MARRERO, La. (BP) — When Troy Gause sat in the small, one-person suicide watch cell — with no windows or light from the outside world — at Plaquemines Parish Detention Center, he never could have imagined one day being a pastor of a thriving church.

While the distance between Plaquemines Parish Detention Center and Cross Community Church in suburban New Orleans is only about 60 miles, it can seem like so much more.

For Gause, it took a U-turn to get there. That U-turn didn’t just change his life; it defined the gospel work that became the hallmark of his ministry as a Louisiana pastor.

During its 2024 Replant Summit, the North American Mission Board (NAMB) recognized his ministry by naming Gause “Replanter of the Year.” The event featured sessions with Mark Clifton, NAMB’s national director of replant; JJ Washington, NAMB’s national director of personal evangelism; and Jamie Dew, president of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, as well as a night of worship with songwriter Matt Papa.

Although Gause wasn’t suicidal when he entered that cell, the extended isolation and harsh conditions eventually wore him down. The trauma from the events leading to his imprisonment for drug possession had left him partially paralyzed, pushing him to his breaking point.

In that cell, Gause began a profound conversation with God that would forever change his life and the lives of lost people throughout greater New Orleans. Though saved as a teenager, he had drifted far from his faith. Now, Gause cried out to the Lord, recounting everything he’d tried for fulfillment only to hear God say, “You haven’t tried Me.”

That’s when Gause responded: “God, here you go. Take this broken life.” And in that cell, he promised to never again turn away from Him.

Gause kept that promise. While working on a search and rescue team following Hurricane Katrina, he met a strong believer named Lawrence Jacques, who discipled him. A street evangelist, Jacques took him under his wing and introduced him to sharing Jesus on the streets of the Big Easy, where Gause met person after person who needed the U-turn he had found.

Over the next few years, Gause attended and graduated from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. He started Church Without Walls, engaging people on the New Orleans streets and connecting them to local churches. With the encouragement of several mentors, including seminary professor Peter Charpentier, Gause started Cross Culture Church in 2017.

“We started with just eight people in my living room,” Gause said. “I didn’t know how or where it would go, but I knew God had a plan, and I was ready to follow wherever He led.”

Cross Culture Church grew but struggled to find a regular location to meet. In 2021, everything changed when a friend introduced Gause to the pastor of Ames Boulevard Baptist Church in Marrero, an aging congregation in need of lawn care help. Gause began taking care of the lawn for free just to help the church out. As his friendship with the church’s pastor blossomed, the two eventually decided to merge their churches, providing a young core of people for Ames Boulevard and a building for Cross Culture.

“When the opportunity came to merge with Ames Boulevard, it was clear that God was opening a door,” Gause said. “We didn’t just combine two congregations — we created a new church family, one that reflects the diversity and love of our community.”

On April 30, 2023, the two congregations came together to form Cross Community Church at Ames, with Gause serving as the lead elder. From the outset, the replanted church embraced a rich diversity, uniting people of all ages and backgrounds — young and old, Black and white — who were serving Jesus together as one unified congregation.

Cross Community Church started a number of new ministries to reach its neighbors, including a mentoring ministry for young boys and new small groups. In about 16 months, the new church has grown from 40 to nearly 100.

One of those new families included Leon and Javon Every, a couple that had been together for more than 35 years and had five children but had never married. Late last year, the couple were married at the church. Since becoming a part of the church, seven family members have been baptized and joined the church. 

Ames Boulevard’s pastor baptized Terry Borque just after the church’s merger, and she says Cross Community has made a big difference in her life. While in the hospital fighting sepsis earlier this year, Gause’s ministry helped encourage her. Borque had been a lifetime church attender but not in a congregation that faithfully taught Scripture.

“I wasn’t being fed a whole meal. I was just getting parts of it, and that wasn’t enough for me,” Borque said. “But Pastor Troy teaches directly from the Bible, and that’s something I missed.”

Lane Corley, the director of Send Network Louisiana, has been a longtime friend and supporter of Gause. Last year his team played a part in 22 church mergers throughout the state, providing either training or funding for them.

“I think there was something special about these two churches coming together — the Anglo and African American communities worshiping and serving together,” Corely said. “It had an immediate impact [on the surrounding community], creating the welcoming environment that Ames Boulevard had been seeking to foster. It was truly remarkable.”