OAKLAND – First Baptist Church of Oakland likes to call itself "Southern Minnesota’s most exciting church.

Saturday, December 18, 1999

OAKLAND – First Baptist Church of Oakland likes to call itself "Southern Minnesota’s most exciting church."

Who would doubt their words?

Since Mike Ryburn arrived 15 months ago, membership has increased from 15 to 100. That alone speaks volumes for the church’s boast.

The Rev. Ryburn left a large congregation and the good life that came with a successful church in Tennessee to practice his Bible-based ministry to the whole person.

The congregation has shown its faith in Ryburn with their support of his/their involvement with Pacific Garden Mission.

Baptists from the nearby Freeborn and Mower counties area have embraced, figuratively and literally, four lost souls who are finding their way with Ryburn’s and the congregation’s help.

"Gordon Miller is a walking miracle," Ryburn said in an interview at his office in the Oakland Baptist Church education building. "He came to us from Pacific Garden Mission, the oldest and largest rescue mission of its kind anywhere. "He is living proof that it can be done and we have two other men, who are going to prove that also. Next year, we will help a female to rebuild her life."

That the Miller and the other men are African-Americans in an otherwise all-white country church’s congregation may not by itself be relevant.

That the men came here from Pacific Garden Mission is.

The mission, located in Chicago, Ill., was founded in 1877 and considers itself a "gospel lighthouse."

The homeless call it home for a meal or more. Street people, including addicts, prostitutes and others, who fell through society’s cracks.

The mission helps all free of charge. Food, clothing, overnight accommodations and medical treatment are available. Men, women and children are at least helped and hopefully saved from themselves and other bad influences to start their lives over again.

Miller was one of them.

Abandoned as a child, Miller was raised by his grandmother. A heroin addict, Miller drifted through life until he went to the mission and reclaimed his life.

The Rev. Dr. Robert Crane, president of Pillsbury College in Owatonna and a former interim pastor at Oakland Baptist Church, visited the Chicago rescue mission. So impressed by Miller’s testimony was Crane he invited him to come to southern Minnesota and enroll at the Owatonna college to study to become a minister.

Since Miller arrived, two other Pacific Garden Mission adult men have come to the area to live, study or work.

To get Oakland Baptist Church’s support for sponsoring the individuals, Ryburn first held a public meeting to share his idea. Then, he told more details of the idea to the church’s deacons and board of trustee members. Lastly, the proposal was made to the entire church body and they approved of the church’s participation.

Beginning last September in 1998, the first of the three adult males came to tiny Oakland to turn their lives around. Miller, who is not a high school graduate, earned his General Education Equivalency certificate while in the Owatonna college and is now studying for a bachelor’s degree with majors in pastoral studies and Bible history.

Grants obtained by the college are paying for Miller’s education.

When Miller first arrived in the area, he held a job and went to school part-time. Now, he is attending classes at Owatonna full-time and is the chaplain for the study body.

Ryburn said Miller, like other Pacific Garden Mission graduates, are taught to pursue "life-saving goals that will count for all eternity."

Two other Pacific Garden Mission individuals are working full-time.

A fourth adult male invited to the area to be sponsored by Oakland Baptist Church failed to adhere to the strict regiment imposed and ties with him were severed.

But that has not stopped the Ryburn and the church from agreeing to sponsor another Pacific Garden Mission candidate in year 2000.

Essentially, the church members provide the individuals, who Ryburn says "have absolutely nothing but the clothes on their backs" with clothing, home furnishings and other essentials of life.

Ryburn said the congregation’s acceptance of the link up with Pacific Garden Mission remains strong and that the three individuals regularly attend worship services and are considered a "part of the congregation."

Oakland Baptist Church earned a local reputation this summer for sponsoring some of the most popular youth activities in the area.

The church may never return to the days, when it flourished as a Christian school as well as a house of worship, but Ryburn has high hopes for more good things to come.

That includes building a multi-purpose facility on the ground grounds donated by an area farmer and opening a counseling center.

"We want to make Oakland Baptist a full-service church, but we can’t do that until we grow," he said. "I want to help build an evangelical church here and that would include an outreach center where everybody feels comfortable coming here."

Ryburn cautions, however, that he preaches the word of God and is not an "entertainer."

Thus, the Baptist minister is finding both the impetuous for giving a tiny congregation a second chance to grow and individuals who had lost hope a second chance also.

Anyone interested in assisting the Pacific Garden Mission ministry at Oakland Baptist Church may call 437-3080 for more information.