Our Pastor

Pastor Brad Beier is a native of Louisiana, his lovely wife Shannon from Michigan, and our cross-cultural relationship began when we met on an urban mission trip in Toronto. Shannon is a pastor's daughter who vowed never to marry a pastor; she's no longer as hasty in making vows.   We married in 1999, and our honeymoon summer was spent living at an urban ministry with homeless men sleeping on our porch. Upon graduating from Reformed Theological Seminary, in 2001, Brad served in an urban church planting apprenticeship at Faith Christian Fellowship in Baltimore.  We moved to Chicago in 2003 to begin the satellite congregation of Bethel Christian Church which is now Living Hope Church. We have three precious daughters, Elianna, Mikayla, and Olivia.

Brad's early years: I grew up in a Christian family, but I put Christ on stand-by during my early teenage years. Sometime after I formally decided to enjoy life without the restrictions of religion, God rescued me, a stubborn 15 year old, from my delusions of autonomy, in a rather convincing and gracious way.  While studying in a pre-med Biology track and running track at Louisiana Tech University, God once again graciously redirected my path into cross-cultural ministry through a series of friendships, mission trips, and hearing Scriptures' call to love your neighbors as yourself, no matter how different they may be.