Wyoming Church Unifies a Community Amidst Pain
While navigating devastating news, Douglas Assembly of God used the troubled time to bring healing and unity to their pastor and their fractured community.
In 2019, when Pastor Richard P. Cullen, now 46, found out his wife was having an affair with another staff member, the lives of he and his family were instantly turned upside down.
The father still had all five of his children living at home when his wife left. His eldest daughter, who had just completed her junior year of high school, had gone to intern at a Teen Challenge facility when the news came to light. She immediately returned home to help care for her younger siblings.
Also affected were Cullen’s congregants, the people of Douglas Assembly of God in Douglas, Wyoming.
The growing church was in the middle of purchasing a new facility when the affair was found out. Plans were halted so the community could deal with the fallout of this development.
“Our town had seen a lot of division and splits within the religious community,” states Brian A. Rossignol who had been the church’s youth pastor a few years prior.
“When I moved to Douglas in late 2011, there was not much community involvement,” says Cullen.
But through a series of organic relationships and decisions to put aside differences and carry the burdens of one another, the local pastors of Douglas, Wyoming, would begin to change the way the town interacted with its churches.
Rossignol, 38, was serving as the youth pastor of the Douglas church in 2010, before Cullen became the senior pastor in 2011. Then, in 2014, Rossignol transitioned to a different pastoral job outside the town. Years later, after a difficult ministry season, Rossignol felt drawn back to Douglas Assembly for a time of healing.
“Douglas was the only place I felt safe,” he explains. “I knew Pastor Rich, and he was a person I really trusted.”
Rossignol was attending the church as a regular congregant when these events took place. It would soon be his turn to offer a place of solace to Cullen. Upon hearing the news, Rossignol says his immediate reaction was “to make sure Pastor Rich and his kids were OK.”
Cullen realized that he and his family needed time and space to process their grief, so he made the difficult decision to step down from his position as the senior pastor at Douglas Assembly.
When Rossignol was asked by the district presbyters whether he would be willing to lead the church, he says he just knew in his heart that “the answer was yes.”
“I knew this was why we were here,” he says. “This was why I had transitioned out of my previous position.”
Rossignol knew that the church operated in a spirit of unity and was good at loving people back to health, just like Jesus, so he asked Cullen to stay with his church family.
“It was really at that point that I felt like my family began to heal,” he remembers.
Since then, Cullen has been volunteering with the church and, according to Rossignol, it has been a blessing to have his church’s former pastor supporting him.
“This spirit of unity is where the heart of our community worship service event came from,” he says.
Fed up with division and a fractured religious community, in 2021 Rossignol accepted an invitation by a local event organizer to host a service for the entire town. What was started as a co-service between Douglas Assembly and another nearby non-denominational church, Unity Christian Fellowship, grew to a collaboration between five local churches who saw 300 people in attendance.
“I really couldn’t believe that all five of those churches were able to get together and put on such a great event,” says Rossignol.
For the past four years, Rossignol states that the church and the community had been through a lot of hurt but God used that pain to birth a spirit of unity within the town.
The following year, the group reached out to even more pastors in and around the town of Douglas and teamed up with 10 out of the 16 area churches to host the event again which drew nearly 400 attendees.
“Pastor Rich really created the foundation for a lot of the unity that we had because he had already started connecting with some of the churches and some of these pastors in other community outreach efforts,” Rossignol says.
The unity, both within the community and within the church, for which Cullen laid the foundation many years before, has been the support God has used to carry him through his most difficult season and set him up for a return to ministry.
Cullen preached at the large community event last year and expressed his thanks to all the churches that had supported his family through their darkest days.
“I didn’t feel like I would ever preach again, to be honest,” he says. “But when we look under the shock of a stormy true story, we find God and his amazing grace working in us.”
That amazing grace is being mirrored in the community as the decision to cooperate with and support other brothers and sisters in Christ, regardless of denomination, has been a beacon of light to the once fractured town.
“In this terrible experience, I hope others can see that trusting God through our storms illuminates God’s goodness and grace. The darker the pain, the lighter He shines.”
The father still had all five of his children living at home when his wife left. His eldest daughter, who had just completed her junior year of high school, had gone to intern at a Teen Challenge facility when the news came to light. She immediately returned home to help care for her younger siblings.
Also affected were Cullen’s congregants, the people of Douglas Assembly of God in Douglas, Wyoming.
The growing church was in the middle of purchasing a new facility when the affair was found out. Plans were halted so the community could deal with the fallout of this development.
“Our town had seen a lot of division and splits within the religious community,” states Brian A. Rossignol who had been the church’s youth pastor a few years prior.
“When I moved to Douglas in late 2011, there was not much community involvement,” says Cullen.
But through a series of organic relationships and decisions to put aside differences and carry the burdens of one another, the local pastors of Douglas, Wyoming, would begin to change the way the town interacted with its churches.
Rossignol, 38, was serving as the youth pastor of the Douglas church in 2010, before Cullen became the senior pastor in 2011. Then, in 2014, Rossignol transitioned to a different pastoral job outside the town. Years later, after a difficult ministry season, Rossignol felt drawn back to Douglas Assembly for a time of healing.
“Douglas was the only place I felt safe,” he explains. “I knew Pastor Rich, and he was a person I really trusted.”
Rossignol was attending the church as a regular congregant when these events took place. It would soon be his turn to offer a place of solace to Cullen. Upon hearing the news, Rossignol says his immediate reaction was “to make sure Pastor Rich and his kids were OK.”
Cullen realized that he and his family needed time and space to process their grief, so he made the difficult decision to step down from his position as the senior pastor at Douglas Assembly.
When Rossignol was asked by the district presbyters whether he would be willing to lead the church, he says he just knew in his heart that “the answer was yes.”
“I knew this was why we were here,” he says. “This was why I had transitioned out of my previous position.”
Rossignol knew that the church operated in a spirit of unity and was good at loving people back to health, just like Jesus, so he asked Cullen to stay with his church family.
“It was really at that point that I felt like my family began to heal,” he remembers.
Since then, Cullen has been volunteering with the church and, according to Rossignol, it has been a blessing to have his church’s former pastor supporting him.
“This spirit of unity is where the heart of our community worship service event came from,” he says.
Fed up with division and a fractured religious community, in 2021 Rossignol accepted an invitation by a local event organizer to host a service for the entire town. What was started as a co-service between Douglas Assembly and another nearby non-denominational church, Unity Christian Fellowship, grew to a collaboration between five local churches who saw 300 people in attendance.
“I really couldn’t believe that all five of those churches were able to get together and put on such a great event,” says Rossignol.
For the past four years, Rossignol states that the church and the community had been through a lot of hurt but God used that pain to birth a spirit of unity within the town.
The following year, the group reached out to even more pastors in and around the town of Douglas and teamed up with 10 out of the 16 area churches to host the event again which drew nearly 400 attendees.
“Pastor Rich really created the foundation for a lot of the unity that we had because he had already started connecting with some of the churches and some of these pastors in other community outreach efforts,” Rossignol says.
The unity, both within the community and within the church, for which Cullen laid the foundation many years before, has been the support God has used to carry him through his most difficult season and set him up for a return to ministry.
Cullen preached at the large community event last year and expressed his thanks to all the churches that had supported his family through their darkest days.
“I didn’t feel like I would ever preach again, to be honest,” he says. “But when we look under the shock of a stormy true story, we find God and his amazing grace working in us.”
That amazing grace is being mirrored in the community as the decision to cooperate with and support other brothers and sisters in Christ, regardless of denomination, has been a beacon of light to the once fractured town.
“In this terrible experience, I hope others can see that trusting God through our storms illuminates God’s goodness and grace. The darker the pain, the lighter He shines.”
