Pastor Dan Brue

A few years ago, having been in full-time ministry for about 15 years, I was uncertain and frustrated about my ministry future. My sister, knowing this, was praying for God to give me direction. While she was praying in this vein one day, she saw a watch. She asked God what the watch meant concerning me. She heard Him say, “It’s time”. She asked, “time for what?” He replied, “Dan knows.” She wrote this down and mailed it to me. My first response was, ’I know a lot of things, what was God referring to when He said, “Dan knows”? 


I took my bible and went to the Mississippi river, about an hour away, and spent the day in prayer. At the end of that day I knew that God was saying it was time for me to plant a church. At that time there were two possible places, Beatrice NE., and Rochester MN. I had been in on the early stages of a church plant in Rochester but through a series of very clear confirmations we knew that we were to go to Nebraska. We put our house up for sale and made the move to SE Nebraska. After seven months it was decided that another pastor with worship leading skills would take over. 


We came back to Rochester to our house which providentially didn’t sell, and my wife, Debbie, went back to work at the place she had worked before we left. I sensed that, because God had recently kept bringing us back after short stints in other communities, I was to focus on ministry in Rochester. A few months later I knew that ministry was to plant this church.


Get a further glimpse into the mind and heart of Pastor Dan by checking out his blog Fresh Brue

Pastor Patrick Porras

Born and raised in California, I moved to Rochester in 2008 to attend and play basketball for Crossroads College. Over four years of school, the Lord created and cemented in my heart a passion for theology, ministry, and the local church. It was during college that I began dreaming of planting a church in the city I had come to love and become a part of.


Shortly after graduating in 2012 with multiple degrees in Biblical Studies, Theology, and Family and Community Studies, I married my lovely wife, Tabitha. One year after we wed, we moved to Kansas, then shortly after, to California to be near family and work on a Master’s degree in Pastoral Counseling. The dream of church planting in Rochester was put on the back burner, but never faded.


A few years later, in the final stages of my school work, I began to seek a vocational ministry position. I still had the desire to plant, but was unsure how and when and if that would ever pan out. In the midst of praying and job searching, Dan Brue contacted me regarding a church planting opportunity in Southeast Rochester, the very neighborhood that Tabitha and I lived in after we were married.


The Lord is now bringing things full circle, drawing us back to the city where our relationship began. I have a clear sense of calling and an excitement for the future of Encounter Church. We are excited to be back in Vikings country, serving the city we love, and making disciples through the vehicle of a local church to the glory and praise of our good and gracious Master.