At Home With Pastor Kevin Sheese

Valley Christian Magazine sat down with Pastor Kevin Sheese for an informal chat about life in and away from the pulpit…

How long have you been Pastor of Rio Valley Church of the Nazarene?

 

We’ve been here 12 ½ years and moved here from Illinois.  At our previous church, we were at we were there for 16 years…. guess you can say we don’t move around much!

 

I drive by your church daily…how long have you been around?

The church has been here on the corner of Main and Nolana since around 1966.  The church began downtown McAllen over on 12^th and Fresno.  It started with a tent meeting back in the early days of McAllen.  After moving here, we’ve just about torn everything down except the sanctuary and in 1998 they did a major remodel.

 

Share one of the characteristics of Rio Valley?

Rio Valley Nazarene had a celebration of the nations not too long ago.  We celebrated the various cultures and ethnicities represented here.  We celebrated 15 different countries of origin from Arratia, North Africa, The Congo, Libya, many others and of course Hispanic and Anglo.  We liked that because we think Heaven is going to be little like that…. the various cultures yet the oneness we have in Christ.

 

Have you always been Rio Valley?

We were originally known as First Church of the Nazarene. We changed it about 2-2 ½ years ago.

 

Why the name Change?

Well, we had a member of the church who had invited someone to go to church with them. Their response was “oh you’re talking about that Anglo church.”  I thought…hhhhmph…there was something about that name First Church of the Nazarene that drummed up an image in people’s minds. So we went through the long process within the denomination and the church to change the name to “Rio Valley.”  We thought that this would better communicate with our culture here in the Valley.

 

How long have you been married?

38 years.  Since 1974.

 

Tell us about your wife.

My wife teaches second grade at Navarro Elementary in McAllen ISD.  She recently just became a Gramma a few weeks ago.

[VCM: So that makes you a Grampa?]  No it doesn’t!!  Haha Just kidding.

She loves teaching…she just absolutely loves the kids.

 

How did you get from Illinois to the Valley?

How we got here was from an Anglo church within a small community of around 6000 people. There was a hog processing plant that killed 15,000 hogs a day. They were bringing Hispanic people in from Texas. Most of them were men who came by themselves at first to work and then would later bring their families up to join them. My wife felt that there was no outreach to them. We knew that most could not speak any English, so we started an English as a second language class at our church.  Even though neither one us spoke any Spanish. We were able to connect with a lady who spoke Spanish and ironically she had moved to our town from McAllen.

 

People started coming and it grew to an after school program. We recruited volunteers to help them with their homework. It was going well and that’s when my wife suggested that we start a Spanish Service and I was like yeah right. But we did! We went out and made flyers and handed them out throughout the community. People came because I think when people know that you care about them…whether you can speak their language or not…. they know.  We didn’t know anything about cross culture ministry.  We did the music and God allowed it to grow.  I realized that I could preach and it could be interpreted but I could not disciple them.  I could not create small groups or anything with my lack of speaking the Spanish language.  That’s when we were able to bring up a Pastor from Guadalajara to help with the ministry.

 

That was one of the most challenging yet most rewarding time in our ministry.  We were not gifted or equipped but we saw God move. We believe that this work prepared us and allowed us the opportunity to serve here in the Rio Grande Valley.

 

What would you say is the purpose of your church?

Building lives for Christ. Lives that love God. Connect with others and serve the world. So all of our programs and everything that we initiate try to accomplish each of those purposes. We’re helping people come to love God with a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Our Life Groups and small group ministry help people live life together.  I can tell you the one area we are finding our niche is with our service ministry. We want to serve our community the best way possible.

 

We are involved in the lives of many disenfranchised kids and their families.  A lot of these disenfranchised kids don’t get a lot of opportunity.  We want to give them an opportunity. We help them with their extracurricular activities with school and with through our Wednesday night children programs.

 

This is one of the things that are in the heart of church and in the heart of our leadership.  We want to serve those around us here in our neighborhood.  We want to be there for those say a mile…a ½ mile around us.

 

From when you got here 12 years ago to today, how is Rio Valley Different?

Well I when I got here it was kind of tradition driven. A lot of it was geared toward Winter Texans. The attendance would dramatically increase. When I got here we started changing the mindset of not trying to only reach winter Texans but reach the people living in McAllen. Where the average person in McAllen is 26 years old, married with 2 children and they’re Hispanic. That’s our target outreach. We changed from one person and a choir to Worship teams and a worship band with drums, guitar, etc…

 

We also implemented comprehensive small groups with great training of the leaders with workshops and one-on-one training.

 

Fast forward 12 years from now….what do we see?

I would like to see an increase in our small groups. We currently have around 60-70% involvement with our groups which is pretty good, but I still believe for people to really be disciples, and not just Sunday attendees, need that life-on-life with other Christians.  I would really like to have more like 90% involvement. I’d like for us to be doing something with our community where we are really making a difference in the lives of people. Not sure what that is yet but I’m sure God will lead us there. I’d like to find that where our facility is being used more throughout the week. We are on a vibrant thoroughfare and we are located very visibly and I’d like for us to continue and increase our foreign mission involvement.  It does something for those we serve, but it really does something for those doing the serving.  It changes their hearts.  It helps them to see Missions in a world-view and not just Christ here in the Valley or in their own little world.  It’s a lot bigger than that.

 

Talk a little bit about the people being discipled…walking life on life:

We know that there is a time and place for formal teaching and for bible study. But I believe real life transformation occurs when people actually take that information and implement it in their lives. That is the challenge. That is the dynamic of life groups. We take our studies and apply them to life. How is this going to help you in life? How is this going to draw you to Christ? How is this going to draw others to Christ? What are the challenges you have where there is a close enough relationship where they can share what their deficiencies/challenges are and they can challenge one another. Pray with one another. Help deal with issues with parenting and finance.  There’s just something you learn when you are one-on-one with a couple that can help walk you through something they’ve gone through.  Putting God first.

 

I believe it is like the same model of Jesus Christ and His disciples. He’s walking with them in daily life.  Doing life with them and yet making spiritual applications as He walking with them. I believe in what I would call relational evangelism. I believe in building genuine relationships with people. Caring about them where they are outside the four walls of the church and then earning the opportunity to ask those personal questions and to share Christ’s love and truth with them. This is what I am preaching/teaching, we have to touch our world outside the four walls of our church.

 

Can you share a story about relational evangelism?

I go Starbucks a lot and I made friends with one of the Baristas. I’m trying to reach out to him. It turns out that he is interested with UFC (ultimate fighting championship) which turns out I am a hard-core fan. We had an event in our home and invited him. He came and has been to church several times. You know…mutual interests…just everyday encounters. There’s a dynamic when you have it in your home…there’s that warmer and closer relationship you can have.

 

What are you passionate about?

This is it!  Teaching people to reach out and build relationships. You know I’m not going to get anybody saved or discipled sitting here in my office. It has to be outside these four walls. Teach them the practical things…you know some people live an isolated life. They say that after you become a Christian within 2 years you rarely have many friends that are outside the kingdom of God. Hmmmm, I don’t think that’s right. The people Jesus hung out with…who were they? He was criticized for it.

 

Here’s an example I used in a sermon illustration a few weeks ago: Two months ago we were at South Padre Island and there’s a place down on the beach called Clayton’s. I guess you’d call it a party place. My wife and I were down on the beach and a storm came rolling in. I saw it coming and told my wife that we need to get under cover. So we went up inside under cover towards the back…which was near the bar. Soon everyone was coming up. We were sitting there eating at a table for four when saw a young couple standing there. Well we had two extra seats so we invited them to join us. They did and set their beers on our table. We started looking around thinking who is going to think that it’s mine?!  Well wouldn’t you know it…I look over across the area and we see this brand new couple from our church that I had just taken through new membership. They were like ‘heeeeey how’s it going?!’

 

I thought wait a minute…why should I be embarrassed or intimidated by befriending people that need the Lord. We had a wonderful conversation with that couple. We got to know them. Talked about different things. You know I could have gotten up and left or not invited them by thinking what are people going to think? We would have missed an opportunity to have a life impact on the couple. Not sure if they will ever come to our church but I know he will remember that I didn’t thump him over the head with the bible. I was just a real normal guy.

 

Let’s talk about that normal guy…

I love to fish…don’t get much time to fish but I still love to do it. I love UFC (ultimate fighting championship). I love to watch it and not do it! Some people think that it’s too violent but I don’t think it’s anymore violent than the NFL.  You know there’s some application there to life…of competition. Fight the good fight. We wrestle not…

I don’t think that justifies UFC [laughing] but there’s opportunity there to reach out to that area of life.

 

My wife and I love to hike. We went hiking this summer up in Utah and did some hiking in very remote areas. We wound up going so far that we got dehydrated and got sick that night. We only took one bottle of water, so we learned to be prepared next time!

 

Another hobby is smoking ribs. We will do that here at the church from time to time. Smoke ribs…cook fajitas and chicken. That always brings people in!

 

 

Can you share about your journey to becoming a Pastor?

I was 18 and my not-yet-wife back then knew she was not supposed to be dating me. She was raised in church and was taught what a good Christian boy should be like. I wasn’t the church kind. Well I went but I was doing everything you weren’t supposed to be doing. One weekend, we had a revival at our church and God spoke to her. She came up to me and said we are done. She wouldn’t date me anymore. Later on, I was in my car at the city park and I repented. I threw my Marlboro’s out the window! The Lord dealt with me and later that year, I felt the call to be a Pastor. I fought it for about two years and then went to Bible College in Colorado.

 

He called but I didn’t pick up the phone right away!  J But I am glad I did!!

 

 

Rio Valley Church of the Nazarene

1400 W Nolana

McAllen, TX 78504

956-686-6748

nazarene1@prodigy.net

 

Pastor Kevin Sheese

Wife:  Pam Sheese

 

Service Times:

Sunday: 10:45 – Worship

9:45 – Sunday School

Wednesday:

7:00 – Ladies Bible Study, Youth & Kids

Tuesday:

7:00 – Men’s Bible Study (in a home)

 

Life Groups – Throughout the week

 

 

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