Most of the time, the road you start down isn’t the road you end up on. This is one man’s story of how he found the road that molded his life:

Rich was born in Pendleton, Oregon. We went to school there and graduated in 1991. From there, he went on to Rose Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, Indiana, and graduated in 1995 with a BS in Chemical Engineering. While in college, he met April. For two years, they were just friends, but after graduating, they began dating and were engaged in three weeks! They married the next year.

Rich had always planned to return to the Pacific Northwest, but soon  realized there were not many jobs in Chemical Engineering that he was interested in that region. He began interviewing with whoever responded. In February of ‘95, Rich became a Christian and that very month, he had an interview that turned into a plant visit in March to a place called Caterpillar in Central Illinois. That May, he began his career at Caterpillar, and this May Rich celebrated his 30th anniversary with the company.

He and April bought a house in Rome, and in 1999 their son Jordan was born, and life was good. Rich first got involved in Promise Keepers and then other ministries. In 2003, he started a monthly email to raise awareness of  Christian Men’s events, which developed into Men of AIM (Action, Integrity, Maturity). 

In 2009,  the Men of AIM partnered to bring the Christian film, “The Secrets of Jonathan Sperry” to  Peoria where it played for  nearly two full months. His wife asked him if this was a new ministry and he replied, “No, just a one-time thing.” Little did either of them know what was to come.

In 2010, Men of AIM with Chillicothe Churches hosted “A Success That Matters Seminar” at Pearce Community Center with three other local ministers; Bob Hentrich, Joe Horn, and Keith Ferguson.

As his son grew older, they would occasionally find a Christian film to go to, but they found there were only a few people in the theater. They began to talk about why the theater was almost empty. They decided that people didn’t know about the films. They assessed that any event requires two things; interest and awareness. Meal discussion with Jordan is what started the desire to help awareness of Christian films and Jordan was a key part of the ministry.

Rich started; HOI Heart of Illinois Movie Central. Rich is CMC (Central Movie Central) National Ministry Director. CMC is a ministry not a business.

In 2016 Rich attended the National Religious Broadcasters convention in Nashville, Tennessee and talked to many in Christian film, TV, and radio and decided to expand HOI CMC to other markets. Now in over 100 cities and in all 50 states, with each Facebook page sharing Christian films playing in their towns that weekend. For the Peoria area, you can visit @HOICMC on Facebook or sign up for weekly email updates at Christianmoviecentral.com

Also, that year, Rich reached out to area churches about renting the Town Theater for a monthly Christian film. Five churches jumped on board right away and eventually grew to nearly a dozen churches from seven denominations and seven communities. Helping Rich run the movies were Bob Close and Scott Blakely. The movies were free to the public and the goal from day one was to become self-sustaining through donations at the movie nights. If the ministry ran out of funds, it ended. Over the years, several nights of over 100 people came, and a couple of films needed both theaters. During COVID, the theater was closed, and after COVID it just didn’t bounce back with attendance or donations, leading to the final film playing in November 2023.

One of CMC highlights was when Rich and HOICMC hosted the first ever public screening of “The Chosen.” at Northwoods Community Church. Dallas Jenkins, the creator and director, drove down from Chicago for that showing to share his vision of the first ever multi-season series about the life of Jesus and those around him, AND reaching a billion people with the show, to a crowd of about 45 people. The Chosen is now shooting its 6th season.

These days, Rich continues CMC national and regional ministries. He has been doing a weekly radio spot on WBNH Radio 88.5 for 13 years. He is also busy writing a book, “Vegetables of the Spirit: The Bible’s forgotten Fruit.”  He is a speaker for groups and retreats on a variety of topics; Vegetables of the Spirit, Christian Films, porn/sexual addictions, among others. He can be contacted at: [email protected] for speaking engagements.

Rich has the following advice for anyone considering something new. “Don’t be afraid to try different things. It might not work, but it also might become bigger than you ever imagined. Either way, which are you more likely to regret trying it and failing, or looking back and wondering what might have been?”

Now more than ever before, we have seen an explosion of Christian movies being made that display morals and faith. Thank you, Rich for standing up for what you believe in and bringing strong Christian and Family movies to our area and around the country. “Well done, good and faithful servant.”