MISSION: ACCOMPLISHED
RYAN BINKLEY / SENIOR PASTOR / CREATE CHURCH / RICHARDSON, TEXAS
By divine
design
By RaeAnn Slaybaugh
Photo provided by ML Gray Partnership
Ryan Binkley had a God-given dream — several, in fact — about
a church where people can “find and fulfill their created purpose
in Christ.” This would be a place where those without a church
home, can not only discover one, but come into the understanding
of their destiny in Christ.
His path to building that church was winding (and often
converging), but the result is a facility whose welcoming design
beautifully reflects its purpose.
Senior Pastor Ryan Binkley’s career began with a passion for business.
After graduating with a business degree, he went to work for a few
different household-name corporations.
A few years later, he rededicated his life to the Lord. Although Ryan
still worked in the corporate world, he felt the call to full-time ministry
after a mission trip to Guatemala in 1995. “My whole world turned
upside down during this trip,” he recalled. “I knew the Lord was speaking
to me: Lay this down. Lay down business.”
A couple of years later, Ryan married his best friend, Ellie, at Victory
World Church in Atlanta, and they both began working as directors of a
young adult ministry school. They led inner-city ministry, mission work
and school assemblies. Their plan was to eventually do church planting
and missions based out of their church for the foreseeable future.
But tragedy challenged these best-laid plans when Ryan’s older
brother, Hal, was killed by a drunk driver back home in Dallas. Hal ran
a business with their father. Ryan and Ellie prayed about whether they
should relocate to be with family and help fortify the business.
“We were reluctant because we really felt a call to what we thought a
ministry calling would be,” he said.
As they prayed and sought the Lord for direction, Ryan received a
dream from the Lord that would give greater clarity to his purpose and
Lead Pastors Ryan and Ellie Binkley
destiny. In the dream, he saw a businessman in heaven who was serving
his employees and helping to put food on their families’ tables. The Lord
showed Ryan that the calling of a businessman was equally as honorable
as that of a pastor.
“The important word was that I needed to honor both callings,” Ryan
recalled. “And He was very specific with me. The Lord said, ‘Ryan, this
is part of your inheritance; if you don't honor it, I'll take it from you and
give it to somebody else.’”
4 CHURCH EXECUTIVE | MAY / JUNE 2020