VITAL Conversations with Pastor Chris & Amy Ryan
Vital Conversations: Lessons Learned from the Margins.
Name: Chris Ryan
Spouse: Amy Ryan
Kids/Grandkids: William and Zachary Ryan - 14, Carli Ryan - 10
Church Pastorate: Daystar Worship Center - Gordonsville
How long have you pastored this church? 8 1/2 months
Other churches you have served?
Northpark Church - Raleigh, NC - Children’s Pastor
Rose Heights Church - Tyler, TX - Children’s Pastor
Redemption to the Nations Church - Chattanooga, TN - Children’s Pastor / International Campuses Liaison
Redemption to the Nations Church - Athens, TN - Campus Pastor
How has God confirmed His calling on your life?
He continually confirms the call on a daily basis. From knowing I was called at a young age he began to open doors of opportunity to minister and flourish in whatever role and capacity I have been placed in. I have found over the years as I remain humble and submitted to the call, He will always order the steps needed and continually light the path that always leads to being right in the middle of His will.
How has God proven His faithfulness in your ministry?
In Revelation 3:14, one of the aspects Jesus describes of himself to the church is the “Faithful and True”. That is who He is. He can be nothing but that.
My #1 ministry is my family. He has truly been faithful to our family. My marriage would not be as strong as it is today without the faithfulness of God. Our twin boys are a testament of the faithfulness and healing power of God. We were told we needed to abort one baby early in the pregnancy, then they were both born at 27 weeks with one baby completely lifeless at birth. 4 months in the hospital, 7 surgeries between the two of them, brain malformations that should have hindered everything in their life, and now they are both thriving teenagers excelling in school and enjoying sports and chasing after the Lord.
We adopted our daughter from China a little over 6 years ago having no clue of the expenses involved. God showed his faithfulness in helping us raise over $30,000 in one month to cover everything. He was faithful in how we all bonded together from day 1 and continues to fill our home with joy! He is Faithful!
He has truly been faithful in our ministry every step of the way. From a newly married couple moving to a different state to start up a Children’s Ministry in a new church plant with a one year fundraised small salary to 5 years later seeing a thriving self-sustaining kids ministry full of kids and leaders, He is Faithful.
We launched the Redemption to the Nations Church, Athens campus at the end of 2019. On the first Sunday of March 2020 we took in members for the first time with a packed out sanctuary. The very next Sunday Covid shut it all down. Being online only for a short time and essentially relaunching and starting all over again, we saw the faithfulness of God as more doors opened to minister to our community, overflowing the church and continuing to pour out His spirit.
Faithful is who He is!
Why do you enjoy pastoring your local congregation?
I love being with the Body of Christ. We are always better together. I enjoy the conversations and visits. Oftentimes those are meant to bring encouragement to those members, but it brings more encouragement to me I think than them.
I love seeing God transform the hearts and lives of his people. Watching God’s story unfold in people's lives brings great joy to me. It’s what gives me hope when walking through really tough times with members, that if He did it for one, He will do it for them. It’s seeing the light in others that allows me to encourage those in really dark times that the light always shines the brightest in the darkest places.
We are always better together.
Why is your local congregation vital to your community?
The vision statement of Daystar is to be “A Helping Church for the hurting and healed.” We make a conscious effort to do all we can outside the walls of our church to be a help to our community.
Being next door to the local elementary school, we make sure they don’t have to reach out to anyone else for help, because they know Daystar is there. From backpacks and supplies, support and treats for teachers, holiday meals and gifts for school families that need an extra lift, whatever it takes we are there to help.
Resources are now available for us to offer fresh produce at no cost to families in our community on a regular basis. We believe we are vital to this community not just because we meet physical needs. We meet the physical need to let them know we truly care about THEM. People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care. When they know we care, it then opens the door for us to introduce them to the one who cares and loves them the most, Jesus Christ. Introducing our community to the authentic love of Jesus Christ is the most vital thing a community could have.
What is one valuable lesson you’ve learned from a misstep or mistake in handling a situation?
There was one point in our ministry that we were in need of filling a department lead position. Not wanting to have that void, I quickly filled the position with someone I knew had the capability and gifting for, but was probably not quite ready at that moment.
Trying to quickly fill the position and quickly continue to move forward caused a few more back steps than there should have been. That moment has helped me in learning to truly “wait on the Lord.” No one likes waiting, but truly trusting his timing and following His lead always works out best.
My thinking now is, yes there are plenty of things we would love to do or add, but until the right time I’m going to focus on what we can do well right now.
Have you had to think “outside the box” to accomplish a task or mission in the church and what was it?
I’m not sure how “outside the box” this was, but it was a big shift for the church we were at at the time. We always had a HUGE turnout for our annual Fall Festival. One of our goals of the event was to see new families come into the church. We never really saw this happening after this event, even though the event was a huge success.
We presented the idea to not have a huge event at the church, but actually empower our church families to love their neighbors in their community. Instead of one huge event, we had 15 events taking place at the same time all over our region. Our families hosted neighborhood block parties with a bounce house, extra big candy prizes, hot dogs, popcorn and anything else the family wanted to do and it was absolutely free to the neighborhood.
We watched our church actually BE the church in action. Church families teamed up to host these events. They were all super creative with their parties. We heard over and over again how they met so many neighbors they had never spoken to, and we watched families trickle into the church because they had made a personal connection with a family in our church. They saw the church actually come to where they were instead of saying come to where we are.
What are some of the future ministry goals for your church?
We are focusing on “stretching and strengthening” in the coming year. We hope to stretch out even wider in our community and surrounding region with outreach. We see this happening through the schools hoping to partner with more schools and with our local FCA program.
We have some wonderful small groups that meet throughout the month helping our church families get connected together while also pulling in those outside our church. We hope to see the number of groups increase in the coming year allowing our church family to lead and serve in the gifting God has placed in them.
We are also focusing on strengthening our church body in prayer and discipleship. We have intentional times of prayer each month, but are looking to increase those as well as to grow and equip our prayer team.
We are strategizing at the moment a plan to intentionally help disciple those new to the faith or wanting to go deeper in their walk with the Lord. This creates opportunity for leaders in our church to use their gifts to teach and train, as well as raise up strong healthy christians in the body of Christ to continue to reach others.
I believe if we are able to see a bigger reach “stretch” and help develop a stronger body through discipleship “strengthen” we will see God do the “supernatural”.
