Randy Abbott, Pastor of Misfits for Jesus
Randy Abbott is co-founder and Pastor of Misfits for Jesus. Residing in Wright City, Missouri with his wife, Lynn, together they have three children, Erica, Amanda and Connor. Randy is a self-employed painting contractor, operating his own business for over twenty years.
Randy was born into a typical American family on a military base in Mountain Home, Idaho on October 6, 1964. As is often the case in families, his mother had been raised Catholic, but his father’s family was Baptist. Unable to reconcile their theological differences, the tragic result was that in the Abbott home God was reduced to nothing more than a hastily said “grace” before dinner.
When Randy was nine years old, his dad retired from military and moved the family to Missouri, where Randy was glad to finally be able to put down some real roots. He had no way of knowing that his entire world was about to change when his family was involved in a major head on collision that nearly took his mother’s life. After several weeks in the ICU she was finally able to come home. However, due to severe head trauma she was no longer able to properly care for her children, creating a void that Randy’s two older sisters tried their best to fill. At such a young age, the boy didn’t fully understand what was happening and the impact it would ultimately have on him. Even though most of his mother’s memory eventually returned, the family Randy had once known disappeared and a fractured family emerged in the chaos.
Struggling to take care of his family, Randy’s dad took on a second shift job in an attempt to provide financial stability. At the age when he needed guidance and discipline most, the resulting physical and emotional absence of his father was devastating to young Randy. The next few years were difficult at best until high school graduation when the emerging young man considered going into the military. He took the ASVAB and scored just shy of Naval Academy consideration, so he decided to retake the test in hopes of scoring higher. In the interim he started working a job with a painting contractor. That was when he was introduced to drugs and the party lifestyle. Needless to say, the military was soon no longer on his radar and life became one continuous party.
After three and a half years of searching for “something” that was missing in his life, Randy began to wonder if maybe a college education was the solution. So, in August of 1985 he enrolled at the University of Missouri, where the partying increased all the more. Then in December of 1986, Randy met and married Lynn. They both dropped out of the University in April of 1987 and moved back to St. Peters, where Randy established his own painting company with his best friend Barry.
After many failed attempts to fit in at various churches, Randy was finally prompted to question what faith in God really is at a funeral. Then a Baptist Pastor on a cold call in April of 1993 explained the gospel. Randy heard the good news that Jesus died for sinners, even extreme ones like him. Then on May 1, 1993 both Randy and Lynn trusted in Jesus as Lord and Savior.
After stumbling along in his faith (which he now understands is all part of the process of sanctification) Randy came to the place where he decided to stop chasing after things of this world and began to live by the Spirit. Mission trips further stirred a desire to be used by God to advance his Kingdom. In 2006, the call to the streets of St. Louis began a six year odyssey to minister to “the least of the least”. Eventually in 2012, God led Randy to plant Misfits for Jesus church in Wright City. Then through a providential meeting with Richard Coss, he was challenged to step out boldly into God’s specific call on his life. Using the motorcycle ministry as a model, Misfits for Jesus now has chapters in Wisconsin and Arkansas with more to come.
