I realized that it wasn’t enough to be kind; I needed to love everyone including my enemies (Matthew 5:44). It wasn’t enough to believe things about God; I needed that head knowledge to become heart knowledge!”

Pastor Brannen

For more information check out www.thejourneyhastings.church

Please feel invited to attend one of The Journey Church’s Sunday services held at the Hastings Art Center on East 4th Street.

A new day was celebrated at The Journey Church in Hastings. A new pastor was ordained on the team who will someday soon become the new lead pastor of our church. Ordaining qualified pastors is part of our church’s governance, which calls for commissioning ministers into specific roles as part of our organizational structure which is referred to as a 501c3 not-for-profit church entity.
Pastor Paris Pasch grew up in Hastings and has now served for over 43 years as a pastor in three different local churches. His most recent church called The Journey Church has for some years searched for a successor so that Pastor Pasch might slow down a bit. The church leadership board had 60 applicants from across the country apply to be interviewed and ended up selecting a wonderful young man named Brannen Neumeister from North Minneapolis. Since his first days in April of this year the church has sensed a clear calling on his life to become a fruitful minister. Pastor Pasch has been in a full-time mentoring mode attempting to pass on his years of experience into this 32-year-young man of faith. The church is using a shadow model where the mentor and protégé work side by side and go virtually everywhere together in order to show the whole story of pastoring. Pastor Brannen preached his first sermon Aug. 10, but he is already well assimilated into the heart of the congregation. Here is the story from Pastor Brannen’s perspective:
“On the 20th of July the unimaginable happened. I became an ordained pastor at The Journey Church. Maybe not unimaginable for everyone. A generally kind and well-behaved kid (my parents might have objections,) who prayed the sinner’s prayer, went to church every Sunday and Wednesday, believed the facts of the Gospel/Bible, defended them and graduated from Moody Bible Institute. Sounds like the expected trajectory of a pastor, but to me it was miraculous. I’d like to share a bit about how God brought me to this point and give some insight into this ordination process.
“I may have gone to church every week in my youth but to me it had very little to offer. I was there because my parents told me I was supposed to be, and for the sports activities. I couldn’t relate with the kids pouring their hearts out in worship, to the boring sermons, or the tiny wafer and cup of juice. I knew the right answers, I knew God and church were supposed to be important, but I felt nothing for them. Despite a kind exterior I was dead inside, but God makes a way.
“After graduating from Fridley High School, I intended to study political science at a college in D.C. but couldn’t afford to go. I spent a year working, and God started his work on me. With my extra time, and the big questions of life in the back of my mind, I decided to start reading the Bible for myself and God started convicting me. I read passages describing how those in Christ are a new creation, the old has passed away, the new has come (2 Corinthians 5:17). I realized that it wasn’t enough to be kind; I needed to love everyone including my enemies (Matthew 5:44). It wasn’t enough to believe things about God; I needed that head knowledge to become heart knowledge!
“In a period of searching and questioning, God reached down and removed the scales from my eyes. I saw my sin and deadness for what it was as I cried out to God to save me, and he did! The things I once hated or things I was indifferent to he gave me a love for. Suddenly I loved reading the Bible, going to church, and being amongst God’s people. Yet, being born again alone doesn’t qualify someone to lead God’s church.
“I was a shy, quiet young man, terrified of public speaking. I had few leadership skills and little faith, but God doesn’t call the qualified, he qualifies the called. God sent me on a detour into the field of fire and water restoration where I helped people during some of the worst periods of their lives. Others started recognizing the leadership qualities I didn’t realize I had. He sent me to a church that needed all hands on deck so that I’d grow in my preaching. Even when I went into a period of a couple years of discouragement, doubt about my calling, deep depression, and despair; God was faithful.
“God always sent me life preservers when I felt like I was drowning and my faith came out stronger on the other side. Two years ago, God started reiterating the calling he placed on my life and last summer I started looking for positions. Two months into my search I came across an ad for The Journey Church. I was looking for a place where I could be mentored and have the gifts God has given me shaped to serve the body of Christ, and I couldn’t have found a better place. Pastor Paris and Pastor Ben are both godly, humble leaders, who have a heart for the people of God. They don’t want to retire to a beach in Florida, they are lifelong shepherds who desire to remain among the sheep they love so much.
“Common practice in the American church is that when an older pastor retires, they leave the church they were pastoring. Instead of this, we have an opportunity to do something special. Over the next couple of years, I will be mentored into the role of lead pastor so that I will eventually take over as Pastor Paris “retires,” but Pastor Paris and Ben will remain at The Journey Church and continue to strive side by side with me. They have a wealth of wisdom that took decades to accumulate, and I have the courage to take the church forward in the coming years.
“The ordination service was an acknowledgement of all these things and that God has placed me at The Journey to shepherd his people. My purpose is not to build a name for myself, but to exalt the name of Jesus who led me here. It’s not to advance my own agenda but to contribute to the kingdom of God. This is best accomplished if the groundwork laid by former leaders is not torn up but built upon.”
Please feel invited to attend one of The Journey Church’s Sunday services held at the Hastings Art Center on East 4th Street. They begin at 9:30 a.m. and provide a wonderful musical experience and relevant messages about how much God cares about people. For more information check out www.thejourneyhastings.church