 |  How churches are reaching "the least of these".
Fall 2007
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Outside In
What it takes to minister to those on the margins.
Helen Lee
October 1, 2007
Kevin Sturt's life was crumbling. After years of addiction to pornography and sex with prostitutes, the 47-year-old consultant was sitting in his living room, confronted by his wife, his children, and their spouses or significant others, forced to acknowledge his activities and certain he would lose his family as a result.
After the intervention, he was broken and ashamed, but he was also determined to fight his addictions. A few nights later, he attended the weekly meeting of Mercy Walk, the recovery ministry of NewSong Church in Irvine, California, which he had been attending for years before his crash occurred.
"I was shattered," he says. "But when I went to Mercy Walk and had my first taste of a Christ-based recovery program, I gained strength and hope from others who have been in the same situation. My journey of recovery started that night. I was allowed to cry and share without condemnation and with complete love and acceptance."
Steve Rivera doesn't have a resume that most would consider fit for a pastor. Growing up in a household with an uncle who helped start Hell's Angels in Oakland, living with an abusive stepfather, his life turned to gangs, drugs, and crime, until he ended up in a Christian rehabilitation home. There he began to turn his life around, and in time, he was leading others who had emerged from similar situations.
"I had led a destructive life," he says. "I wanted to give back for all I had done in the past. I had a love for helping people from the same situations I'd been in."
His experiences turned out to be exactly what was needed at Evergreen Baptist Church-Los Angeles, which was trying to reach the marginalized. In January 2007, the church hired him as its community outreach pastor. Rivera is gratified ...
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