Sweet Home Evangelical Church has welcomed a new pastor into their fold, a man who likes to work with his hands, explore science and the bible, and create new games.
Jesse Hey, with his wife of seven years, Mercy Hey, and their two children, come from the small town of Circle, Mont., where he pastored for one and a half years.
Hey, the youngest of three, was raised in Austin, Texas, in a Christian home. He spent his first two years out of high school working in auto collision repair.
“I like working with my hands, building things, taking things apart,” he explained.
But as time went on, Hey said he began feeling God calling him elsewhere as his thoughts began turning his sights onto more spiritual matters. He had begun taking an interest in the creation-science argument.
“People say science disproves the Bible, so I wanted to look a little more into that,” he said. “I was getting interested to see that, no, actually, good science backs up the Bible. So that was kind of an interesting journey.”
Hey went to attend Alpha Omega Institute in Colorado for a year where he learned the subject matter more in depth and also learned how to teach it. Then his interest kind of evolved, so to speak, into ministry as he realized he enjoyed teaching. It had morphed from the science perspective into the core of the fact that Jesus Christ is Savior and Lord, he said. Ultimately, he just wanted to teach God’s word.
“Science is observation and experimentation,” he explained for an elevator pitch-style summary of science and creation. “When we look at what the Bible says for how life comes from life – that is, God, who is a life, created a life – we say, ‘Oh, that matches with observation,’ versus Darwinian evolution says there was no life and then suddenly there was life.
“So why are we saying ‘Let’s believe this that we have not observed anywhere, nor can we recreate that in a lab’ – making life from non-life – whereas the Bible’s over here saying ‘Life came from life’ and it continues to be that way.”
Sweet Home Evangelical Church will be hosting a seminar on “Science & the Bible” starting in October. See our “Events” section or contact the church for more information.
Following his time in Colorado, Hey returned to Texas and met his wife. Her father, a pastor in Dillon, Mont., encouraged Hey to attend seminary at Multnomah University in Portland. After graduation from there, he moved to Montana as an assistant pastor with his father-in-law before taking the senior pastor position in Circle, Mont.
Having grown up in Austin (pop. 974,447) and attending seminary in Portland (pop. 635,067), as well as working in Dillon (pop. 4,106) and Circle (pop. 591), Hey can appreciate the nature and opportunities in the surrounding area of Sweet Home. He enjoys hiking, exploring and camping, but he still likes to work with his hands.
Growing up with a dad who often salvaged discarded items, Hey learned to appreciate taking something old and repurposing it into something new and imaginative. One particular hobby he has includes designing new games, often creating a new game from a used game board.
“I took (the) Risk (game board) and I have it to where y’all are preparing for an alien invasion and you have to set up your defenses of the world,” he said.
The 32-year-old came to Sweet Home in December 2023, noting his first impression of its small-town vibe.
“Going down the Main Street, there’s flowers and stuff, so it looked well-kept, someone cares about the upkeep of the town, which is good,” he said.
The community has also reached out and connected with his family.
“There seems to be a community aspect of this town, people actually wanting to get to know each other or look out for each other,” Hey said.