New Youth Pastor at Living Hope Evangelical Church in Neillsville
Thursday, August 23rd, 2018 -- 10:53 AM
-As of last week, Living Hope Evangelical Church in Neillsville has a new youth pastor.I spoke with the new youth pastor, Kevin Rhode, and he provided some background information about himself.
“I grew up in Greenfield, WI, which is a part of Milwaukee County. Grew up there my whole life. Went to Chicago for college at a school called Trinity International University. Got my biblical studies degree there. Came back, couldn’t find a church job right away, so I worked as an AT&T technician out in the field for about 5 years. Ended up getting a call from one of my really go friends who works up in Wausau at a church over there. And he said he had an awesome church opportunity for me up here. And, after a few months, it all worked out.”
Kevin also explained what made him decide to become a pastor.
“My senior year, that really good friend of mine in Wausau, he was my mentor when I was a senior in high school. I was going through some really tough times, trying to figure what to do and all this kind of stuff. And, at that point, I had just accepted getting into a school in Arizona called Eastern Arizona. I was going to play golf down there because golf was my life and that was all I really cared about! My main priority was getting out of the house, having some fun, partying a little bit.”
“That guy that mentored me, he spent a lot of time with me. Through that, I ended up really accepting Jesus and started following God. From then, I wanted to be a mentor for somebody else. It changed my life.”
Kevin talked about his short time here in the City of Neillsville.
“I’ve been here about a week. Last Saturday, my parents and my fiance came up here and helped move everything in and it’s been a week and I’m still surviving. One thing cool about Neillsville is that I bought a bunch of groceries thinking I’d be making food every night and I’ve had a meal at my house every single night from the community. They’re taking care of me!”
Finally, Kevin talked about what he’d like to do as the new youth pastor of Living Hope Evangelical Church.
“So far, the students seem awesome. The parents just seem great, which is an awesome place to start when you come in somewhere new. I’d love to, from what I’m hearing from the students and the parents, is they want to grow the youth group. They want more kids to come, know Jesus and just have a good time. So, basically, what I want to do, is come in here, and our youth group is Wednesday night, have the best experience that we can have. The safest experience we can have filled with fun games, good relationships, small groups and just teaching kids about who God is. So, I’m just excited to make Wednesday night the talk of the town for the youth. That’s my goal.”
Kevin is very excited about being in the Neillsville community.
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