Lex and Pam Castro are the pastors of Right Now Church in Crown Point, Indiana. The couple met in 2001 at church, and after years of being in leadership roles together, they were drawn to begin pastoring. Soon after, they were lead pastors of Right Now Church.
“We were both serving in a leadership capacity, and then the Lord called us to go into pastoring together. It's been a really long time. We've been in ministry for 20 plus years. We started off as children pastors, and then youth pastors, and then God called us to young adults,” Pam Castro said. “It's not that we were trying to work up some type of corporate ladder, we just love to serve God's people, no matter what age.”
Lex and Pam lived in Chicago with their children and came to the realization that moving to Indiana would allow their children to attend a better school system. After the family moved, they did not know where to begin in terms of finding a new church, but Pam explained how they were led in the right direction.
“There was a church two minutes away from our house and we're like, ‘Okay, you moved us here, you blessed us with this house. Let's start with this church.’ We went a couple of times and we really felt like the Lord had confirmed that that's where we were supposed to be,” Pam Castro said.
That church was Southlake Worship Center in Hobart, now called The Crossing. The Castros began going there in 2005 and found themselves in leadership roles at the church not long after.
“That's where we started becoming pastors, and then we also began our schooling to become licensed ministers,” Pam Castro said.
Within that church organization, there are multiple locations. A smaller church within the organization was left without a pastor due to the previous pastor having moved. The Castros were scheduled to preach there, so they went to the grounds to pray.
“My husband was scheduled to preach there. Before we even preached, we went to the grounds and we began to pray to see what we felt that the Lord was saying regarding this location,” Pam Castro said. “We felt like there was still life there, and he was calling us specifically to bridge the gap between three really specific things. He called us to bridge the gap between denominational division, between generational division, and between racial division.”
The new location had nothing except what Pam Castro calls the three ‘golden girls.’ Despite only having three people still going back to the location, the Castros felt like it was their duty to build that church back up and bridge the gap between the three divisions.
“When we prayed over the grounds, we really felt like if we did a simulcast location, or they close, what happens to the golden girls that are there? We felt like they needed an actual pastor; they needed someone to connect with to build that relationship with, and we offered,” Pam Castro said. “We were still serving it at Southlake and had an executive pastor position. We had offered to give pastoring a try for a year and then re-evaluate to see what happened. Our organization then agreed that we could become the lead pastors in that location.”
Aside from their focus on the three divisions, the Castros also knew that family was an important value to have within the church.
“Once we started, we knew that family was going to be our niche. We are very family-oriented. We love connecting with people, we're here and we have no family here. Our church family is our family,” Pam Castro said.
Right Now Church works with many nonprofit organizations, both locally and worldwide. They work to support the communities and connect with people not only spiritually, but physically, mentally and emotionally as well.
“We do a lot of our community efforts ourselves, but we do it all because we want people to experience the love of God - not to be boastful. The church is supposed to support their community and bring that freedom and that healing to the people within the community.” Pam Castro said. “It's not just about what we do. We partner with other nonprofit organizations within the region, nationally and worldwide, so that they can not only have their basic needs but also have their spiritual and emotional needs met.”
Right Now Church is always open to new faces eager to join their family. To find out more, please visit https://www.rightnowchurch.org/.