Meet your neighbor Ryan Loucks who is Senior Pastor of the Stronghurst Christian Church.
The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
by Susan Galbraith, Quill Reporter
Meet your neighbor Ryan Loucks who is Senior Pastor of the Stronghurst Christian Church.
He was selected in June and moved to Stronghurst on July 11th of this year.
He previously served as pastor of Greenville Central Christian Church at Greenville. While serving as pastor there he also was a student at St. Louis Christian College and worked at the Edwardsville Intelligencer newspaper.
Pastor Ryan was born in Belleville and raised in Collinsville.
In 1992 he graduated from Collinsville High School. After high school, he studied pre-law at Belleville Area College now S.W.I.C.
Ryan's dad was a race car driver so, when he was 8 days old, his father and mother took him to the race track. His dad cut a volleyball in two for a helmet for Ryan and his mom cut up one of his dad's neoprene firesuits to make one for baby Ryan. His dad fashioned a steel car seat and welded it to the car frame so Ryan could sit beside his dad during the wheel pack. (You can ask Pastor Ryan what a wheel pack is!)
He started NASCAR scoring at 8 years of age and at 18 he was offered, by Busch Racing, to be tour chief scoring position. Ryan did that for 8 years and loves to tell the story of his experiences.
While on the road with NASCAR he was in the parking lot at Wal-Mart at Branson, Missouri, when he was witnessed to by Ray Comfort, an evangelist who was doing street witnessing. At that time, Ryan accepted the Lord and over a short period of time made the decision to go to Bible college.
Pastor Ryan has been married to Kara for 2 1/2 years with 2 children -Austin (16 1/2) and Emily (5).
His parents are Paul and Donna Loucks of Glen Carbon. His dad is a registered supervisor for F.K.G. Oil and his mom has retired from 30 years of home Day Care but later helped his dad with his business.
A brother, Lonnie (Maggie) is lead singer for a secular rock band and lives in O'Fallon, Missouri, and a sister, Paula (James) Ruggeroli, lives in Las Vegas, Nevada. His brother-in-law is prosecuting attorney for the state of Nevada.
Pastor Ryan has just finished his 8th book. The first of his books the Expository Study of the Gospel of Luke-Part 1 and 2 is to be published in November by Xoulon Press. His other books include: Expository Study of Paul's Gospel to the Romans; Expository Study of the Book of Mark-Part 1 and 2, Expository Study of John and Expository Study of John's Revelation-Part 1 and 2.
He said, "Those books are my hobby."
The studies are a teaching tool for lay leaders, pastors, Sunday school teachers, small group leaders and those who teach Biblical studies.
You can access the church online at www.stonghurstc.org and listen to any of Pastor Ryan's sermons.