Ronnie Rothe
Lead Pastor
My Background
I am originally from Denver, CO, but moved to Lincoln, NE in high school. My wife, Kristy, and I initially met on the first day of high school in Spanish class. Four years later and were married at the ripe old age of 20 years old. We eventually moved to Chicago in 2001 where I graduated from Moody Bible Institute. In 2004, I took a job as a youth pastor in Birmingham, AL. In 2006, I started and pastored a church in Birmingham. Previous to that I worked primarily with high school students for eight years. We moved to Omaha from Birmingham in November of 2008 after feeling called to start Relevant Community Church.
Kristy and I have two beautiful daughters: Grace and Reese. My passion is to be a man of God, to love my wife, to be a great daddy, and to advance God's Kingdom as much as possible with the short amount of time I have been given.
My Spiritual Journey
I grew up going to church, but by the time I was in high school I thought Christianity was a joke. Like most people, I was looking for something to fill the longings of my heart, but never thought God was the one to fill it. I desired freedom more than anything, but thought God was the last person to give it. The whole God and Jesus thing just didn't seem real.
So, I did what a lot of guys do. I turned to girls. After being in a relationship with a girl for over a year, she informed me toward the end of my sophomore year that she might be pregnant. It turned out to be a false alarm, but I knew something in my life needed to change. I was looking for fulfillment and freedom in the wrong places and was coming up short.
About that time I started attending Youth for Christ/Campus Life Clubs at my high school. I built a strong relationship with the club director who patiently showed me that Jesus Christ was the only person that could fulfill the desires of my heart, and give me true freedom. Deciding that I had nothing to lose, I opened myself up to the idea of God, and put my faith in Jesus Christ by asking him to forgive my sins and be the Leader of my life.
While my life is by no means perfect, and is still filled with ups and downs, Jesus is my true fulfillment. He has given me joy, hope, purpose and freedom. I believe being followers of Christ is what we were created for and what makes our lives worth living.