Juan Cuevas
Pocatello Site Pastor
Originally from a small town in central Washington (Zillah to be exact) my knowledge of the world was limited to the cornfields and cherry blossoms surrounding my home. I grew up on a few acres of land out in the country with a dream of one day becoming the president of the United States or a pharmacist who could acquire lots of accolades and make lots of money; God had other plans.
The older I got the more enthralled I was with relationships, self worth and parties hoping to find my satisfaction and joy in the crumbling façade I had spent a life time creating. My sophomore year of high school the hammer hit the clay and I was finding the things I had placed my life in were crumbling all around me. With a reluctant heart and open mind I accepted an invitation to a youth group where the gospel was joyfully articulated and my heart of stone was melted like a snow ball ushering the arrival of spring; my ultimate source of fulfillment and satisfaction was found; it was in Jesus.
My life was radically changed by the good news that God so loved me that being motivated by his love sent his only son down to earth to live the perfect life that I couldn’t live. That not only did he live but that he died in my place for my sin and that on the cross he conquered sin and death. That in my belief and shifting of trust from my work to please God to Christ work already done on my behalf, that I could trust Christ work in my place and forever have an intimate relationship with God.
This news in college began to grow; from a personal relationship to one I wanted others to know about. I joined a fraternity (Pi Kappa Phi) with the intention of sharing the gospel with people who otherwise might have been separated from any gospel influence. God did wonderful things in the four years I was in the fraternity and many came into relationships with Christ.
I became enamored with the reality that so many of my friends just need the simple truths of the Gospel communicated to them for them to believe. The belief part was and is the job of God, but to give my life to sharing this good news is indeed a job worth my life. In 2014 I took the job as an on campus intern with Resonate at University of Idaho to continue following after Jesus calling, awakened early in life to communicate the gospel with joy! An old theologian named Dietrich Bonhoeffer once said, “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die”. I pray my life would be dedicated to Christ and his good work until he calls me home.
My hope for Resonate Church is that God would so evidently move in the lives of students so as to change the way Jesus is talked about. That our church would be marked with stories of how Jesus used sinful broken people to do amazing things.