Planting seeds in a desert
Pastor Stephanie O’Brien establishes a Northeast Minneapolis church and neighborhood partnerships while remaining connected to Bethel University, her alma mater.
By Benjamin Lee
Stephanie O’Brien walked onto the stage at Mill City Church. Her back lit by a giant screen. Dozens of eyes stared from the pews. All of this started from one church plant.
O’Brien grew up in a Christian household. Her father worked for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association in Europe, spreading Christ’s word in England and Holland. When O’Brien was 5, her family moved back to the U.S. to the headquarters of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association in Minneapolis.
Like her parents, she wanted to spread the gospel. God called her to work in ministry, teaching those who didn’t know him, and O’Brien answered by centering her career around evangelism.
To further her ministry goals, she decided to apply to Bethel University. She started out as a psychology major, but found her stride in higher education at Bethel Seminary working in ministry in Bodien Hall.
In her third year of seminary, O’Brien attended Sanctuary Covenant Church in North Minneapolis. At the time, Sanctuary Covenant was a relatively new church that was planted by one of O’Brien’s mentors.
“That was the first time I’d been part of a new church plant like at church start,” O’Brien said. “I was like, oh wait, this is cool. … That was what really inspired me to be a part of church planting.”
In 2008, O’Brien began work on her first church, the soon to be Mill City Church. She first received cooperation with a parent church, Woodridge Church, which supplied early finances and mentors.
Next, she began searching for the location for Mill City Church. By the guidance of God, she says, the core church planting team decided on an urban setting for the new church, and began the search by walking, driving and appraising various regions of Minneapolis. The core team finally decided upon northeast Minneapolis as their plant site, the main reason being that a church hasn’t been planted there in 20 years, thus being a prime target. So the team talked with the existing churches to prevent conflict due to competition.
“A church that reaches out to people who are on the margins of faith.” — Stephanie O’Brien, Mill City pastor
However, Mill City Church’s birth wasn’t orthodox. Its mission statement is “Loving our community in the name of Jesus,” so instead of having a sermon, Mill City began helping in community projects like picking up litter.
O’Brien believes many churches are too focused on teaching scripture and don’t help the community enough.
“It’s kind of a created expression of church that’s, you know, about learning information and about being cared for, versus a church that’s on mission churches making a difference,” O’Brien said. “A church that reaches out to people who are on the margins of faith.”
This vision fueled O’Brien’s passion for outreach in all of her actions including Mill City Church, which partners with many community charities, such as Little Kitchen FoodShelf, My Very Own Bed and Clare Housing.
In 2010, Las Estrellas — an inner city school — came to O’Brien for assistance. Las Estrellas faced food insecurity among many of its students. Because of the lack of food students had at home, many would steal from the cafeteria or dig through the trash cans. So the principal came to Mill City for assistance.
“We’d like to try to help [them] if we can,” O’Brien said.
Mill City contacted a Colorado-based charity that put food in backpacks of students before the weekend. They then copied that formula to great effect. That success caused the program to spread to other schools, eventually evolving into the Every Meal organization.
Following the success of Mill City Church, O’Brien planted two other Churches: North City Church in 2019 and Espíritu Santo Iglesia in 2021. North City Church is a dinner church, a church that meets over a dinner table rather than a stage, and Espíritu Santo Iglesia is a Spanish speaking church. Both have one thing in common: O’Brien’s passion for outreach.
“She’s a woman that I highly trust and feel really comfortable following,” Co-Lead Pastor JD Larson said.
Mill City Church eventually merged with Elim Church and moved to the Elim Church Building in Northeast Minneapolis.
O’Brien is currently lead pastor for Mill City Church and teaches Preaching and Biblical Communication at Bethel University. She is planning her fourth church plant in Minnesota.
