Meet a Leader: Steve Overby
At Rise, we have a plurality of leadership—multiple leaders with different backgrounds and ministry experiences coming together to lead, govern, and protect our church. We want you to know your leaders and hear their history, so we recently sat down with one of them and asked them to tell us a little bit about their family, background, and where they were before Rise.
Meet Steve Overby
Steve Overby and his wife, Sue have been married almost 47 years. Sue is a Mount Hood Meadow Ski Instructor. Steve has recently retired from a career at OHSU. They have four kids and 13 grandkids.
"Our life is a lot of fun. At our age, you start looking back and see how the Lord has worked in your life. And I see it in our kids."
A little about their family...
They have a son who lives in Germany with his wife and four kids. He works at Black Forest Academy teaching missionary children in that area. They try to visit them as much as they can.
They have a daughter and son-in-law, a pastor, plus three grandkids in Bellingham, Washington, where they are church planting. Steve and Sue actually lived there for many years and all their kids were born up there.
They have a son and daughter-in-law plus their three grandchildren who live down in Salem. They're both teachers.
Then they have one more son, Seth, who leads worship locally at New Hope Church. He and his wife have three wonderful kids.
They have a legacy of ministry with their kids as missionaries, church planters, and worship leaders.
Church Background & Calling...
Steve and Sue started their background in the church as Campus Crusade Cru staff. They worked for about 20 years with university students in New Mexico and then in Bellingham, Washington at Western Washington University.
As time went on Steve really sensed his gifting was more administrative. They ended up here in the Portland area, where Steve was invited to be on staff at Good Shepherd for about 20 years and concluded that job as Church Operations Pastor. Steve has a background in leading large churches. He brings that experience and impact into his leadership at Rise.
"One of the things that I think is helpful for us is to see, as a church, is the kind of people leading this church and the background and experience."
Steve and Sue have now been at Rise for six and a half years. They joke that they're one of the oldest couples at Rise, but they're glad to see the diversity that has come with our growth over the last few years.
Without knowing about Rise, and the future of our location, Steve and Sue bought a house in downtown Gresham just blocks from Rise. They believe in investing in the next generation and saturating Gresham with the Gospel.
"Statistically, we only have X amount of years ahead of us, so how do we want to invest those next years that the Lord allows us to have on this earth?"
When Steve and Sue walked into Rise we were a small church plant that was less than two years old. Despite having worked at and attended much larger churches, Steve and Sue humbly served from the very beginning by stacking chairs and picking up trash. They live as faithful, humble servants in all circumstances.
Hopes for the future of Rise...
About four years ago Steve joined the Leadership Team at Rise. He then helped launched the Financial Advisory Team that helps oversee and give guidance to the budget and spending. Steve uses his gifts in administration and spreadsheets to make sure that we're financially wise and good stewards of the finances people give.
"I want to make sure those monies are used in an appropriate way, but also enhancing or moving the vision forward."
Steve said he's excited about the future of our church in Gresham. He asks himself,
"How can we continue to make disciples? How we can make Jesus followers? Because at the end of the day, we're all going away. We're all going to be gone. Is what are we going to leave a building or are we going leave people? That's really the bottom line. We're going to be able to reach more people for Christ, multiply our discipleship, and help be a part of making Jesus-followers."
We're so grateful to have the wisdom and experience the Overbys bring to our church and community.
To find out more about our leaders and history head over to rise.cc/about