By Jennifer Johnson
“I”ve done church planting, I”ve done megachurch, and I”ve done microchurch,” says Blake Ryan. “I think this is the only thing God could call me to that would fulfill my heart in ministry.”
Blake Ryan speaks at Church at the Mission Corona, a new congregation that launched in January in the Corona/Norco (CA) Rescue Mission.
“This” is Church at the Mission Corona, a new congregation that launched in January at the Corona/Norco (CA) Rescue Mission. Ryan serves as lead pastor of the church and director of the mission as well as managing principal at PlainJoe Studios, a design and media company also based in Corona.
“We were part of Church at the Mission”s first location in Tustin, CA, and began talking with Tony Wood, the pastor, about this dream of connecting the community with the rescue mission through a church,” Ryan says. “The mission was already doing incredibly good work, but there was no church focusing on it. As we got more involved, we couldn”t imagine doing anything else.”
The mission offers an 18- to 24-month program designed to take people from homeless to independent, with curriculum that addresses personal and foundational issues as well as practical life skills.
“Often the people who come to the mission are looking for work, but they haven”t addressed the problems that led them to this point of crisis,” Ryan says. “So we focus on helping them discover who they are in Christ and addressing pain from the past as well as providing financial counseling, job readiness training, parenting classes, and medical and legal attention. The idea is that by the time they graduate from the program they have dealt with wounds, connected with Christ and other people, worked through addictions, and developed a plan to move forward.”
Ryan is one of six bivocational staff members at the church””none of them receive a salary from Church at the Mission. Together they provide Sunday morning services, life groups, Financial Peace University, and more.
“We rent office space next door and operate all our weekly ministry from there,” Ryan says. “We have people available throughout the week and have great relationships with the case managers. A lot of times we”re there in the evenings not only with the people in the program but with the larger homeless community.”
One of the biggest joys of this new work is seeing the students progressing through the program and discovering a new life””and new life in Christ.
“One of our recent graduates is a single mom who has gone through the process and done the work,” he says. “She has a job and an apartment, and she”s part of our church. When you see the difference in people between when they walk in and when they walk out””it”s God.”
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