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After graduating from Bethany Univeristy, a bible college in Santa Cruz, Cole stayed out from under his father’s long shadow for a number of years, serving as a youth pastor at a church in San Jose. He was still struggling to discover his own identity when, in 1984, the senior Cole called on him to pastor the 600 single adults at Capital Christian. Plagued then, as now, with feelings of inadequacy, Cole doubted he had anything to offer. But he thought the answer would come if he sat through service at the Sacramento megachurch.
It didn’t take that long. As it turns out, God made the call during the night flight into town, as Cole watched the lights of Sacramento spread out beneath him: “I had a feeling that God spoke to me, I heard him say, ‘I’m giving you this city to influence.’ I thought, ‘That’s weird. But if that’s what God wants, I’ll at least entertain it.’”
Cole stayed six years before moving on to a senior pastor job in Omaha, Neb., where he doubled the size of his Assemblies of God church there. A more intense internal struggle began 13 years ago, when the leaders of Capital Christian called him back from Omaha to step into his father’s shoes when he announced his retirement from the pulpit.
“My dad is bigger than life. He’s uncompromising and driven,” said Rick’s brother, Randy. “He’s a natural leader. Rick isn’t a natural. He’s not a Glen Cole.”
Those are big shoes to fill.
More like a conversation than preaching, Cole’s down-to-earth Sunday messages are sprinkled with phrases like “I totally get that” and “I saw that and I thought, ‘Dude!’” When writing his sermons, he asks himself: “Does this sound religious?” If so, he tosses it. His style is open and vulnerable, showing easily what his brother, Randy, who’s the men’s pastor at Capital Christian, describes as his “tender heart.” For his sermons, Cole draws lessons from everyday life and shares personal insecurities and...