I did. He was awesome. He was kind, compassionate, loving, loved young people, loved kids, loved The Bible, loved his family, and more importantly, loved God. 

He loved and believed in the church…especially his church. He loved mentoring young pastors throughout their journey and being there when a pastor needed a pastor. 

Last night, he was called home by his Heavenly Father. 

His name is Pastor Dave Breen. 

He was a man who inspired so many people…so many young people to go out and do great things whether it was in the church or not. 

I first heard of him when he was ministering at Fair Haven Ministries.  My family & I were looking for a new church to go to and we tried them out. We heard this man speak and he blew my mind. 

I would get chills down my spine when he would speak. I wanted to hear more and so did my family. So we kept coming back to hear him preach. 

Then one day, he gave a sermon entitled “Being A Light Unto The World.”  

I’m convinced that at that moment is when I got a passion from the Holy Spirit of what I needed to do. 

Pastor Dave talked about being a member of the Christian community, sharing the good news of Christ with those who may not be able to attend church. 

And that’s when I knew what I should do. 

My mom brought me into the Fair Haven offices so I could meet with Pastor Dave and talk about a vision I had for that church & many others. 

I wanted to do live video & audio streaming of church services for people who could not come into church for whatever reason. And I told him how we could implement it. He was intrigued & loved the idea.  I started planning it out. 

That was the year 2000. 3 years ahead of podcasting and 5 years ahead of live video streaming services. 

Sadly, shortly after that meeting, he left that church and my project was shelved.  

Fast forward a few years…

My freshmen year of college, Pastor Dave started his own church called Sunrise Ministries. Our family joined up shortly after it started. 

It was a very small church with a dozen members or so. We met In a convention center (and still do).  After joining, that’s when I knew that I could take this church to many places with technology.

Shortly after joining, I did my Faith Walk.  The Faith Walk is a time where you profess your faith to the church through a series of activities and exercises.  You would develop your credo (what you believe in) and share it with the congregation.

Pastor Dave continued to inspire me and pushed me to share my vision with the church.  I decided to share my vision with the church when I confessed my love for Jesus.  I told them how I could take Sunrise Ministries global and share our sermons with anyone who’d listen.

Thanks to recent technological advances, one week after sharing my vision, I published Sunrise’s first podcast in the iTunes Podcast store.  It was extremely successful.  It was one of the first podcasts that received regular, weekly updates in iTunes.  It was featured on the front page of the store for a couple days!

It was because of Pastor Dave’s inspiring words that I was able to push myself to do this for Sunrise.  It worked very well.  Now I’m planning on helping other churches setup Podcasts and video podcasts…to promote the love of Christ to the world.

This is my passion.  I feel this is what I can do for churches.

I have to give a lot of that credit to Pastor Dave.  He taught me to just “go for it.”  I’ll miss having lunches with him at various Mexican restaurants in the area.  We would talk about life and theology. It was so much fun picking his brain.  I loved his stories. He is going to be sorely missed by so many people here.  I am sad he’s gone, but happy that he’s home in heaven…where he is cancer free.

I’m sure he’s had thousands of discussions with Biblical people and Bible scholars from various times.  If I know Pastor Dave, I’m sure he’s still having discussions with them. I wouldn’t be surprised if he gave the sermon up there today.

Today’s church service was a humbling service in so many ways.  It was helpful seeing a church mourn  for their loss.  He was an amazing shepherd and his flock loved him.  Heaven has gained a great man that’s for sure.

The good news is…we will all be together one day…and united in Heaven.  And it will be glorious.  And I certainly look forward when I can hear his sermons again.

Until that time, I’m going to continue to “Just go for it,” and live my life…and try to integrate podcasts & video streaming into churches.  I know that’s what Pastor Dave would want me to do.

We love you Pastor Dave and we all look forward to seeing you again…cancer free and healthy.

John 11:25-26 (NIV)  “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.”