world will notice and be drawn to Jesus, and to the communities that follow Jesus.

Paul Seebeck, Retired Communications Strategist, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Manuel Silva-Esterrich, Manager, Call Process Support, Ordered Ministry & Certification, Office of the General Assembly
T. Clark Simmons, Senior Church consultant, Atlanta GA, Church Engagement, Board of Pensions

Let us pray

Lord, thank you for making us participants in your work. Please allow us to come together to share in your plans for Creation and to place your plans above our own. Keep us in your love and grace. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - A PC(USA) new worshiping community in Texas is blessed to be served by ‘the community’s pastor’

The relationship between the Ghanaian and Woodhaven Presbyterian churches in Texas is creating ‘hearts open to see’

December 31, 2022

Video URL:  https://vimeo.com/756829220

Martin Osae, a fulltime educator in Dallas, is commissioned pastor at the Ghanaian Presbyterian Church at Woodhaven in Irving, Texas. (Photo by Rich Copley)

A 1001 new worshiping community is bringing new life into Woodhaven Presbyterian Church in Irving, Texas. The leader of the Ghanaian immigrant community worshiping at Woodhaven is Martin Osae, a bi-vocational pastor who works full time as an educator in Dallas. Osae is heavily involved in the community, ministering to people outside the walls of the church — so much so that he is known as the community’s pastor.

“Sometimes I say to myself, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice if all I do was ministry,’” he said. “But everywhere I go I make my presence known as the commissioned pastor of the Ghanaian Presbyterian Church at Woodhaven.”

According to the Rev. Shane Webb at Woodhaven Presbyterian Church,  Osae’s approach has helped awaken the congregation he serves. It’s made the church much more sensitive to other cultures, which Webb says is critical because Woodhaven worships in one of the most diverse area codes (972) in the nation.

“We have so much to learn from them,” Webb said. “Compared to our Anglo congregation they’re so much better about evangelism and coming up with great service projects that benefit people who don’t come to worship.”

For Joanna Kim, director of ministry services at Grace Presbytery, growth in the ministry partnership with the two Woodhaven congregations wouldn’t have been possible without 1001 New Worshiping Communities. She is grateful for the Ghanaian community and for Osae, who are always reminding each of the presbytery’s churches to keep their hearts open to see — and then be attentive to who their neighbors are.

Paul Seebeck, retired, Communications Strategist, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Martha Miller, Manager, Ministry Education & Support, Office of the General Assembly
Victor Min, Senior Translator, Global Language Resources, Administrative Services Group (A Corp)

Let us pray

God of Light, you have gifted us with vision and set us on a course. As we live and move in this world, help us to shed light in dark places and offer warmth to all who are lonely. We pray in the name of Jesus, the Light of the World. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - ‘I’m happier and it’s crazy how that happens’

The 58 LGBTQIA+ youth who attended the initial kin-dom camp in Texas went home blessed, as did their leaders

December 3, 2022

The Rev. Pepa Paniagua

Video URL: https://vimeo.com/742700173

This past summer, 1001 New Worshiping Communities ministry kin-dom community hosted its first kin-dom camp for LGBTQIA+ youth ages 12–17 living in Texas and other states in the Synod of the Sun.

Now as word spreads about kin-dom camp, leaders talk about how the camp came to be. In addition, youth and adult participants describe the deep impact kin-dom camp had on them.

As kin-dom community leader the Rev. Pepa Paniagua said, “I don’t think any of us anticipated the emotional joy” that came from their week together.

Read a report on a Synod of the Sun interview with Paniagua here.

Rich Copley and Paul Seebeck, Mission Communications, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Today’s Focus: kin-dom youth camp in Texas

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff

Shelly Lewis,  Administrative Manager, Controller’s Office, Administrative Services Group (A Corp)
Tony Lewis, Operations & Accounting Associate, Presbyterian Publishing Corporation

Let us pray

O God, how are you at work in the world? Show us today. Guide us to the ones you can reach through us. Not of our own doing but through your grave, let us be a part of what you want to do next. We pray in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - ‘Stable housing is the foundation for a successful life’

Church joins with the Presbytery of Denver, Habitat for Humanity and an interfaith alliance to dedicate land for affordable housing and help change exclusive zoning laws

November 10, 2022

Mountain View United Church in Aurora, Colorado, has membership in the PC(USA), the United Church of Christ and the United Methodist Church. (Photo by Mike Fitzer/Film 180)

In a recent study, the Interfaith Alliance of Colorado found the greatest need in the Denver metro area was affordable housing.

“They said the median house was going to be a million dollars,” said the Rev. Olivia Hudson Smith, Stated Clerk for the Presbytery of Denver.

To help solve the affordable housing crisis in Metro Denver, the Interfaith Alliance of Colorado sought the help of churches through a congregation land campaign. The alliance’s pitch: In the Metro area there are 5,000 acres of unused land owned by faith communities that could be leveraged for housing. When Mountain View United Church in Aurora heard about the land campaign, it decided, in its lead pastor’s words, “to run with it.”

Mountain View United Church pastors Wayne Laws and Tracy Hughes are looking forward to seeing how affordable housing transforms the lives of families living on land next to the church. (Photo by Mike Fitzer/Film 180)

“OK, they need land. We have 2 acres,” said the Rev. Dr. Tracy Hughes. “We understand that as not ours, but a gift from God to be shared for the common good.”

As the Rev. Wayne Laws, Mountain View’s minister of social justice and mission, began working on an affordable housing plan for the church, he quickly realized that Habitat for Humanity of Metro Denver would be a great partner to have on the project.

“Their vision and mission aligned with ours,” he said. “They weren’t coming in to make a quick dollar, which has been part of the problem with some affordable housing in the metro area.”

Initially there was lots of pushback from Mountain View neighbors for the project, which the church began to work on in 2018.  While many neighbors supported Habitat and affordable housing, they didn’t want it in their neighborhood. But then, the Presbytery of Denver, which has adopted the PC(USA) Matthew 25 vision to engage in building congregation vitality, dismantling structural racism and eradicating systemic poverty, got involved.

“They were able to support us in getting a vote from the city council to rezone our land from R1 to R2,” Hughes said. “And that’s systemic change. Because if you look in our neighborhood, we’re R1 zoning, which is lots of big houses and big lots, and that’s exclusionary zoning, right?”

The Rev. Fernando Rodríquez of the Presbytery of Denver walks on the land where affordable housing will soon be constructed. (Photo by Mike Fitzer/Film 180)

According to the Rev. Fernando Rodríquez, the Presbytery of Denver’s associate presbyter for mission, when the presbytery’s Matthew 25 group became involved, it put even more people working toward the finalization for the project. For group member Jean Demmler, the Matthew 25 vision provided an opportunity for the presbytery to really address structural change. One of the first things they did was write a letter to the Aurora City Council. When Laws told them they needed neighbors to provide testimonies, several ministers and ruling elders from churches in Aurora got involved, writing emails and testifying in front of the city council.

“I’ve got to give credit to the church and also to Habitat for the amazing amount of community outreach that they actually engaged in,” said Juan Marcano of the Aurora City Council. “My wife and I make above the median income, and we cannot afford a single-family home in the City of Aurora.

Marcano says that in most cities it’s illegal to build the duplex housing that will be constructed on the Mountain View property. Also forbidden by zoning ordinances in many communities are triplexes, quadplexes and cottage homes.

“It’s basically single-family home zoning in any city suburb,” he said. “And as time goes on, land gets more expensive, the cost of construction gets higher, and when housing gets built, it’s too expensive for people. But having stable housing is the foundation for a successful life.”

Laws has been thinking about the ripple effect of this affordable housing project, which by year’s end should see 10 duplexes going up on the two acres next to the church.

 “We start with 20 families getting the stability of home ownership and the security that comes with that,” he said.  “This is going to have impact generations from now.”

For Rodríquez, Matthew 7:16-20 speaks to what he saw happen in this affordable housing project, thanks to multiple partnerships and the Matthew 25 vision.

“I know it in Spanish,” he says, “‘Por sus frutos los conoceréis, by their fruits you will know them.’ Being able to assist families that need affordable housing, that is fruit.”

Paul Seebeck, Communications Specialist, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Ray Jones, Director, Theology, Formation & Evangelism, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Rick Jones, Director, Communications, Office of the General Assembly

Let us pray

Lord Jesus Christ, give us eyes that see your world as you use it. And then move us to serve and love your world, in word and deed, just as you love us and indeed all of your world. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Having fun with the Bible

The Adult Bible Study at PAM’s Worship & Music Conference samples biblical Creation stories

November 2, 2022

The Rev. Dr. Justin Reed

“What was Mary’s favorite nickname for baby Jesus, or Jesus as a toddler?” asked the Rev. Dr. Justin Reed.

This was the opening question at the Adult Bible Study at the Presbyterian Association of Musicians’ Music and Worship Conference.

“It’s in between what’s there in the Bible,” Reed said. “Mary might have called him something other than ‘Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior.’”

As light laughter filled the room, Reed, associate professor of Old Testament/Hebrew Bible at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, encouraged those present in the room and watching online to use their imagination and creativity by having fun with the Bible.

The stories Reed chose were diverse, he said, because each author wasn’t giving an objective, historical account of Creation. Rather they were living in real times, and they were drawing upon the traditions they had to make a point about the real issues they were dealing with.

Participants read from Isaiah 27, where Creation imagery is used to project hope into the future for people in exile. They then read from Isaiah 51:9–11, where this hope for a future is rooted in a long-ago past, in the days when God split open this great monstrous dragon creature and cut it to pieces. That mythical victory is mixed into the people’s historical memory of God splitting open the Red Sea and bringing the Israelites to freedom in Exodus 14:21–29.

“Their hope was that a God who could defeat the great forces of monstrous chaos is strong enough to orchestrate a ransoming back of God’s people from Babylon,” Reed said.

The class also looked at Job, who’s in such distress and is being judged by friends that he figures his sin must have caused the calamities that befall him. So, the author uses Creation imagery in chapter 26:6–14  to shut down the objections against Job. Job is telling his friends their ideas of God are broken, Reed said, that no one can understand God because of the power differential between the Creator and the created.

In Job 38:1–11 God finally speaks to Job with challenging questions, including, “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the Earth?” and “Do you understand?” According to Reed, God uses Creation imagery to counter what Job and his friends believe about God’s justice, that it’s supposed to work like a machine. You do the right thing, and you get a good reward. You do the wrong thing, and you get punished.

“God basically says to them, ‘There’s so much that is beyond your comprehension,’” Reed said.

The class also looked at Proverbs 8:22–36, where Wisdom is speaking about being in Creation, describing herself as the first of God’s acts long ago, before the beginning of the Earth.

“Wisdom says, ‘I was there before the deep, I was here before anything, setting up the foundations of how the entire cosmos works,’” Reed said. “The point here is that if you get in harmony with wisdom, then your past [and present] will be in concert with the very way all of Creation was made.”

After discussing their ideas about what the author’s main point in Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 was — in light of the other Creation stories in the Bible — Reed shared a children’s story with the Adult Bible Study Class.

In “A Very Big Problem,” co-authors Amy-Jill Levine and Sandy Eisenberg Sasso, together with illustrator Annie Bowler, tell the story of the world’s first created garden — and how everyone in it bragged and boasted that they were the most important, the one that God loved the most.

“By the end of the story, what you think the message is?” Reed asked. “God’s love is big enough for all of us. We’re all connected. We all play an important role.”

Paul Seebeck, Communications Strategist, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
José Irizarry, Vice President, Education, Church Engagement, Board of Pensions
Valerie Izumi, Manager, General Assembly Nominations, Office of the General Assembly

Let us pray

Loving God, thank you for sending your Son who laid aside heavenly comfort to take on human flesh and live for others, even giving himself on the cross for the salvation of all people. Give me the chance today to set aside my own comfort for another’s good and strengthen my heart to respond to your call. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Police officer baptized by clergy couple he used to arrest

Tom Wenzl says it was ‘just absolutely peace and calm’ being lowered into the water

October 7, 2022

Video URL:             https://vimeo.com/716500067

During Kevin Riley’s first interaction with Tom Wenzl, Riley was pinned in the parking lot of a grocery store in the Skagit Valley in Washington state. Wenzl, then a Mount Vernon police office, arrested Riley.

“Fast forward a couple of weeks later and he arrests Danielle,” Riley said of his wife.  “So, we did not have good interactions with Tom at all.”

The mugshot of Kevin Riley, at left, and the officer who arrested him, Tom Wenzl. (Contributed photos)

Eventually he and Danielle, who are now commissioned lay pastors at Mount Baker Presbyterian Church in Concrete, about two hours northeast of Seattle, got clean and sober.

Instead of spending time in jail, Kevin was working for the city of Mount Vernon on a work crew. That’s when Wenzl reentered his life.

“He decided to retire [from police work] and take over that work crew,” Riley said. “On his first day, I remember praying incessantly, ‘God, help me get through this.’”

But Wenzl didn’t even recognize Riley, until Kevin told him the story of his faith journey and sobriety. Hearing this, Wenzl placed Riley in charge of the work crew.

About two weeks later, Wenzl reminded Kevin that being on a work crew was like a jail sentence, and that he had the ability to give Riley credit-based early release, known as good time. Then he asked Riley, “How would you like tomorrow to be your last day?’  After Kevin said he’d “love that,” Wenzl told him the next day would be his last — and he’d never have to come back.

Danielle and Kevin Riley baptize the officer who once arrested them, Tom Wenzl. (Photo contributed by Kevin and Danielle Riley)

After that, Wenzl said he and Riley just kind of kept staying in touch — and each time he remembers Kevin being really strong in his faith.

“But it was always a neat relationship because he never shoved it down my throat,” Wenzl said. “He kept saying, ‘God is good and good things are happening.’  I’d say, “yeah, yeah, yeah, Kevin,” because I’d always done the right thing. I believe in karma, you know.”

As Kevin and Danielle were getting ready to do a public information meeting at Mount Baker Presbyterian Church for a four-week homeless shelter they were preparing to host in the church, Kevin reached out to Wenzl.

 “I told him I could use his support because I was getting ready to do this meeting by myself in front of all these angry people,” Riley said. “And he came and then he started coming to church. And then he did a sermon with me on forgiveness and reconciliation.”

After Covid hit, the two would occasionally run into each other. One day, Kevin got a call from Tom, who wanted to take him out for breakfast. It turned out Wenzl had met a woman. After telling Riley that he was going to marry this woman, Wenzl said, “I’ve decided to give my life over to Jesus, and I want to get baptized.”

“All of a sudden everything just fell into place for me, from Kevin having originally planted the seed to my wife cultivating it and making it real,” Wenzl said, pausing for a moment while emotion swept over him. “Guess what? God’s real. Who would have thunk it? Almost 60 years to the day, and all of a sudden, it’s real.”

Riley said it was a beautiful day on the river the day he baptized Wenzl. When he came out of the water, Wenzl was sobbing.

“I remember being lowered into the water, and there was just absolute peace and calm,” Wenzl said. “Then I felt them trying to pull me back up. I was like, ‘I’m not ready yet. I’m liking this.’”

Thinking back about his relationship with Kevin and Danielle Riley — two people who’d been strung out on drugs and living in a truck — Wenzel said, “from me arresting them to now they’re probably my best friends, it’s absolutely amazing to come full circle like that.”

For Danielle Riley, this has been the whole journey for her and for Kevin: God repairing and restoring all the broken relationships and broken pieces of their lives.

“This is just one more piece of evidence of God’s power in our story,” she said.

Paul Seebeck, Communications Strategist, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Annette Greer, Office Manager, Office of Public Witness, Compassion, Peace & Justice, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Paul Grier,  Vice President, Project Regeneration, Presbyterian Foundation

Let us pray

Gracious God, we thank you for the witness of the church. We ask that your mighty hand would uphold and guide us as we seek to serve you. In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - ‘Nobody is beyond resurrection’

Clean and sober for 10 years, clergy couple at Matthew 25 church helps people escape poverty and addiction

October 5, 2022

Video URL: https://vimeo.com/716496783

The mugshots of Kevin and Danielle Riley following their arrests. (Contributed photos)

Before Kevin Riley got clean and sober, he found himself at the former site of Trinity Presbyterian Church, which is now home to a nondenominational church in Sedro Wooley, Washington, a town about an hour north of Seattle.

“The deacons cared for me in ways no church had before,” he said.

Church leaders put a cot underneath the windows where he slept at night — and even ran power outside those windows so he could have heat to his heating pad.

But according to Danielle Riley, their life together was coming apart.

“It really was a hopeless feeling,” she said. “I don’t think we ever got suicidal, but I wouldn’t have minded if my life ended.”

One day Kevin told Danielle he’d said a prayer asking God to somehow remove her from their situation. That day she got arrested and spent three months in jail, pregnant with their first child.

Concrete is a town of 915 people in the Skagit Valley. (Photo by Mike Fitzer/Film 180)

Danielle said that’s where her transformation began.

“I was praying to God to change everything because I didn’t know how to do it,” she said.

It took Kevin a good month after Danielle was incarcerated to decide that he needed to get clean. During this time, he found himself behind a little church in Burlington, a short drive from Sedro Wooley. On the hill was a cross known as the Burlington Hill cross. For Kevin, that cross symbolized refuge. Growing up he got that message from his grandmother, who was a devout Catholic.

Being there at night, as he tried to sleep, a train would come by.

“The way my drug-addicted brain worked, that was the sound of God’s trumpet coming to scare away all the evil I had done,” he said.

While in jail, Danielle went to a Bible study for women and led by pastors from a 1001 new worshiping community, Tierra Nueva, which is a ministry of the Northwest Coast Presbytery. When Danielle got out of jail, she and Kevin made Tierra Nueva their home church community.

At the time, Mount Baker Presbyterian Church in Concrete, about a half-hour east of Burlington, was without a pastor. Knowing that Kevin was interested in receiving training as a pastor, Tierra Nueva founder Bob Ekblad asked the congregation, which was down to less than a dozen people, if Kevin could preach one Sunday.

For Anne Bussiere, who helped Mount Baker become a Matthew 25 church, Kevin’s heart and the message he brought in left the congregation feeling that he was “really moving with the Spirit.” So, leaders at the church kept inviting him back to preach.

When he became a commissioned lay pastor at Mount Baker Presbyterian Church, the first thing Kevin Riley did was have the congregation clean the church from the inside out as a way of increasing the church’s footprint in the community.

“Having pastors that have been out of seminary, they’ve never experienced homelessness and drug addiction,” she said. “So, a lot of the Scriptures we’ve heard over and over all of a sudden had a new light to them, because they were told from a different viewpoint.”

Once Kevin received commissioned lay pastor training, he was ordained and installed to serve the church.

“I asked them all what is the plan for your church,” Kevin said. “One of the ladies looked at me and said, ‘Well that’s why we hired you.’”

That’s when Kevin cast a vision for the congregation, to clean the church from the inside out and then increase its footprint in the community.

The addiction and poverty that he encounters now as a pastor in Concrete is a lot like what he experienced, both living in addiction and how he grew up. He says it’s strange to be stepping back into something he escaped, now trying to help others escape as well.

“Every one of us is broken and we all need Jesus. Some of us just manifest our brokenness in different ways. Just because somebody’s homeless and addicted doesn’t mean they’re more broken than you are,” he said.

Danielle Riley, who is a part-time pastor for children and family ministries at Mount Baker Presbyterian Church, says they believe that addiction is a disease of loneliness, and that people just need community to heal from what is a symptom of trauma.

“Nobody is beyond resurrection,” she said. “It can happen to us. It can be anybody.”

 Paul Seebeck, Communications Strategist, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Denise Gray, Accountant, General Ledger Office, Administrative Services Group (A Corp)
Bridgett Green, Vice President/Executive of Publishing & Editorial Director, Presbyterian Publishing Corporation

Let us pray

Our Father in heaven, may we find courage and comfort in the daily reminder that you are a God who assures his children: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers they shall not overwhelm you” (Isaiah 43:1—2). In Christ’s name. Amen.