PASTOR CHRIS BUSCHER
MINISTRY JOURNEY
From Teen Challenge and international missions to pastoral leadership in the local church.
Pastor Chris Buscher entered full-time ministry in 2008. Since then, his journey has included recovery ministry, missions in Brazil, Kenya, and Pakistan, church leadership, writing, podcasting, and pastoral ministry.
It has not been a straight or easy road. It is a story of surrender, unexpected doors, painful transitions, and the faithfulness of God through every season.
THE JOURNEY
FORMED THROUGH MINISTRY, MISSIONS, AND MERCY
Pastor Chris’s ministry did not begin with a platform. It began with surrender.
Before the books, podcasts, and preaching opportunities, there were recovery homes, small churches, mission fields, difficult seasons, and people who needed more than religious answers.
Those experiences taught him that ministry is not built through visibility. It is built through obedience, endurance, and a willingness to serve wherever God opens the door.
THE TESTIMONY THAT BECAME A CALLING
Before entering ministry, Pastor Chris experienced the mercy of Jesus Christ through his own battles with brokenness and addiction.
Teen Challenge became an important part of his restoration. God used the ministry not only to rebuild his life, but also to give him a burden for people others had given up on.
In 2008, Pastor Chris entered full-time ministry through Teen Challenge. There, he learned how to walk with people through addiction, discipline, discipleship, and the difficult process of rebuilding a life.
In 2011, he co-founded Lay Me Down Ministry with Jason Kollash and Thomas Jennings. The name reflected the heart of the ministry: laying down personal plans, comfort, and recognition to follow wherever God led.
That surrender opened the door to years of preaching and missionary work in Pakistan, Kenya, and Brazil.
PAKISTAN: THE DOOR THAT OPENED AT THE LAST HOUR
The trip had been paid for. The ticket was purchased. Churches and ministry leaders were waiting. But Pastor Chris’s visa had been denied.
For days, it appeared the door had closed. Then, only twenty-four hours before the flight, the visa arrived without explanation.
Pastor Chris boarded the plane and spent several weeks preaching, serving local believers, and ministering in communities where following Jesus carried a serious cost.
Pakistan became an early lesson that would follow him throughout ministry: when God opens a door, faith must be willing to move.
KENYA: WHEN CONVICTION COST SOMETHING
Pastor Chris arrived in Kenya expecting to preach and serve alongside an established ministry. Instead, he encountered serious concerns about the integrity of the partnership.
Walking away meant losing the schedule, support, and platform that had brought him there. But he could not remain connected to something he could not support with a clear conscience.
With no certain plan, another door opened. A local family welcomed Pastor Chris and his ministry partner into their home with one simple request: open the Bible with us.
That invitation became several months of preaching, discipleship, and service within a local church.
Kenya taught Pastor Chris that God does not need compromised platforms to accomplish His mission. He can begin with a family, an open Bible, and someone willing to obey.
BRAZIL: DOORS ONLY GOD COULD OPEN
Brazil became one of the most significant chapters of Pastor Chris’s ministry.
He preached in churches, conferences, crusades, and gatherings across the country. Through relationships within the Assemblies of God, including Pastor José Wellington, doors opened for Pastor Chris to preach before thousands of pastors and church leaders.
Those opportunities were far beyond anything he could have arranged for himself. They also reinforced an important truth: a larger platform never removes the responsibility to remain faithful to the message.
The purpose was not recognition. It was to preach Jesus and serve the church.
BRAZIL: WHEN JESSICA ENTERED THE STORY
While Pastor Chris was ministering in northern Brazil, a pastor helped connect him with Jessica.
They met in person during a twelve-hour layover at the São Paulo airport in 2012. Jessica spoke little English, and Pastor Chris was still learning Portuguese. Over time, they learned one another’s language, built a relationship, and married in 2013.
Jessica then joined Pastor Chris in ministry. She became his wife, ministry partner, translator, closest friend, and eventually the mother of their three children.
From that point forward, the ministry journey also became a family journey.
FAMILY & MINISTRY: BUILDING A FAMILY AND MINISTRY IN BRAZIL
The years that followed included ministry, marriage, business, financial hardship, unexpected provision, and the work of building a family far from Pastor Chris’s home country.
Pastor Chris served as an associate pastor with the Assemblies of God, preached, discipled believers, and helped lead within the church. Chris and Jessica also built an English school that supported their family and helped finance ministry. The school eventually expanded through a franchise model that continues today.
This chapter was neither easy nor polished. God used it to form their marriage, provide for their growing family, deepen their faith, and teach them how ministry and ordinary life must remain connected.
LEAVING BRAZIL: A FULL-CIRCLE CALL
After years of building their marriage, family, ministry, and business in Brazil, Chris and Jessica sensed God leading them back to the United States.
They returned to serve in Teen Challenge, the same ministry God had used years earlier in Pastor Chris’s restoration.
What had once been part of rebuilding his own life became an opportunity for Chris and Jessica to serve others facing addiction, brokenness, and the difficult work of beginning again.
TEXAS: A PAINFUL TRANSITION
After serving in Teen Challenge and helping lead a major turnaround in Texas, Pastor Chris accepted a local church assignment that appeared likely to become a long-term chapter.
Instead, it became one of the most painful seasons of his life and ministry.
That transition brought disappointment, broken trust, and significant loss. It forced Chris and Jessica to seek God without knowing what would come next.
What appeared to be an ending eventually became part of the road that led their family to Open Bible Churches, Washington, and a pastoral assignment they had never expected.
WASHINGTON: SERVING MOUNTAIN VALLEY CHAPEL
In 2025, Pastor Chris became Lead Pastor of Mountain Valley Chapel through Open Bible Churches.
The Buscher family moved to Gold Bar, Washington, and began serving a church that had endured several difficult years without a permanent pastor.
Since arriving, Pastor Chris and Jessica have worked to build relationships, strengthen ministries, develop leaders, reach the community, and help the church move forward with renewed health and purpose.
Mountain Valley Chapel is not simply another destination in the journey. It is the church family Pastor Chris has been called to shepherd in this season.
HOW IT ALL CONNECTS
NEARLY TWO DECADES IN, THE CALLING REMAINS
The countries, responsibilities, and seasons have changed, but Jesus Christ has remained faithful through them all.
Jesus saves.
Jesus restores.
Jesus sends.
Jesus builds His church.
Nearly two decades after entering full-time ministry, Pastor Chris continues to preach the Word, make disciples, serve the local church, and follow wherever God leads.
The story is still being written!