Redemptive Refuge for Ministers
Ministry can be difficult. Undoubtedly, that is no surprise to you. Our district desires to provide a safe, confidential space for ministers to seek spiritual support, accountability, guidance for personal struggles and temptations while upholding the principles of confidentiality, redemption, and accountability.
We have a team of ministers who have agreed to serve as spiritual friends who offer redemptive refuge. They are known for their spiritual maturity, empathy, discretion, and commitment to confidentiality.
What Can I Expect?
○ Personal relationship
○ Confidentiality
○ Spiritual support: guidance, prayer, and counsel based on biblical principles.
○ Redemptive approach: focusing on healing, restoration, and reconciliation.
Meet Our Team
Pastor Steve Dow
Steve has been in full-time ministry since 1978 in various capacities: youth pastor, senior pastor, and finally hospice chaplaincy. He has worked on the Western Canadian Credentials board, led children's and youth camps, and been on worship teams as both leader and as a team member. For a few years he co-owned a restaurant franchise in Surrey, BC. He has enjoyed fly fishing, hiking, camping, hunting, bowling, gardening, and more recently completing VW puzzles and framing them for his home and office. He enjoys playing guitar and singing.
He recently spoke at Willamette Valley Campmeeting concerning grief from his own personal experience and also the experience as a hospice chaplain.
Steve lives in Albany, Oregon and has 2 adult children and 4 grandchildren.
Pastor Rick Oliver
Rick was raised under the ministry of Rev Grant Fall in Klamath Falls and attended the Church of God. He is an alumnus of WPC and has a B/A in Religion and Pastoral Ministries 75-79. He was ordained in 1983.
Rick was a youth pastor at both Oceanside COG and South Bay COG, Torrance, CA from 1979-1986 and then was the lead pastor at the Pendleton COG for 28 yrs. He retired from pastoral ministry in 2014.
While pastoring the Pendleton church he was also an on-call chaplain at St Anthony Hospital, a hospice chaplain for two years and then full-time position as a patient/staff care chaplain until retirement in 2023. Rick has served in a number of other roles in ministry and in his community.
Rick has been married to Debbie for 43 years and they have 3 children and 5 grandchildren.
Pastor Alice Faye Warren
Alice grew up in a Christian family. She felt called to ministry but went another direction as a licensed practical nurse out of high school. She attended WPC and also a school that Maranatha COG had started. She then went to Western Evangelical Seminary and was ordained in Oregon in 1995. After being encouraged to be a certified chaplain she served as a reservist and was later called up to be a military chaplain. She was the first African American woman chaplain in the United States.
Alice moved to the Washington DC area and attended several churches in the DC area and went to Haiti on a mission trip. She then served as an associate pastor at the 2nd Church of God in Washington, DC before serving 5 years at Walter Reed military base as a captain. Chaplaincy is her first love.
Alice moved back to Oregon in 2021 and is a part of the leadership at the Maranatha Church. She loves church, participates in many ministries, and she loves Jesus.
Pastor Kristen Zetzche
Kristen serves as the associate pastor in her home church of Reedsport Church of God, which she started attending at age seven.
She is married to her German husband Jost and has three adult children and three grandchildren.
Kristen served as an underground missionary in China for two years; she then worked as an academic editor for six years in Hamburg and Berlin, Germany, and for fourteen more years in Reedsport.
Since 2016 she has been on staff in Reedsport where she leads worship, oversees the life group ministry, and works together with the congregation to follow Jesus and serve the community.
If you wish to speak with a counselor instead of our redemptive refuge team these are our recommendations.
Johnnie Burt is an active member of the Hoodview Church of God in Woodburn. She is married to Bill Burt and they both have served in different capacities in their church over the past decade. Johnnie is an LPC qualified counselor with Capstone Counseling. Phone # 503-980-5322, website link: https://capstonecounseling.net
Steve Peirce has a counseling practice in Tigard, OR, Pacific Christian Counseling Center. He is a part of the Tigard Church of God, is a certified LPC counselor, and has been a great help to some of our pastors. Phone # 503-639-9523, website link: https://www.pacificchristiancounseling.com
This ministry is under the guidance of the Credentials and Advisory Board but your conversations with the Redemptive Refuge team members is confidential.