Art and Genenieve Pena - Senior Pastor
Art’s path to becoming a pastor is far from “traditional”. It was a “long and winding road” that eventually led to LifeStream’s door. After 30 years of resistance, he finally became what he never wanted to be ..but God had always ordained ..a pastor!
He was saved at age 9 and practically grew up Foursquare in Iloilo City Philippines . He got his Theology degree in 1974 from Foursquare Bible College in Quezon City . “Evangelism and youth outreach” clearly emerged as his strong inclination early on in college. As leader of a singing group, his formative training in ministry was as an itinerant evangelist going from one rural church to another.
He served as Western Visayas District Youth Evangelist soon after graduation in 1974 and later served as Youth Director of his local church where he met Genevieve, now his wife who means the world to him!
Upon migrating to the U.S. in ’80, the two wed and Art soon immersed himself in various local church ministries in the Chicago area, with emphasis on music and evangelism.
The move to the Northwest in 1990 helped give some definition to God’s distinct call for Art:
1. Humble yourself before me
2. I will put words in our mouth
3. I will use you to minister to your own people
However, it was not till 1998 that God led Art to start a formative Filipino fellowship within a mainstream church. The group dedicated itself to prayer, study of the word and tight fellowship. Soon the fellowship started behaving like a “church”.
With God’s call “to minister to his people”, so unmistakable, Art teamed up with a like-minded partner to start a ministry called “Papuri NW”. Geared to reach Filipinos in the Puget Sound area, the ministry sought cooperation with Filipino Christian Churches in the area. The 2 ministry components were:
1. An annual “Jesus Feast”, a 12-Hour worship event, participated in by worship bands of different Filipino-American churches in the area.
2.Production of an annual local Worship CD of Original compositions and recorded by local Seattle- area artists.
A 3rd component – an Evangelistic Radio Program called “Papuri Northwest Radio” soon emerged.
In 2003, in God’s own sweet time and His own perfect way, the Filipino fellowship finally became LifeStream Worship Center ! The rest as they say, is history.
