By Brad Dupray
As an ordained Christian minister and holder of a PhD in psychology, John Walker was looking for a way to marry his two passions to benefit the kingdom. Out of that desire was born Blessing Ranch, a ministry of resource and renewal for church leaders. John and his wife, Deanna, walked away from successful jobs and stable incomes to pursue their dream in 1994. Since that time, more than 3,000 Christian leaders have visited the ranch.
Blessing Ranch is a family affair, as daughter Hope oversees the ranch”s accounting and daughter Charity is working on her PhD with the hope of adding focused care for pastors” kids to the ranch program.
What is Blessing Ranch?
Blessing Ranch is a Christian leader resource and renewal center. Our specialty is taking care of pastors, missionaries, and Christian leaders. We bring the worlds of theology and psychology together and provide an experience for pastors and their spouses and families. We help them understand what their next steps in growth as leaders might be.
How do you carry out the mission?
It usually takes one of three forms. First, we deal with pastors who are in crisis””something has gone pretty terribly wrong. Second, we deal with a lot of pastors who are looking to increase the excellence of their ministries. They simply want to understand themselves and the pathway of ministry that comes before them. They want to uncover some leadership hindrances and do what it takes to improve. Third, we”re trying to prevent future problems by helping Christian leaders understand how their past may influence their reactions in the future.
Where do you excel?
Ken Idleman describes the first area as what the ranch has always been good at””being an intensive care unit at the bottom of the cliff. So we”re trying to put some hedges at the top of the cliff.
Where did the idea for Blessing Ranch come from?
It really wasn”t my idea. It was a God idea. There were the beginnings of a great deal of restlessness inside of me. How was I going to bring together my background in ministry and my background in psychology? He created a vision inside of me to create a place where pastors from all across the country, and all around the world, could come for restoration and renewal. So Deanna and I bought property in northern Colorado and created a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation to house the ministry.
Did you have to start from the ground up?
There was nothing here. No power, no water, no buildings. So for the first two years all we did was build. We had to bring power and water in.
How did you sustain yourselves those first years?
Rice and beans! <laughs> It was really a faith pilgrimage for us. All we knew was God had sent us. We decided to invest everything we had into the place. Deanna left her job as an attorney for a major oil company and I closed both of my practices””a general clinical practice and a neuropsychology practice. I was also the chief operating officer of a major metropolitan hospital. We walked away from all of that. We invested everything we had into the creation of the vision. Then, when we had exhausted every resource we had, God showed up.
How did he show up?
One of the ways was that Deanna”s old boss offered her job back, to work out of our home in Colorado. This, in 1995, was absolutely miraculous. Back then it was very uncommon to work from home. People didn”t have the electronic options they have today. Not only did Deanna feed our family, but she was the No. 1 donor to Blessing Ranch for many years.
Did people say, “Are you nuts?”
Beyond a shadow of a doubt. One of the hardest things to overcome in the beginning was the cynicism and doubt of others. Early on, people thought we were crazy. I didn”t think we were crazy. I thought we were being obedient. We put everything on the line and risked everything in order to be obedient. My view is that God has blessed that obedience.
With a groundbreaking venture like this, how did you get people to buy into the vision?
In those early days we had no credibility. No one had ever heard of Blessing Ranch, let alone a Christian leader resource and renewal center. It was as people began to come to the ranch and people heard the miraculous stories of healing and growth that others began to get on board.
What do you ask people to do in preparation for a week”s stay at the ranch?
We really don”t ask them to do anything except to show up . . . expectant that God will do something when they get here. Second, we ask that they be open and honest and disclosing in their time here. Clearly the people who are most transparent make the greatest gains. Third, we simply try to discover what God is up to in their lives and figure out how to more fully cooperate with that. So it becomes very active, very lively, and very experiential in spiritual formation as well as problem solving and growth modeling.
What makes it different than just going to a series of counseling sessions around home?
The setting, for one thing. We”re in beautiful, rural, mountainous Colorado. People stay with us here for a full week.
That definitely makes it different.
Yes. In addition, it”s a very intensive format””quick and results oriented. We”ve been doing this long enough that we know people make gains and maintain them over the years. Lastly, the ranch is noted for getting down to the heart of the issue very rapidly and uncovering whatever might be maintaining the issue or problem””and then actually fixing it.
Is a week at the ranch all about counseling, or are there other elements?
Blessing Ranch is built around theology being the truth and psychology being the meaningful application of the truth. So understanding obstacles and barriers to spiritual formation, and removing those barriers, is an essential part of the ranch experience. We get beyond historical solutions and find creative solutions that are often outside the individual”s “box.” It”s based on Einstein”s definition of insanity, which is “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Why do people do the same thing over and over again? Because it makes perfectly good sense to us, even though it”s not working.
What do you consider a successful week at the ranch?
When people leave here on Friday and say the ranch was appropriately named, then I think we”ve been tremendously successful. And when the goals we identify in the first part of the week are actually achieved to the satisfaction of our guests, and they have an action plan of how to go back and not only implement the gains but maintain the gains, then I think it”s been a very successful week.
I understand ministry teams come, too.
We often work with ministry teams. We may have the entire leadership staff of a church, Bible college, or an organization, and we work as a whole. So not only do we take care of individuals and couples and families, we also take care of senior leadership of organizations, faculties of colleges, and entire administrative groups from parachurch organizations.
Do you have the same goals for ministry teams as you do with individuals?
In the same spirit, yes. Obviously the goals are going to look a little bit different for an organization than for a marriage. But the realities are much the same in helping them achieve their goals””fix it and come up with an action plan. Once they come up with that action plan, it”s about taking the gains of the ranch back into everyday life and living.
What changes do you see on the horizon?
We are putting more and more effort into prevention. Our newest staff member, Joe Harvey, is a longtime pastor who is just completing his doctorate of ministry in pastor care (not “pastoral” care). His primary emphasis is prevention.
Will that require expansion at the ranch?
One of the things we”re doing through Joe”s ministry is launching a whole church partnership program, where Blessing Ranch can partner with the local church to bring teaching, resource materials, and intervention into the local church. We”re putting a great deal of energy into creating resource materials and doing “road show” presentations. We”ll start drilling down to deal with some of the significant issues in the church, like (for example) how do you deal with the leadership and authority issues between elders and staff in an effective way?
Has the ranch turned out to be a blessing to you?
Absolutely. One of the things I”m happiest about is that Blessing Ranch has been a pioneer, and a significant player, both in this country and globally, in the arena of pastor care. Fifteen years ago there was no such animal. Now there is more and more awareness of the need for pastor care.
I”ll give you a practical example. I find it satisfying that churches see the need for pastor sabbaticals. My best guess is that 20 percent of all our guests in the first half of 2009 have been pastors on sabbatical. I take great joy in that because five to seven years ago there were very few pastor sabbaticals. According to the Francis A. Schaeffer Institute of Church Leadership Development, 90 percent of all pastors do not finish well by the time they retire. That”s terrible! I take great joy in helping churches understand that the caring is bilateral””the pastor to the church and the church to the pastor.
Another great joy of the ranch is the incredibly wonderful Christian leaders who come through each week, which gives me hope for the church. These are amazingly gifted, committed, lovely people, simply trying to advance the kingdom through the efforts of the local church. Pastors and leaders and missionaries who come through this place bring a lot of blessings to us.
This is a place that communicates honor and respect to leaders in a safe place where we discover what God is up to.
Brad Dupray is senior vice president, ministry development, with Church Development Fund, Irvine, California.
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