A Comeback Story

Revive Church (AG) in Chattanooga, Tennessee, led by co-pastors Jeremy and Christa Songer, seeks to tell others of God’s faithfulness and redemption even in the midst of tragedy.

Jeremy and Christa met later in life, after both had worked full time in ministry in two different states.

After giving birth to their second child, Jeremy’s late wife, Janna, was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer and passed away a year later. In the middle of grief, with two small children, Jeremy was ready to walk away from ministry completely.

At an event in Chicago, hosted by Wilfredo “Choco” De Jesús, currently the Assemblies of God U.S. Missions executive director of the Assemblies of God, Jeremy found new hope for continuing in his work.

“This helped him realize that you can still be effective in ministry even in spite of the deep loss and grief that you've experienced,” Christa says. “Our lives are comeback stories. And God can do that for each and every person.”

Christa herself walked through tragedy in her life before meeting Jeremy. She was serving as the first female presbyter in the Kansas Ministry Network while pastoring in Greensburg, Kansas, when an EF5 tornado destroyed 95% of the town. While living in a FEMA trailer, Christa worked alongside other ministries and churches to help rebuild the city.  

She says, “We met through a mutual friend, and over time, God brought healing, restoration, and a shared calling. We were married and began ministering together.”

Jeremy, who grew up in Chattanooga, had felt God’s call to plant an AG church in the city since he was a teenager. After getting married in 2018, Jeremy and Christa moved to Chattanooga with plans to plant a church spring 2020.

Christa talks about the adjustments she faced in her life as she moved to a new state and married Jeremy.

“It was just very unique stepping away from being a single lead pastor,” says Christa. “I had just turned 40 when I met my husband. I went from that role into being wife and mother and becoming a co-pastor.”

When the pandemic brought their plans to an unexpected halt, the Songers decided to turn their home into the church meeting location, including converting their garage into a permanent space for children’s church. In spite of the challenges, the church continued to grow through the years. After six years of hosting services in shared spaces and community buildings, Revive Church is currently in the process of moving into their own permanent location.

In the middle of all the changes, Revive Church remains focused on sharing the gospel with the city around them. One of their biggest outreaches is a community-wide event called Back to Life which they lead in collaboration with several other area churches.

Christa states, “Last year we had 22 churches and faith-based nonprofit ministries that participated. There's a local food bank that provides food. We'll have haircuts, school supplies, prayer teams, a lot of games and fun stuff for the kids. But then every single person that comes through the property has a very clear gospel presentation.”

According to Jeremy, “At the event, 49 people were saved this year and there were 45 last year. It was really cool because there were all kinds of diverse churches. There are Baptist, Presbyterians, Assemblies of God, Church of God, and non-denominational all working together.”

Darnell Woods, the worship director at Revive Church, says that the collaboration for the event has had lasting impact.

“I think that the community being able to see the amount of churches together has really helped,” Woods says. “We have stories of people whose lives were changed from the service.”

Through the years, Jeremy says he’s been impacted by the stories of people who have come through Revive Church.

“We’ve had hundreds of salvations and first connections to ministry,” he says. “We've grown a lot as a church.”

“Because of our own story, we've been able to walk alongside blended families, broken families, ones that are walking through life altering crises,” Christa says. “That gives us an opportunity to speak into their lives – because we're not people's idea of a stereotypical ministry family.”

Woods says his experience at Revive Church has impacted his faith. 

“Since being at Revive, my faith has definitely grown stronger in terms of truly believing the Word of God and who He says that I am,” Woods states. “It has had an effect on my home, and it has affected my marriage. I'm seeing my children pray differently and spiritual matters change because the emphasis changed since being at Revive.”

“Everybody has a comeback story in Jesus,” Christa says. “But just because there's a comeback story doesn't mean it's an easy story. Faith in Jesus doesn't mean that life is easy, but it means we're never alone.

“And so in the midst of our family being rebuilt, in the midst of launching a church with COVID, in the midst of looking for another permanent home for Revive, we're humbled to be able to come alongside people that are also in points of trauma or crisis or crossroads in their lives. It's not about us. It's about us saying,

Jeremy describes a moment recently where his daughter, now 15, was playing the keyboard and singing at a Bible study like her birth mother, who had been a worship leader.

“From the trauma that she walked through of losing her mom at age 4 to now, God's done incredible work,” he says. “There are a lot of moments where I catch myself tearing up when I see how God has redeemed our family, including my son, my wife, and my daughter. It's just been an incredible thing to see.”

“It's our comeback story,” Christa says.