Rebecca Worl
The customs official looked at her passport, then said, “Would you step over here please… Where exactly were you born?”
Rev. Rebecca (Becca) Worl’s passport is stamped “Born in Kinshasa, Zaire” (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo). She spent much of her childhood near the Ituri Forest, homeschooled by her mother before attending boarding school and eventually returning to the United States where she finished high school in Bellingham, Washington. Becca went on to earn her undergraduate degree in Theology from Seattle Pacific University, spending part of her senior year at Daystar University in Kenya, and later completed a Master’s in Theological and Biblical Studies from Fuller Seminary. After Covenant Orientation, she received her ministerial license in 2016 and was ordained in June 2024. She now serves as Associate Pastor at Pine Lake Covenant Church in Sammamish, Washington. She and her husband, Rob, are the proud parents of Annabelle and Bradley.
Becca’s experiences as a missionary kid and later a pastor’s kid were primarily positive and deeply formative. Certainly, the culture of Congo, its languages, her friends, and music, greatly impacted her. The life and witness of her parents also shaped her. From an early age, they discipled her, and to this day continue to show her what it looks like to be obedient to Jesus, to sacrifice and serve, to give glory to God in everything, to rest in God’s grace, and to orient her life around the Kingdom of God.
During her college years, Becca’s theology professor, Dr. Kerry Dearborn, became a pivotal voice, both revealing through Scripture God’s heart for women in leadership and prophetically naming God’s call on Becca’s life. In her young adult years, that calling began to take deeper root. Along the way, God continued to place key voices and mentors in her life, pastors and leaders such as Mike and Kimberly Thomas, Peter Sung, Ken Morse, Greg Yee, Jim Sequiera, Dawn Taloyo, Jo Wolf, Laura Jones, and Rob Fairbanks—each shaping her understanding of leadership, faithfulness, and the work of the Spirit in the church.
Becca discovered a growing hunger for the Word of God. She embraced the words of Jeremiah 20:9: “The word of God burned within me, His word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.” This led her to change her major from Psychology to Theology and eventually to pursue graduate studies in Biblical Studies. She resonated deeply with the sense that God’s Word was not something to simply study, but something alive, something that had to be spoken and lived.
Becca’s pastoral ministry began as a youth intern in a Covenant church at a young age, assuming perhaps that the path forward would be clear. Instead, life unfolded with both beauty and hardship. One of the most significant challenges in her journey emerged during this time, as she encountered situations that were deeply wounding and had a lasting impact on her sense of safety and calling as a woman discerning pastoral leadership. This destabilizing and discouraging experience left her questioning whether there was truly a place for her in ministry, and for a season she stepped back from that sense of calling altogether.
Yet through time, healing, and the presence of wise and faithful leaders, God gently restored what had been shaken. That challenging season now shapes the way Becca leads, with an attentiveness to creating spaces where others, especially women, can discern and live into their calling with clarity, dignity, and support.
This season of struggle also included moves, pregnancies, and the tragic loss of loved ones. Through it all, she continued to say “yes” to God’s call, completing seminary while preaching in churches, camps, women’s retreats, Covenant Living communities, and even internationally in Myanmar.
She has served as an itinerant preacher within the Evangelical Covenant Church, as Chair of the Executive Board of the Pacific Northwest Conference, and is now serving on the PACNW Youth Commission, while also having led Anti-Racism Discipleship Pathways for multiple years. Becca also initiated DELVE, a ministry she co-leads with lay leaders, which provides a space to help the church engage in crucial, often difficult, “hot-button” conversations with depth, humility, and faithfulness.
At Pine Lake Covenant Church, Becca is actively engaged in the life of the congregation, with a focus on children, family, and youth ministries. One of the greatest joys in her ministry has been walking alongside people as they encounter the living Christ, whether for the first time or in deeper, more transformative ways over time. Through her work in student ministries, she has witnessed young people come to faith, ask honest questions, wrestle with doubt, and begin to take ownership of their relationship with Jesus.She has also found deep joy in creating environments where the church can engage meaningful, often complex, biblical, missional, and theological conversations with a shared commitment to Christ. In all of this, her joy is rooted in seeing lives formed, faith deepened, and people awakened to the presence and work of God in their everyday lives
Outside of ministry and family life, Becca can often be found bird watching, playing ridiculously long and complex board games, exploring the outdoors, savoring good coffee (she is also a trained barista!), and spending time with students. She is an avid reader, drawn to authors who shape emotional, spiritual, and theological depth, voices such as David Swanson, Esau McCaulley, N.T. Wright, Henri Nouwen, Jerry Sittser, Ruth Haley Barton, Jemar Tisby, Rich Villodas, Brenda Salter McNeil, C.S. Lewis, and Soong-Chan Rah. Yet perhaps even more than books, her soul resonates through music. Whether through listening or leading worship, she has found that where words fall short, music often speaks. Artists like The Brilliance and The Porter’s Gate have been grounding influences in her life and ministry. As Martin Luther once wrote, “Beautiful music is the art of the prophets that can calm the agitations of the soul.”
Throughout her life and ministry, the Lord has been doing a steady healing work, freeing her from fear, binding up broken places, and shaping her into what she often describes as a “wounded healer.” Her heart especially stirs for the brokenhearted, the unseen, and for the Hagars, Bathshebas, and Tamars within the church. She proclaims El Roi: the God who sees, the One who lifts and restores his wounded lambs.
Her calling continues to be leading people of all ages to find and follow Jesus, to discover his immeasurable love, and to experience redemption, resurrection, and the indwelling of his Spirit! Whether rowing, walking, or climbing, she often imagines she is on the trail or in a boat with Jesus, and though life has grown fuller and more complex, these quiet encounters remain. Enveloped in nature’s sanctuary, she experiences the God “who sees me,” her El Roi.
Paul says in 2 Corinthians 1:20, “For no matter how many promises God has made, they are ‘Yes’ in Christ. And so through him the ‘Amen’ is spoken by us to the glory of God.” From the culture of Congo to the life of the church today, the Spirit of the living Lord has moved within Rev. Rebecca Worl to say “yes” to the great “Yes” of God. Glory to God!
Sermon sample:
The Hospitality of God